The Government announced on Tuesday new measures to immediately criminalise the sale of legal highs, signaling a partial victory in the Sinn Féin campaign against head shops. Free article

The Robert Hamill Inquiry will produce a report by the end of this year. The solicitor to the Hamill investigation said a series of recommendations would also accompany the findings. Members of the public are being invited to submit their views in the next two weeks on any issues they believe the inquiry should cover in the recommendations. Free article

The Ombudsman for Children in the 26 Counties has found major inadequacies in the area of child protection. Issuing her report on Tuesday, Emily Logan found that most parts of the state has no 24-hour access to the Child Protection Notification Service. Free article

Energy Regulators North and South propose to harmonise energy prices through the introduction of an all-Ireland retail energy market. The move, which is a long sought after Sinn Féin proposal, was welcomed on Wednesday by Mitchel McLaughlin. Free article

Gardaí hitting protestors with batons as they try to charge the plinth outside Leinster House might be an image that the 26 County media will get used this year as the government's financial disaster hits home. But when it happened on Tuesday night, it took a few people by surprise. The Enough is Enough campaign, launched recently by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Socialist Worker Joe Higgins and People Before Profit's Richard Boyd Barret, held a march on Tuesday night to the Dáil. The wet night meant it was a smaller than anticipated march, with approximately 500 or 600 people present. As the speakers took to the stage, one from each party, a group of about 100, or 40, depending on who you believe, took matters into their own hands and tried to storm the Dáil. Leinster House, Kildare House adjacent and the Department of Justice were all put on lock-down as the ushers and guards tried to deal with the attempted 'security breach'. Issuing statements afterwards, the Gardaí said no one had been hurt in the melee, but photographs made available later made a lie of that. Free article

Mayor of Navan and Meath Sinn Féin Councillor Joe Reilly has slammed the decision to hit pensioners and other low-income families with a six-month backdated bill for rent increases. Rent assessments which should have been carried out in December by Navan Town Council are only now being completed, with tenants being expected to pay back for six months. Mayor Reilly said Free article

Sinn FÉin President Gerry Adams MP, MLA has written to other party leaders in the North seeking a meeting to discuss an agreed strategy against any proposed cuts by the British Government. Speaking in Stormont on Monday, Adams said: "I have today contacted the other party leaders to put to them a proposal that we should meet to work out an agreed strategy to oppose any proposed cuts from an incoming British government. Free article

In a letter to Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen has confirmed that a FÁS-funded Jobs Club in Limerick sent letters to 10 young jobseekers informing them of positions in the Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army and promoted these 'jobs' in the Club. Free article

A commitment from the DETI Minister Arlene Foster to meet any new owners of First Trust bank to discuss existing staffs job security and continued investment by the bank, has been welcomed by Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd. Free article

The latest figures released from the Central Statistics Office show that unemployment in Donegal is still rising with almost 21,000 unemployed, 2,638 more than was employed this time last year. That's a further increase of 14% over this last 12 months for a county that has suffered greatly as a result of the economic crisis. Free article