Dublin - After 22 hours of negotiations, the Irish government said Wednesday it had managed to agree a 6-per-cent pay increase with workers for the next 21 months.

The deal would be paid in two phases following an initial pay freeze, a statement from Prime Minister Brian Cowen's office said.

Private-sector workers would receive a 3.5-per-cent rise for six months, then 3.5 per cent for the following year after an initial three-month freeze.

Public sector workers' wages would be frozen for 11 months, then they would receive 3.5 per cent for nine months and 2.5 per cent for the final month, the statement said.

Dublin - The Irish Stock Ex

Dublin/London  - A Ryanair aircraft was Thursday forced to make an emergency landing minutes after take-off from Dublin airport in Ireland, the budget airline said.

A spokesman said the back of the plane struck the runway as it took off and the pilot returned to the airport as a precaution. He described the occurrence as a "tail-strike" which was "quite common."

"As a precautionary measure the aircraft returned with oxygen masks deployed and landed safely in Dublin," he said.

All 148 passengers disembarked normally and the flight later took off for London-Stansted airport. No-one was injured.

Dublin, September 11 : The partial remains of a young person, probably female, which could date back to between 2500-2000 BC, have been uncovered during an archaeological dig in the Burren, Co Clare, in Ireland.

According to a report in the Irish Times, the prehistoric remains were found in the passageway to the central burial chamber of Caherconnell Cashel, a well-preserved stone fort, during the dig that began a fortnight ago.

A significant factor of the discovery is that the body had been allowed to decompose elsewhere before some of the skeleton was placed where it was found, according to archaeologist, Graham Hull.

Dublin - Immigrants are more likely to be unemployed and less likely to secure professional and managerial positions, a report published Wednesday in Dublin shows.

The report, Immigrants at Work: Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market, by researchers from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and supported by the Equality Authority, was based on information from Ireland's Central Statistics Office.

ESRI researchers Dr Philip J O'Connell and Dr Frances McGinnity found that black people were nine times more likely to be unemployed than Irish nationals, while immigrants from non-English-speaking countries were largely excluded from the most privileged occupations.

Dublin - Just over 20 per cent of Irish primary school children are being taught in classes of 30 pupils or more, figures from the Education Ministry released Monday showed.

A total of 95,773 of the 470,270 pupils in Irish primary schools were in classes of 30 and more, the figures showed.

"Almost 100,000 children remain in classes of 30 pupils or more despite year-on-year promises to tackle the issue," said John Carr, general secretary of the primary teachers' union, the Irish National Teachers Organization.

He said a lack of government planning was to blame.