Lindsay Lohan
Hollywood A lister Lindsay Lohan made one girl’s dream come true when she met the star in Wicklow Town.
The Mean Girls star was having a meal in Wicklow town gastro pub The Bridge Tavern when nine-year-old Abbie Hegarty Dunne could not believe her luck on Thursday night.
Lohan is in Ireland for the next five weeks as filming on the Netflix movie 'Irish Wish' gets underway next Monday.
Her mother Sasha Hegarty, from Wicklow town explained she normally never goes out on a Thursday night agreed to meet her brother at the pub for an early meal for his birthday.
“When we went into the pub one of the staff said that Lindsay Lohan was here and we couldn’t believe it.
Enoch Burke arrest
A judge has ordered a teacher who objects to addressing a student with the pronoun "they" to be arrested by gardaí and brought before the High Court to answer his alleged failure to comply with a temporary injunction preventing him from attending or teaching at the secondary school where he is employed.
On Friday morning Ms Justice Miriam O'Regan granted Wilson's Hospital School an order allowing gardaí to detain teacher Enoch Burke and bring him before the court to answer his alleged contempt.
The court made the order after being told that in breach of both the terms of his paid suspension and the temporary injunction Mr Burke was currently "sitting in an empty classroom" in the Co Westmeath-based school.
After obtaining the interim injunction earlier this week, the school brought a motion seeking Mr Burke's attachment and possible committal to prison before the High Court on Thursday.
Leaving Cert results
More than 61,000 students are set to receive their Leaving Certificate results.
Some 58,056 Leaving Cert students and 3,051 Leaving Cert Applied students sat exams across the country earlier this summer.
Tens of thousands of students’ grades have been adjusted upwards by exam authorities to bring them into line with last year’s record-high set of results.
It follows a pledge from Minister for Education Norma Foley to ensure grades are “no lower” than last year in order to ensure students are not disadvantaged when competing with the class of 2021.
Results will be issued online from 10am through the State Examinations Commission’s candidate self-service portal.
Electric Picnic
Music fans at Electric Picnic are set for a washout as Met Éireann warns of heavy and persistent rain this weekend.
The forecaster has issued a status yellow rainfall warning between 9pm on Saturday and midday on Sunday. It said high rainfall amounts this weekend "may cause disruption".
A rainfall advisory is also in place for wet and windy weather from Friday evening until Monday.
Rental properties
The State’s regulator for the residential rental sector has said that all landlords are expected to comply with registering tenancies within a month, after a Government Minister admitted to failing to register a Dublin rental property correctly.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly did not renew his registration of a Dublin rental property with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) in 2019.
The Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow said that it was registered in 2011, and renewed in 2015, but that he missed the renewal date in 2019.
It comes after his party colleague Robert Troy resigned as junior minister last week for failing to declare properties on the Dáíl’s register of members’ interests correctly and also failing to register a rental property with the RTB.
Online banking
Consumers’ use of digital banking has hit a record high as contactless payments continue to surge, new figures show.
According to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), online and mobile banking volumes grew by almost 12 per cent to 36 million payments in the second quarter of this year to reach the highest level since the data series began six years ago.
The data also shows there were €49 million worth of contactless payments per day between the start of April and the end of June this year, the highest daily spend in any quarter since the data series began.
BPFI head of payments Gillian Byrne said: “The trend continues, our latest figures show online and mobile banking (digital banking) payments continued to grow strongly in Q2 2022 with volumes growing by 11.7 per cent year-on-year to 36 million payments.
Energy poverty
It is unconscionable that some firms face going out of business because of rising gas and electricity prices while energy providers experience profit surges, the Minister for Finance has said.
As consumers see continuing rises in their energy bills, the Government is facing pressure to impose windfall taxes on energy firms.
Paschal Donohoe said the move is being considered by the Government ahead of the budget later this month.
Businesses and householders face massive increases in their energy bills which are expected to continue into next year.
