Other NI News In Brief

Poll ID Needed

Seamus Magee, Head of the Electoral Commission's office in Northern Ireland (right), and colleague Cahir Hughes, are appealing to potential voters to make sure they take the correct form of photographic ID with them when going to the polls on Thursday. Valid forms of photo ID include a UK or Irish passport, a photographic UK, Irish or EEA driving licence, a Translink Senior Smartpass or 60+ Smartpass, a War Disabled Smartpass or Blind Person's Smartpass, or an Electoral Identity Card. Polling stations are open from 7am until 10pm on Thursday.

Quinn Workers Meet

The Irish Republic's Enterprise Minister Batt O'Keeffe will meet with Quinn Insurance workers in Cavan this morning. Minister O'Keeffe says the Dublin Government is committed to helping Quinn workers who have lost their jobs to find new employment. He said he will appoint a chairperson to oversee the agencies tasked with finding new jobs for the laid-off employees at Quinn. The companies administrators are seeking 900 redundancies as part of a restructuring plan.

Party Animals Fined

Five people have been fined at Belfast Magistrates Court for causing noise disturbance during a party in the city's Holyland area. A Noise Abatement and Prohibition Notice had been served on the occupants of the house in Palestine Street on November 5, 2009 and staff from Belfast City Council's noise team were then called to investigate a complaint of excessive noise coming from the property on February 4, 2010 and found that a breach of the notice had occurred. Niall McElroy, Cathal McWilliams and James Cunningham were each fined £100 and ordered to pay costs of £69. Thomas Campbell and Malachy McNally were each fined £150 and ordered to pay costs of £69.A council spokeswoman said: "Excessive noise of any kind can make life a misery and today’s prosecution highlights the commitment to enforcing the legislation around noise control to help improve the health and well-being of everyone."

Primary Focus

The NI Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has approved the establishment of an additional nursery class at St Patrick's Primary School, Dungannon. The school currently provides 52 nursery places and the new class will provide an additional 26 places for children in their immediate pre-school year. The new provision will help cater for the increasing demand for pre-school places in the Dungannon area.

DARD Reminds Farmers

Farmers are being reminded that the closing date for submitting their EC Single Application is 15 May although they will be accepted on Monday 17 May without penalty. Application forms received by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) after 17 May 2010 and by 11 June will incur late application penalties. Forms received on 12 June 2010 and after will be rejected. Up to the present, in the region of 7,000 application forms have been received.

Derry Overlooked: Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson has claimed that there are elements within Invest NI and the University of Ulster "actively working against the interests of Derry". The Foyle MLA said: "Both INI and the University of Ulster have a responsibility to promote the city in line with the Executive's Programme for government to tackle regional disparities. However, concerns have been expressed to me that Derry is consistently overlooked by Invest NI and the University of Ulster when it comes to the promotion of certain development opportunities and I have written to both organisations asking them for a list of visits they have organised over the last year in relation to Life Sciences, Research and Development and Intelligent Systems and asking how many of those visits came to the North West."