THE owners of a quarry alleged to be illegal have been told to halt all operations. Cork County Council has initiated legal proceedings against the operators of a large quarry at Curraglass, near Conna.

PLANS for a major housing development in the West Sligo seaside resort of Enniscrone, which attracted some intense local opposition and critical observations from a number of public bodies, have been approved by the board members of An Bord Pleanala.

An independent archaeologist has called for an inquiry into conservation works carried out at Skellig Michael by the Office of Public Works, following its admission that it has been dumping rock and spoil at the location.

A controversial theory proposes mimicking volcanoes to fight global warming. But throwing sulfur particles into the sky may do more harm than good, a new study says.

BALLINA man Richard Barrett is set to take on his biggest project yet, building a €1billion ‘green city’ in South America. The property empire of Treasury Holdings, the largest developer in Ireland, co-owned by Richard Barrett and John Ronan, looks set to transform the Colombian capital of Bogota after it was reported that city planners made an approach to build a green city there.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has announced a new €5million deep retrofit pilot programme for 2017 projects to upgrade inefficient buildings to an A3 rating or better – with a particular emphasis on ventilation, airtightness, thermal bridging, interstitial condensation and preventing overheating. Grants are available to cover between 50 and 95% of the costs of deep retrofit works for di�fferent categories of participants.