METRO Thursday, November 12, 2009 D Tommy Hilfiger 13-14 Grafton Street store only. Thursday 12th November & Friday 13th November 2009. *Exclusions may apply. See instore for details. To celebrate our oNE yEar aNNivErSary, Tommy Hilfiger Grafton Street would like to reward all customers with 20% off all purchases* MENU THE World Digest 10 Guilty Pleasures Celebrity gossip 14-15 MetroLife Arts and entertainment 18-19 60 Second Interview Actor Paul Giamatti 20 TV 20-21 Puzzles & Letters 22-23 Classifieds 24 Sport 25-28 Help keep Dublin clean and tidy for everyone by taking your Metro with you and recycling it TODAY: A dry start, becoming very windy and wet. Max: 11C TOMORROW: A bright start, turning wet and windy. Max: 10C LOTTO WEDNESDAYS DRAW 04 06 20 21 24 33 Bonus: 01 Plus 1: 02 05 08 15 33 44 Bonus: 23 Plus 2: 03 05 07 08 49 30 Bonus: 40 METRO Weather Minister Conor Lenihan TD was on hand to launch the Fusion Expo at DCU yesterday, promoting Fusion as a future energy choice. The exhibition runs until tomorrow THE FUTURE IS AT HAND Shut 15,000 hotel rooms report A QUARTER of hotel rooms in Ireland need to close because the hotel sector is insolvent, according to a report by economic consultant Peter Bacon. The report, commissioned by the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), states the orderly elimination of 15,000 hotel rooms should begin before next summer. Some 26,802 new hotel rooms were opened in Ireland between 1999- 2008, but the stock of new hotel rooms has been insolvent since 2005, Dr Bacons report states. Welfare bonus cut branded shameful CUTTING the social welfare Christmas bonus was yesterday branded shameful and mean after the Taoiseach flatly refused to reverse the cut. Brian Cowen claimed the country could not afford the 223million payout, scrapped in Aprils emergency budget. But Labour leader Eamon Gilmore hit out at the Taoiseach, saying the elderly were shouldering the burden of Fianna Fils economic mismanagement. It is a measure of the mess that Fianna Fil has made of our public finances that we now find ourselves in a situation that, for the first time in 30 years, pensioners will not get the small bonus that has been paid to them in years past, Mr Gilmore told the Dil. He added: I think it is mean and I think it is shameful, Taoiseach. The Christmas Bonus is paid to a range of social welfare recipients, including pensioners, carers and those on disability. Mr Cowen said he was reluctant to go-ahead with the plan but the social welfare budget could not be immune from cutbacks. Hitting out: Eamon Gilmore Frontline staff stage huge pay cut protestBY COLM KELPIETHOUSANDS of health staff, garda, prison officers and firefighters yesterday protested over proposed pay cuts, warn- ing they would not be backing down. Just days after tens of thousands of public sector workers demonstrated across the country, a huge march three times bigger than expected weaved its way across Dublin. In passionate speeches outside the Dil, the Government was accused of protect- ing the wealthy while targeting the ordi- nary worker. Eugene Dennehy, deputy general sec- retary of the Prison Officers Association, said public sector workers were engaged in a battle for survival. I think today we have sent a signal to the Government that we are prepared to fight for as long as it takes, he added. Organised by the 24/7 Frontline Serv- ices Alliance, the march began in Parnell Square and moved through the city centre to Molesworth Street, led by a vintage ambulance, garda car and fire engine. Dublin Fire Brigade Pipe Band also performed while garda wore baseball caps with the garda insignia instead of their uniform. Trade union chiefs handed in a letter of protest to the Department of Finance for Brian Lenihan. Garda said between 3,000 and 3,500 people took part in the march though or- ganisers estimated the turnout at more than 5,000. Jack OConnor, president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, claimed a wealthy elite in the country were not pre- pared to shoulder their share of the eco- nomic burden. Mr OConnor said the Government was committing the country to a period of un- relenting debt through Nama, which he branded heinous. Healthcare firm to cut 250 Sligo jobs ONE of the worlds biggest pharmaceutical firms is to shut a Sligo medical plant it took over just three-and-a-half months ago, with the loss of 250 jobs. Healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is winding down operations at the Stiefel plant in Sligo over the next four years. GSK said the decision to shut the business was due to under-utilised capacity in Stiefel factories and across other GSK sites. The company bought Stiefel, which specialises in the manufacture of skincare products, in a $2.9billion (1.9billion) deal in July. MEP jailed over false expenses A FORMER MEP in the UK who fiddled 39,000 (43,000) in expenses was jailed for two years yesterday. Tom Wise will also have to pay the prosecutions costs over his blatant dishonesty. Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said the 61-year-old UKIP members scheme to funnel money into his own account to spend on fine wines and a car amounted to a gross breach of trust. Jonathan Fisher, Wises QC, told the court: To describe this case as a disaster does not begin to convey the humiliation and distress Mr Wise and his wife are experiencing. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html