‘Race against time’ for €2.5bn apartment remediation scheme as timeline pushed back
A €2.5 billion scheme to fix defective Celtic Tiger-era apartment blocks may not come on stream during the lifetime of this Government, with the timeline for new laws slipping until the middle of next year at least.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien, who secured Cabinet approval for the long-awaited scheme in January, indicated in March that he wanted the legislation to pass “this year”, but that has now been pushed back.
In response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin, Mr O’Brien said he now expects draft legislation in the first half of next year and then the statutory scheme governing payouts to be in place “later in 2024″.
Israel-Hamas Conflict
- Foreign nationals and injured Palestinians leave Gaza in first evacuation: Foreign nationals and injured Palestinians have begun leaving Gaza for the first time since Israel launched its offensive against the coastal enclave in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7th.
- Israel-Hamas conflict: Joe Biden calls for humanitarian ‘pause’ in war: US president Joe Biden has said he thought there should be a humanitarian “pause” in the Israel-Hamas war after a campaign speech was interrupted by a protester calling for a ceasefire.
- Analysis: European credibility in the Middle East is in ashes: “Everything we worked for for three years was destroyed in a few days.” That was how a senior official described the destructive effect that the European response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas has had on diplomatic relations with the Middle East, writes Naomi O’Leary.
Top News Stories
- Almost 40 flood-hit businesses apply for emergency funding in wake of Storm Babet: Almost 40 businesses have applied for emergency flood relief funding since Storm Babet battered the south of the country last month.
- Q&A: What State support is available if your home or business is flooded due to storms?: Householders and business owners around the country have been left devastated by flooding in recent weeks. Storm Babet struck the south of the country last month causing flooding in communities in the south of the country – particularly Cork and Waterford.
- Molly Martens rushes from court in tears after viewing police interview: After Judge David Hall called a 10-minute recess, Molly Martens rushed from the court, heaving in tears. Casting aside her uncle Mike Earnest’s attempts to calm her, she ran off down a hallway outside Courtroom No 6 to be alone with her thoughts.
- New HSE rules aim to speed up discharge of well patients: Older patients who are well enough to leave hospital may have to accept the long-term care that is available rather than wait for their preferred option, under new HSE rules.
- Measures to improve road safety will ‘struggle’ without increased Garda visibility: Measures to improve road safety will “struggle” to deliver without increased enforcement of traffic offences in a “visible manner” by gardaí, Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers has told the Garda Commissioner.
- High Court to hear flight attendant’s case over alleged Dolores O’Riordan air rage incident: A judge has directed that a civil action over an air rage incident involving the late singer Dolores O’Riordan will be heard in the High Court rather than the Circuit Court, where awards for damages are lower.
- Homeowners allege developer ‘concealed’ likely noise from nearby factory, in legal action: A group of homeowners in north county Dublin have taken legal action against Glenveagh Homes, alleging that the developer failed to warn them about likely noise from a nearby metalworks plant when they were buying their properties.
- Irish Journalism Awards: The Irish Times has 37 nominees shortlisted: The Irish Times has 37 entries shortlisted for the upcoming Irish Journalism Awards in Dublin later this month. The entries are spread across a range of categories including arts, business, crime, foreign affairs coverage, news, investigative, opinion, politics, sports and features journalism.
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- Ireland’s weather today: Any lingering rain will clear from the east early this morning. It will be dry for many for the rest of the day with sunny spells and well scattered showers following behind. Showers will turn more frequent and occasionally heavy in the west and southwest later. Highest temperatures of 9 to 12 degrees in light to moderate westerly winds, fresher in the west and southwest.
News from around the World
- Woman arrested three months after dinner guests died: Police in Australia have arrested a 49-year-old woman following a meal which left three people dead. Erin Patterson was arrested on Thursday by Victoria Police, three months after the family gathering at her home in Leongatha.
- One in 10 Dutch judges and prosecutors turned down high-profile case due to safety concerns: More than half of the Netherlands’s 2,500 judges and 900 public prosecutors have faced intimidation, many during court cases, and one in 10 has turned down a high-profile case due to concerns for personal safety, according to a new survey.
The Big Read
- Housing people along the Liffey at a new gateway to Dublin city: Heuston Station, one of the State’s largest transport hubs, presents an impressive façade, with its original 1840s building based on the design of an Italian palazzo. However, this elegant exterior hides acres of underused and inaccessible space, dominated by surface car parking, storage sheds, and maintenance yards, right alongside, but with no connection to, what should be the area’s greatest asset: the River Liffey, writes Olivia Kelly. You can read the full series of river Liffey articles; Source to Sea, here. https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/the-liffey-source-to-sea/
The best from Opinion
- Friends was not about the 90s, it was about the timeless march to adulthood: Matthew Perry, who died last weekend aged 54, published his memoir almost exactly a year ago to the day. Its opening line reads: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” This kind of tragic irony came to typify the life of the star.
Culture and Life & Style highlights
- Brianna Parkins on true crime podcasts: Who gets to tell the stories?: The advent of podcasts has given us a lot of things. The gift of overconfidence to lads who think they’re gas craic altogether and the world needs to know, for one. It’s also given us hours of great storytelling, brought attention to injustices and a man with a bag over his head educating us about mental health.
Today's Business
- Heineken Ireland axes Island’s Edge stout: Brewer Heineken Ireland has axed its Island’s Edge stout after a multimillion euro marketing campaign failed to lure drinkers to the product.
- Some 6,500 workers paid less than minimum wage ‘illegally’, ESRI study finds: While certain categories of younger workers in the Republic can legally be paid at sub-minimum wage rates, the majority receive higher rates of pay, a new study has indicated. However, the research indicated that some 6,500 workers were currently earning less than the minimum wage for “other reasons” and that that may include “individuals being paid below minimum wage illegally”.
Top Sports news
- Promotion provides a daunting challenge for improving Ireland: It is no secret that women’s football is developing at warp speed across Europe. The Republic of Ireland are currently making real progress but that does not guarantee survival in next year’s Nations League top tier.
- Max Deegan happy to diversify as he chases regular starting role in Leinster: Leo Cullen presented Max Deegan with a bottle of champagne in the aftermath of his 100th appearance for Leinster in the victory over the Sharks, an occasion the number eight further embellished with his 29th try for the province, an impressive strike rate in any context.
- Dave Hannigan: Dana White finds 100 million reasons to ride to the rescue of Bud Light: Welcome to the United States of dystopia. Population: 330m. The CEO of a billion-dollar sports enterprise did an interview on Fox News. He was caught on video slapping his wife in a bar just a few months back but that didn’t come up. Instead, he fielded softballs from a right-wing bloviator who has previously spoken about how mixed martial arts training will help him in a mass shooting situation.
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Sir, – Revulsion at the Hamas atrocities on October 7th are matched now by the sheer horror of Israel’s mass murder of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. By perpetrating apartheid policies, war crimes and genocide, Israel has sacrificed all entitlement to international support and sympathy, and dishonoured its own Holocaust dead. Shame on western leaders for condoning this savagery. – Yours, etc,
RORY O’MAHONY, Kilkenny
Video & Podcast Highlights
Review of the day
- Toxic by Sarah Ditum: Reappraising the noughties through a feminist lens makes for an uncomfortable read: Toxic, journalist Sarah Ditum’s takedown of noughties misogyny as exemplified by nine female celebrities, starts with an anecdote about an anonymous 16-year-old girl in the US in 2006. The girl was looking at greeting cards in a branch of Target in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a 33-year-old man, Riccardo Ferrante, crouched beside her and used a digital camera to take pictures up her skirt without her consent or knowledge.
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