A man has appeared in court charged with impeding the investigation into the murder of Christopher Jackson in Dublin.

35-year-old Anthony Locke of no fixed abode is accused of cleaning up the murder scene and concealing the body of 53-year-old Christopher Jackson at his apartment on Prussia Street.

The brother of the accused – 39-year-old Bernard Locke appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of Mr. Jackson.

His body was found hidden in a wardrobe and wrapped in plastic at his home on Saturday.

He  had been stabbed repeatedly and concealed for 2 days.

Yesterday 39-year-old Bernard Locke was charged with his murder and today his brother Anthony Locke appeared in court charged with impeding the investigation.

Detective Garda Denis Ellard told the court that Anthony Locke cleaned up the murder scene at the flat and hid the body using plastic and sellotape.

He also objected to bail saying the accused is a flight risk.

Judge Patricia McNamara refused bail and remanded Anthony Locke in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on September 18th.

Gardaí are investigating the possibility that the death of a man in Waterford city may have been drug-related.

The body of the 30-year-old was discovered at a house at Bishopsfield in Williamstown at 10pm last night.

The scene has been sealed off and a full post mortem is to be carried out on the man’s body later.

The Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald has rejected claims by a former Supreme Court Judge that there is no need to hold a referendum on children’s rights.

Hugh O’Flaherty made the claim in the Irish Independent today.

He claims existing articles in the Constitution already provide for the rights of children.

Mr. O’Flaherty said we need to cherish our children but we do not need a referendum to prove it.

But Minister Frances Fitzgerald says there are compelling reasons for giving children stronger rights under the Constitution.

“What we are doing is make children visible in the Constitution – as I’ve said it’s been called for for 20 years” she said.

“The Irish people now have a chance to do that”.

“When you look at the reports that emerged as recently as last week, you can see that children have been invisible in many aspects of Irish life”.

“This is about changing that” she said.

The Central Bank has released updated statistics on the level of lending to small and medium businesses (SMEs).

According to their figures the amount of cash lent by banks and building societies to non-financial, non-property related SMEs fell €390 million in the 2^nd-quarter of the year.

On a yearly basis lending was down €1. 2 billion – or 4.6 % – in the 12 months to the end of June.

The number of people visiting Ireland has increased by almost 8%.

The latest Central Statistics Office numbers also show spending by tourists is up.

But the number of Irish going abroad has fallen.

Newstalk’s Jack Quann has more.