Kinahan cartel likened to world's most notorious crime networks
The United States has offered rewards totalling $15 million for help arresting the three leaders of the Kinahan drug trafficking gang, which it likened to some of the world's most notorious crime networks.
The US also imposed financial sanctions against gang leaders whom gardaí said had gone from dealing heroin and cocaine in Dublin in the 1990s to operating across Europe. A wide range of criminality, including more than a dozen murders, is estimated to have generated over €1 billion.
Daniel Kinahan, one of the three leaders named by US authorities, has been involved in organising high profile boxing fights in recent years. He was credited by world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury with helping broker a potential unification bout two years ago.
"As of today the Kinahan transnational criminal organisation joins the ranks of Italy's Camorra, Mexico's Los Zetas, Japan's Yakuza and Russia's 'Thieves In Law'," Gregory Gatjanis, an associate director at the US treasury department, told a news conference in Dublin City Hall.
VAT cut on energy expected
A plan to temporarily cut the VAT rate on energy will “more than make up for” the planned carbon tax, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
A cut in the VAT rate on energy from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent is expected to be approved during a meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday.
Speaking today, Mr Martin described a “unique set of circumstances”, including a “once-in-a-century pandemic creating its own inflationary cycle”, and now a war in Ukraine, which he described as “adding very significantly to the already increasing energy crisis”.
Civil servants face grilling over Dr Holohan's Trinity job
Senior civil servants are set to be grilled by an Oireachtas committee later this month over the botched appointment of the chief medical officer to a role in Trinity College Dublin.
The Oireachtas Finance Committee intends to question the top civil servants on April 27th, as questions remain about how the appointment of Dr Tony Holohan was handled.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on Monday received a report into the controversy, which ultimately saw Dr Holohan confirm that he will not be taking up the secondment to a professor job in the university.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is among the Government figures who have acknowledged concerns over the lack of transparency in the planned appointment to the position of professor of public health strategy and leadership at Trinity on a salary of €187,000.
