'Secret' restrictions
There is no “secret plan” to introduce more Covid-19 restrictions before the new year, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
Reports at the weekend suggested ministers had been briefed on the possibility of the need for stricter curbs, but these were later dismissed as “speculative” by the chief medical officer.
Mr Varadkar said he was “confident” that new measures that came into effect on Monday, including an 8pm closure of hospitality, would be enough to combat the coming Omicron wave.
Multinational companies
The number of people employed by multinational companies in the State hit an all-time high of 275,000 in 2021, up 10 per cent on its pre-pandemic level.
Just over 10 per cent of the Republic's workforce is now employed by the multinational sector, particularly big technology and drugs companies attracted in part by a low corporate tax rate.
The net increase in employment from the sector almost doubled to 16,800 in 2021 from 2020, with 249 new investments, the foreign direct investment agency IDA Ireland said.
Hugo's closure
Popular Merrion Row restaurant Hugo’s is to remain closed after they close their doors on Christmas Eve.
Due to the new Covid-19 restrictions resulting in restaurants and pubs having to close at 8pm, owner Gina Murphy has decided to not open again until February.
Tweeting her decision, Ms Murphy said she was “devastated” to have to shut the Dublin restaurant's doors.
“Devastated to have made the very difficult decision to close our beloved Hugo’s after lunch on Christmas Eve until February, or when restrictions are lifted, and we can trade properly.
Copycat offences
A man who carried out “copycat offences” three years apart against two women who he falsely imprisoned and sexually abused has been jailed for 17 and a half years.
Ioan Lingurar (35) raped the first victim after she woke up in his car. The woman tried to get out, but the car was locked, and she only managed to escape some time after the attack.
The Central Criminal Court heard that three years later, Lingurar sexually assaulted another woman in a car. This woman managed to escape after grabbing the wheel and punching him.
Trump sues
Former US president Donald Trump has sued New York Attorney General Letitia James, seeking to end her civil investigation into his business practices.
In the lawsuit, filed two weeks after Ms James requested that Mr Trump sit for a January 7 deposition, Trump alleges that the investigation has violated his constitutional rights in a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates”.
“Her mission is guided solely by political animus and a desire to harass, intimidate, and retaliate against a private citizen who she views as a political opponent,” the former president’s lawyers wrote in the suit.
