Ireland’s public transport system is never far from the news agenda. Indeed this week, Dublin’s proposed MetroLink was up for discussion as public consultation on the project was reopened, almost five months after the An Bord Pleanála hearing on the project ended.
On the same topic, Martin Wall reported that the Government approved a €550,000 salary for the project director following warnings that the failure to secure a suitably qualified person for the role would “represent a significant and unacceptable increase in the overall risk profile” of the project.
David McWilliams is writing on the topic of public transport in his column this weekend, where he asks: why can’t Ireland provide first-world transport infrastructure for a first-rate workforce?
He wonders why Ireland doesn’t follow the example set by Serbia, where the construction of a high-speed rail network was outsourced to China.
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“We buy everything else from China – our cars, our electronics and almost everything we use on a daily basis – so why not trains? And if they want to bring their workers in to build the track, why not? Given that the main issue in public procurement should be to get the best value for money for the citizen, and get the projects delivered on time, should we not explore this option?” he writes.
Meanwhile, Deirdre Falvey spoke to former president Mary Robinson ahead of a new documentary on her life which will be released next week.
The former president admits she was manipulated into vouching for the safety of Princess Latifa Al Maktoum in Dubai, who accused her father, Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, of holding her hostage and says it was not her finest moment, “it was a big mistake”.
Robinson, now 80, also talks about pushing past shyness, how she was ‘bullied’ into a documentary about her life, and her fears for the US and climate change.
As the dust settles on Ireland’s record-breaking Olympic Games, the week of homecomings took place over the last few days – the biggest of which saw more than 20,000 people turn out to the GPO on Dublin’s O’Connell Street to welcome home the team with seven medals in tow.
Reporting from a sunny Dublin city was Miriam Lord, who wrote that even the statues were punching the air as Daniel Wiffen sang and Kellie Harrington took the biscuit.
“For children, it was a brilliant way to round off the summer holidays – cheering their hearts out as their new (and not so new) sporting idols appeared onstage, holding up those gleaming Olympic medals and holding out a dream,” she wrote.
“So many little girls and little boys in the crowd looking up to them and thinking: ‘That could be me, someday’.” In post-Olympics news this week, Johnny Watterson reported on the 50m swimming pool that lies in storage in Cork as a swimming club looks for funds to construct it, while Ian O’Riordan looks at where there are track and field facilities in Ireland and which areas are most in need of more.
With Electric Picnic rounding off the summer of festivals this weekend, you can keep up to date with all of our coverage and reviews here.
On Tuesday night Conor Lally reported that 11 inmates at Portlaoise Prison had been hospitalised after suspected overdoses from a drug that had been smuggled into the maximum security jail. The batch is suspected of having been brought into the prison by a well-known gangland figure, with all 11 inmates now discharged from hospital.
Attempting to stem the flow of drugs into Irish prisons is, in many ways, a losing battle for authorities, wrote Conor Gallagher. Among the ways inmates get access to drugs are flaming tennis balls, drones and corrupt guards, while the arrival into Ireland of highly potent synthetic opioids, such as nitazene, has made the issue far more urgent.
In our Opinion section this weekend, Irish Times intern Saeedullah Safi has written a powerful piece about what he and his wife experienced three years ago when they fled their native Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power, eventually ending up in Dublin.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Brianna Parkins asked why everything in Australia – where she recently relocated – feels so suspiciously easy. “I can get a same-day GP appointment,” writes Parkins. “‘Too easy,’ comes the familiar Aussie saying from the receptionist confirming my information. And that’s what it all feels like after years in Ireland.”
On Wednesday, Ellen O’Riordan reported that a landlord’s move to evict a 92-year-old woman so he could increase the rent beyond rent pressure zone caps was described as “unconscionable” by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).
Ita McDonnell has been living at the apartment for 13 years, with an initial rate of €1,150 per month. The landlord purchased the property in May 2022 and, in August 2022, sought to raise the rent to €1,340 plus service charges. Three days later, he sent a lease termination notice, the tribunal said.
In her column this week, Una Mullally wrote that we are facing into dangerous times as Kamala Harris backs Donald Trump into a corner.
“How Trump reacts (and anything is possible, including directly inciting mass political violence) when backed into a corner, no longer owning the narrative, and flailing in the attention stakes will now begin to play out. Harris and Walz wear a smile, but these are dangerous times,” she writes.
On Monday the Democratic National Convention will kick off in Chicago and many influential Irish-Americans will be in attendance – a cohort targetted by Harris and Walz for votes, as reported by Keith Duggan on Thursday.
Elsewhere, in this week’s On the Money newsletter, Dominic Coyle asks if Irish banks really care about their online services. Sign up here to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox every Friday.
Finally, in our advice columns this week: Trish Murphy responds to a reader who has been on the end of aggressive behaviour from some individuals nearing retirement age; while another reader writes to Roe McDermott, saying: “I’m a married woman but my work crush is getting complicated.”
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