O'Brien defends rent subsidies
The Minister for Housing has said it is “wholly incorrect” to say that rent subsidies are “cash bonus for landlords”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that the initiatives announced by government have failed to deliver and that Housing for All’s “promises and its aspirations jar with the reality” faced by the public.
She criticised the minister for spending “so much money subsidising private-sector provision” instead of building public housing on public land.
“We know that the state funnels close to a billion euro into the pockets of private landlords each year through the Housing Assistance Payment and other rent subsidy schemes,” she told the Dáil.
Zelenskiy in Brussels
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said “a Ukraine that is winning” its war with Russia should be a member of the European Union, arguing the bloc would not be complete without it.
Mr Zelenskiy made his appeal during an emotional day at the EU’s headquarters in Brussels as he wrapped up a rare, two-day trip outside Ukraine to seek more weapons from the West to repel the full-scale invasion that Moscow has been waging for nearly a year.
Mr Zelenskiy, who also visited the UK and France and Wednesday, received rapturous applause and cheers from the European Parliament and a summit of the 27 EU leaders, insisting in his speech that the fight with Russia was one for the freedom of all of Europe.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met with Mr Zelenskiy in Brussels.
Smear test case settled
The family of a young mother who died of cervical cancer has settled a High Court action over the alleged misreporting of her smear slides.
The woman was only in her 30s when she died just 16 days after she married her long-term partner.
Her husband brought an action against US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and the HSE over the death of his wife eight years ago.
His counsel Oonah Mc Crann SC instructed by Augustus Cullen Law solicitors told the court that the woman was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the summer of 2014, and she was treated with chemoradiation, but her condition continued to deteriorate until in early 2015, the cancer was reported as Stage 4 with secondary cancer in the lungs, liver bone and lymphatic system. The couple were married at the start of summer that year and she died 16 days later.
Burt Bacharach dead at 94
Composer and Oscar winner Burt Bacharach has died aged 94.
The cause of death, which happened at home in Los Angeles, was natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam said on Thursday.
Bacharach delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of songs such as Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose and dozens of other hits.
Over the past 70 years, only Lennon-McCartney, Carole King and a handful of others have rivalled his genius for instantly catchy songs that remained performed, played and hummed long after they were written.
