Gardaí attached to the ODCE have ended their search at the Anglo Irish Bank headquarters in St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

A convoy of vehicles drove away from the offices of the bank just before 8pm after almost 11 hours of sifting through potential evidence.

The search teams went into the bank’s offices just after 9am this morning.

They had been granted warrants to search at least three separate office buildings, which form part of the Anglo Irish complex in Dublin city centre.

Further resignations of former directors

It was announced tonight that Gary McGann is to step down as Chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority.

Anglo searches part of inquiry

The search warrants were issued by the Dublin District Court yesterday afternoon following applications by members of the garda fraud bureau investigating suspected breaches of company law.

The warrant allows officers seize books and enter premises.

Eight gardaí, a detective inspector, two detective sergeants and five detective gardaí are already assigned to the offices of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and have been investigating the affairs of Anglo Irish Bank.

The Garda Commissioner assigned another eight to assist in the investigation, including another detective inspector and two sergeants. They along with staff from the Director’s office are carrying out today’s searches.

The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that the investigation into Anglo Irish Bank should be allowed to be conducted, concluded and pursued vigorously in the shortest possible timeframe.

Mr Cowen also said that for operational reasons, the ODCE will not be disclosing what suspected offences under the Companies Act are being investigated.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said the Government had been shocked at the revelations about what had been going on in at Anglo Irish.

He said they were committed to getting to the bottom of it and to ensuring the full rigours of the law were applied to anyone who had abused the system.

The Minister said they would fully investigate the loans to Sean FitzPatrick, the Sean Quinn share transaction, and the Irish Life & Permanent deposit arrangement.

Jobs loss at Dell in Limerick Computer multi-national Dell has announced that it is cutting 1,900 jobs at its plant in Limerick over the next 12 months. Dell will move all production of computer systems for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from Limerick to its Polish facility and third-party manufacturers over the next year. The company says it expects the reduction to be complete by January next year with workers beginning to leave the plant in April. Economists have warned that each job at Dell underpins another four or five Irish jobs. Dell says the move is among a series of actions being taken to simplify operations, improve productivity and reduce costs. Dell has been involved in a global review of its operations for several months, in an effort to cut $3bn a year off its costs by 2011. The company said affected workers will receive competitive severance package and career outplacement assistance as they leave from the company. Major blow Taoiseach Brian Cowen has described the loss of the 1,900 jobs as a major blow to Limerick and the mid-west region. The American Chamber of Commerce, which represents US firms in Ireland, said the Dell decision was a significant blow to Limerick, the Mid-West region and the Irish economy. It warned that other similar decisions, what it called disinvestment within the multinational sector, could be expected in the next 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Family Affairs has said it has been in touch with management at Dell to let them know that they will make staff available to talk with workers directly about their entitlements and to help process their claims. They plan to base a number of staff on site on a temporary basis from April in order to process claims for the staff affected by today’s announcement.

Gardaí have published the locations of over 700 speed enforcement zones on their website on a county by county basis.

The zones cover accident blackspots which will be targeted by high visibility and speed detection policing.

Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy launched eight new speed detection vans in Templemore, Co Tipperary.

Each van is equipped with new and more efficient enforcement technology which enables them to monitor speed in adverse weather conditions and during the hours of darkness.

Gardaí are now informing people as to where the speed checks will be so that they will voluntarily slow down, he added.

The garda target is to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on the roads by 5%.

Click here for Speed Enforcement Zones