Galway hotel fire condemned by Taoiseach as FF councillors criticise asylum housing policy
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has condemned the suspected deliberate setting of a fire at a Co Galway hotel on Saturday which was being prepared to accommodate up to 70 asylum seekers.
Mr Varadkar also strongly defended the Government’s policies on refugees and asylum seekers. He said while there had been a “step-change” in the numbers coming into Ireland, creating substantial pressures on accommodation, Government policies were robust and the response of many communities had been incredible.
Top News Stories
- Dubliners urged to stop paving gardens for parking: Dublin City Council is appealing to householders to stop covering their front gardens with concrete and tarmac due to increasing flooding and sewerage overflows into watercourses.
- Calls for loophole to be closed as another driver avoids six-month driving ban: The Minister for Transport has been urged to speedily introduce amending legislation to stop the continuing use of a legal loophole under which some drivers avoid penalty points that would put them off the road for six months in return for being disqualified for periods as short as one day.
- Locals send Christmas messages of support to Irish builder jailed for fraud in the US: There will be an unusual volume of Christmas cards travelling from Co Kerry to a US federal prison in Pensacola, Florida, this year, addressed to a new inmate, Dónal O’Sullivan.
- Dublin’s Bread 41 secures sustainability certification and plans to open new bakeries: Bread 41, the popular Dublin city centre bakery, has achieved a global sustainability certification that its co-founder Eoin Cluskey says will help to underpin its growth as it seeks to add three to five new bakeries to the group over the next two years.
- Check out today's Most Read stories
- Join The Irish Times WhatsApp channel for breaking news straight to your phone.
News from around the World
- Israel-Hamas war: UN Security Council moves toward vote on ‘cessation of hostilities’: The United Nations Security Council could vote as early as Monday on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip – via land, sea and air routes – and set up UN monitoring of the aid delivered.
The Big Read
- Trouble with wind turbines: ‘The green agenda is being used to benefit those already benefiting’: Thirteen years after a development of eight wind turbines on a mountain slope in Co Leitrim was blocked by planning authorities, the community finds itself embroiled in a similar fight. Some locals cast it as a corporate giant squeezing the value from a mountainside with little in return for those living nearby.
The best from Opinion
- Una Mullally - In two of the great liberal democracies, freedom of speech stops at Israel
- Joe Humphreys - Some criticism of the hate offences Bill has been hysterical - but that doesn’t mean it is a good Bill
- Eoin Drea - This will be a more eastern, more Balkan EU. What will that mean for Ireland?
Today's Business
- The perils of mangling a name: How would you pronounce Kristalina Georgieva? The first name of the managing director of the IMF is easy enough for English speakers. The second is another matter entirely.
Top Sports news
- How the development of the smart sliotar changed the game of hurling: How do you start a revolution? In May 2011, on the same day that Queen Elizabeth visited Croke Park, the late Mossy Mullins and Rory Williams had an audience with the Hurling Development Committee. The unseen work of people like Mullins led to the transformative impact of the modern sliotar which has facilitated the rise of an intricate, short-passing game.
Picture of the Day
Christmas highlights
- ‘I love Christmas, but not the pressure to create lifelong perfect memories’: And so this is Christmas. At last! I love Christmas. “I’ve always loved Christmas, except for a period of a few years when I hated it, but now I love it again. Thankfully. Because you must love Christmas. Otherwise, you’re the Grinch and people will tell you that you secretly love Christmas,” writes Jen Hogan.
- Seven steps to saving over seven days to Christmas: This time next week it will all be over bar the eating, drinking and – possibly – the shouting if random board games and ill-advised drunken charades go awry. However, this week will determine the duration and severity of your seasonal financial hangover and Conor Pope has some tips on how to avoid it being too much of a headache.
- There is nothing more magical than flying into Dublin Airport at Christmas: There is nothing more magical than to fly into Dublin Airport in the run-up to Christmas, writes an Irish woman abroad. “The drive to my parents’ house …my mum flinging open the front door, her Christmas pinny stained with the evidence of her baking delights.”
Highlights
- Advice column: ‘My partner is willing to fight for me after I had an affair – but I don’t know whether to stay’: “During the summer I met someone else and fell deeply in love. This person feels the same way but lives abroad and we’ve only met a handful of times. I told my partner about the affair within weeks of it starting, with the intention of leaving the relationship.”
Podcast
In the News - The death of a rising Irish cyclist - and the growing sense of danger on our roads
Why not try one of our Crosswords & Puzzles?
Like this?
Get the best content direct to your inbox by signing up to one of our newsletters