Inflation and rents soar
Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar has defended the Government’s housing plan after Sinn Féin criticised its subsidy scheme for developers and its failure to prevent rents from continuing to increase.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty criticised the Government’s plan to give developers between €120,000-€144,000 per apartment they build outside the Dublin area.
Citing the latest Daft.ie rental report, which shows the average asking rate is up by nearly 12 per cent nationally, and Central Statistics Office figures showing rents have risen by 9.3 per cent, Mr Doherty said: “This is madness. By every meaningful measure, your Government’s plan on housing is failing and your minister for housing is failing.”
Other figures released by the CSO today show there has been a seven per cent increase in the cost of day-to-day items and services in the past 12 months.
Child dies from hepatitis
A child in Ireland has died and another has received a liver transplant after being admitted to hospital with an acute form of hepatitis, which has been reported in children in several countries.
As of April, at least 169 cases of acute hepatitis of unknown origin in children have been reported in 11 countries, with 114 of these cases reported in the UK.
Since March, the HSE said there have been six probable cases of children with hepatitis in Ireland, which it said “is more than would usually be expected over this period of time”.
A public health expert has said with "absolute certainty" that there is no link between the Covid-19 vaccine and the cases.
No major changes to NMH agreement
There will be no major changes to the legal arrangements for the new national maternity hospital, the Minister for Health has indicated.
Concerns have been raised about any possible religious involvement in the maternity hospital if it is co-located on the St Vincent’s site, as planned.
A delay to Cabinet approval for the move has been used by the Government to attempt to quash and alleviate concerns that the new maternity hospital could be open to religious interference.
The Government looks set to defy calls from a leading Dáil committee to further delay the Cabinet decision to approve the move to St Vincent's Hospital.
In the courts
The State is “considering its position” after a 40-year-old father who had denied "intentionally" sexually assaulting his nine-year-old daughter as she slept in his bed had his conviction quashed on appeal.
Meanwhile, a father of four who turned his car into a “battering ram” when he deliberately crashed the vehicle into the front of the family home while his wife and children were inside lost an appeal against his conviction.
Elsewhere, prosecuting counsel in the case of a woman charged with the murder of two-year-old Santina Cawley said the toddler “was alive and uninjured” until she was left in the care of the accused.
Separately, a Tipperary Glass worker who was injured when he was knocked to the ground by several sheets of glass which fell from a trolley was awarded a six-figure sum by the High Court.
Finally, a 14-year-old boy was given a six-month deferred sentence for a stray firework arson that gutted a home in Dublin, causing approximately €135,000 worth of damage.
