Ward Closures Threat
The Winter Virus that swept Mayo General Hospital recently is the cause of possible seasonal closures of wards later on this year. If the contingency funds do not meet the huge costs of tackling the virus the hospital will face seasonal ward closures to cover the cost.

Sparks are Flying at GMIT, Castlebar
Electronics students in GMIT, Castlebar Campus, are preparing for their presentation project at Easter. The electronics students have to construct their own electrical circuits and they are designing circuits which use infa-red light to send music through the air and measure distances using ultra-sonic sound and do many more interesting things. GMIT recently received Silicon Wafers from Intel so that they could understand how silicon chips were made. All in all, the electronics department is well equipped and they have even invited the secondary schools in the area to pay them a visit to learn about their course.

Biggest Challenge Facing County Town Pinpointed
Limerick TD and Leader of the Fine Gael party, Michael Noonan, said that the biggest challenge facing Castlebar is the "provision of infrastructure" to maintain growth in the town. He said that Castlebar needs better electrical services and broadband as soon as possible. He said that Castlebar is on its way to being a city and that it just needs to improve its infrastructure.