A man remains in a critical condition at Letterkenny General Hospital following a car crash in Gweedore this morning.

The man, believed to be a trainee doctor, was injured in the crash on the N56 close to An Chuirt Hotel.

The N56 road at Meenacuing, Gweedore remains closed this evening as Gardaí carry out a technical examination.

Donegal Fianna Fail Deputy Charlie McConalogue says his party’s decision not to facilitate the nomination of anybody in the Presidential race is a good one.

The Parliamentary party made the decision unanimously this morning after a divisive row last week.

The decision effectively ends the Presidential hopes of Dana and Senator David Norris.

Deputy Charlie McConalogue says the party needs to focus on rebuilding and not the presidency:

A man has been injured in a single vehicle collision in Gweedore.

The man,  believed to be a trainee doctor was injured in the crash on the N56 close to An Chuirt Hotel.

He has been removed to Letterkenny General.

The road will remain closed for a few hours ( as of Tuesday 3pm)

Martin McGuinness has hit out at what he calls the “West Brit elements” around Dublin and in the media, who have criticised his nomination for the Presidency.

Mr McGuinness is among the Aras candidates meeting people attending the National Ploughing Championships in Co Kildare today.

He says he is a “genuine peacemaker” with a contribution to make to Ireland’s future:

The search for a missing American tourist is going to be concentrated on the Slieve League area today.

41-year-old Kelly Jones from Georgia in the USA was last seen at around 11 o clock on Saturday morning.

She had been in Co Donegal for ten days on a hiking holiday.

PRO of the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team, Brian Murray, said that Ms Jones had told her father that she wanted to see Slieve League, so today’s search will be concentrated there…..

Figures released by the government show that there are currently 1,134 homes in need of social housing support in Donegal

This is a decrease of almost 36 % compared to 1993.

The figures released by the Department of the Environment show that around 100 thousand households are on Local Authority waiting lists around the country.

The figures show that since 1993 there has been a fluctuation in those in need of social housing support in Donegal.

The figure in 1993 stood at 1,288 – peaked at 1,763 in 2008 while this year the number is 1,134.

The majority of those now in need of support are in Letterkenny, the figure there has increase by 156 in just a year.

In Donegal, you are most likely to be on the Local Authority waiting list if you are aged 31 – 40, those aged over 60 are lease likely to be on the list.

By category of need, you are most likely to be on the housing waiting list because you can’t afford to house yourself or on medical or compassionate grounds.

The figures also show the majority of people on the housing waiting list in Donegal are Irish, unemployed and in receipt of social welfare.

The majority of those on the list have been there for some time – a significant portion over a year or more  – one hundred and seventy household have been on the waiting list for over five years.

Vital X-Ray equipment bought by the people of Killybegs and Donegal Town is sitting unused because of HSE staff shortages.

Radiographers who normally operate the equipment have been transferred to Letterkenny General Hospital to work there.

This means that the Killybegs and Donegal Town units have been closed for the past two weeks and no date for their reopening has been given by the HSE.

Local Independent TD Thomas Pringle, says the opening of the units again will take pressure off Letterkenny General Hospital who will now have to take all the burden….

A new project has been launched in Strabane with the aim of trying to discourage young people from getting involved in anti social behaviour.

The ‘Hold It Down’ Project has been developed to inform young people aged 13 to 16 of the effects of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour on themselves, their family and their community.

The official launch of the project comes just days after a solidarity vigil was held in the town in response to anti social behaviour in the Ballycolman area.

Councillor Patsy Kelly is involved in the project:

The company which owned the historic Herdman’s Mill in County Tyrone owed its creditors more than £10m when it went into receivership earlier this year.

Ulster Bank, the largest creditor, is owed more than £6m.

Invest NI, a secured creditor, is owed £2.5m.

The mill ceased spinning linen in 2004 and the Herdman family had hoped to to redevelop the 60-acre site which dominates the village of Sion Mills.

Receivers were appointed in June when the trustees of Herdmans Pension Scheme issued a winding-up petition against a subsidiary company due to its inability to meet pension contributions.

Unsecured creditors include Monument Property Services, a company associated with Titanic Quarter developer Pat Doherty. It is owed £1.2m, a sum unlikely to be repaid.

The receivers report notes that the book value of the mill site is £6m but that a current market value is still to be confirmed.

In July some of the mill buildings were badly damaged in a major fire.

That has had a knock-on effect on a hydroelectric generation business which operates from the site.

The hydroelectric business, which was owned by the Herdman family and sold power to Airtricity, is also in receivership.

The receivers report states that the July fire caused debris to fall into the mill race which services the hydroelectric scheme.

As a result, electricity generation has had to be suspended until the debris is cleared and the Environment Agency has given its approval to restart.

The unsecured creditors of the hydroelectric business are owed more than £5m – the bulk of the money is due to the government’s Pension Protection Fund.

The accountancy firms ASM and PricewaterhouseCoopers are owed £56,000 and £32,000 respectively while a Belfast solicitors firm is owed £11,000.

A new survey show the benefit of shopping around for home heating oil in Donegal.

The National Consumer Agency has published the results of a home heating oil survey, which reveals that savings of up to €30 can be made by shopping around in some local areas of Donegal.

The highest price recorded in Donegal for 1,000 litres of home heating oil was €825 while the cheapest quote received was €795.

The NCA’s Fergal O’Leary says the price differentials in Donegal are a good sign of competition: