Sligo Leitrim TD Martin Kenny has lamented the lack of progress on the ACRES scheme payments to farmers.

The scheme allows farmers to claim money on actions helping them become more enivronmentally friendly.

The Sinn Fein TD raised the issue in the Dail last week.

Deputy Kenny told Ocean FM News he is hopeful that farmers can be reimbursed soon.

A Leitrim Councillor has welcomed moves by the Housing Minister to push ahead with a focus on dereliction and vacancy levels.

It’s understood that a memo will be sent to Government today on Compulsory Purchase Orders at local council level.

Minister James Brown has recently declared 'a war on dereliction' defining it as 'unacceptable in a housing crisis'.

Councillor, Enda McGloin has raised this subject in the past. He says dereliction is a serious issue in many areas across the North West with people sitting on properties and not bringing them back into use.

The Fine Gael Councillor says it now looks likely that the Local Authority will have more powers when it comes to those that decide to sit on such properties

It's been confirmed that the Donegal Town Craft village is finally set to get a facelift.

The amenity was said to be lost between two stools in terms of which local authority department was responsibility for its upkeep.

The village consequently fell into a bit of disrepair, with a number of units also vacant on site.

Cathaoirleach of the Donegal MD, Fianna Fail Cllr Michael Naughton has been outlining what's in store:

It’s hoped that an early intervention youth centre can be provided in the Sligo-Leitrim area.

There’s said to be a huge gap in the service locally which in turn has sparked concern for young people not having sufficient access to help on the doorstep.

Minister of State for Mental Health and Government Chief Whip, Mary Butler TD has given a commitment to help progress the proposal.

Fianna Fail Cllr Edel MacSharry is confident that it will get over the line:

It’s emerged that a plane which crashed in Co. Waterford today had been flying between Sligo and France.

One person has died and at least two others have suffered injuries after the light aircraft crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in Waterford.

Multiple emergency service crews are responding to the incident near Tramore.

The collision happened at around 10 to 1 this afternoon in Lisselan near Tramore which is at the back of Waterford airport.

The plane had been flying between Sligo and Beziers in France, when its understood that it turned around off the south coast of Ireland and headed back towards Waterford Airport before the crash.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport is investigating the incident with the emergency services and the Irish Aviation Authority.

There are renewed calls for court services to return to Donegal Town.

The courthouse closed a number of weeks ago with services temporarily moved to Ballyshannon.

The historic building was deemed to have health and safety concerns by the OPW with further surveys to take place.

Cathaoirleach of the Donegal MD and Fianna Fail Cllr Michael Naughton has hit out at the OPW for not acting on repair works sooner and says it's imperative the courts return to the town:

An investigation is continuing after lit fireworks were thrown into people's letterboxes in Sligo.

All incidents happened on Thursday night last night in the Ballytivnan, Cranmore and Cartron areas.

Elderly residents in particular were said to be left terrorised with damage also caused to some property as a result.

Deputy Mayor of the Sligo Borough Cllr Arthur Gibbons has hit out at those responsible and believes that they should feel the feel the full rigours of the law:

Uisce Eireann is under pressure to provide a new water pipeline for Bundoran.

The town and a vast surrounding area have been impacted by numerous water outages in recent times, owing to what's been described as substandard pipes.

Businesses in particular were said to be severely affected over the summer months.

Sinn Fein Cllr Michael McMahon says the utility must face up to the facts - that Bundoran badly needs a full upgrade:

A former Donegal Garda Sergeant is estimating that only a fraction of those who applied to join An Gardai Siochana will go on to be one.

It comes as more than 11 thousand people have applied to join the force so far this year.

The figure follows two recruitment campaigns, the latest of which received over four-thousand-300 applications.

But former Sergeant Christy Galligan thinks that when all is said and done, the efforts won't replenish the force to the appropriate standard.

He also says there are a number of other issues that need to be addressed:

A Sligo Senator says the comments from the Justice Minister in relation to the work that Presidential candidate, Catherine Connolly, carried out during here a time as a Barrister has helped to combat the mud Slinging that Fine Gael have stooped to during the campaign.

The Justice Minister outlined that when a barrister takes on case, it doesn’t mean “they are endorsing the opinions or behaviour of that client”.

Heather Humphreys had accused her opponent of “trying to make money out of people’s misfortune” by representing banks in home repossession cases.

Reacting to the Comments from Jim O' Callaghan Labour Senator Nessa Cosgrove says Catherine Connolly was simply doing her job when it came to representing the Banks.