Plan for longer opening hours for pubs and nightclubs
The Cabinet is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss changing licensing laws in order to allow pubs and nightclubs to stay open later.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will seek approval for the General Scheme of the Sale of Alcohol Bill, which is expected to be enacted next year.
The Irish Examiner reports the changes will allow nightclubs to remain open until 6am, brining Ireland in line with other European countries, while pubs will be permitted to serve until 12.30am.
Late bars will also be permitted to operated until 2.30am and early closing hours on Sundays will be scrapped.
For nightclubs, it is understood that the sale of alcohol will not be permitted beyond 5am, while all late premises will be required to apply for a permit, demonstrating they have CCTV on the premises and security staff who are accredited with the Private Security Authority.
The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said the reforms of the licensing laws will make them “fit for the 21st century” following the announcement of the new legislation from the Department of Justice.
Hospital overcrowding hits 2022 peak
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has recorded the highest number of patients on trolleys in 2022 with 669 patients without a hospital bed. The figures includes 28 children.
The top five most overcrowded hospitals on Tuesday were University Hospital Limerick (80), Cork University Hospital (72), Letterkenny University Hospital and St James’s Hospital (both 51), and University Hospital Galway (45).
INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "It is extremely concerning but not surprising that we have 669 patients on trolleys today. We have seen a 27 per cent increase of patients on trolleys in the last week.
“A range of measures must be taken now in the short to medium term including the curtailment of all non-emergency, elective care. Capacity from the private sector must be provided immediately. There needs to be a laser focus on the recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives."
GAA Star Davy Fitzgerald claims that he is the victim of a fraud
GAA star Davy Fitzgerald has claimed he is the victim of a fraud that has resulted in proceedings being brought against him before a Portuguese Court.
The Irish High Court also heard on Tuesday that the current Waterford senior hurling manager is fighting proceedings taken against him by a receiver and "a vulture fund" aimed at securing possession of a property, owned by Mr Fitzgerald and where his sister Helen lives.
Mr Fitzgerald from Sixmilebridge, Co Clare claims he first discovered last July that his name had, without his knowledge or consent, been put on "false" mortgage documentation in respect of "six or seven" properties in Portugal.
Mr Fitzgerald claims that former ACC Bank official Jarlath Mitchell, whom he had professional dealings with several year ago, allegedly entered his name on the "false mortgages and documents".
Government ‘failing to match people’s efforts to house Ukrainian refugees’
The Government has been accused of failing to match the effort of people across Ireland in finding accommodation for refugees fleeing Ukraine.
During leaders’ questions in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin was told that people would be dismayed that some refugees fleeing the war had to sleep on the floor at Dublin Airport.
However, Mr Martin responded by stating the only person who would take solace from Sinn Féin’s attacks on Government policy would be Vladimir Putin.
The exchanges came after 44 Ukrainian refugees were recently left without anywhere to live after arriving in Ireland.
It is understood that the Department of Children contacted those affected and offered accommodation on Monday.
Opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach in the Dail why the Government was “scrambling to put together a plan” nine months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Jacob Rees-Mogg out of UK cabinet as ‘socialist’ Rishi Sunak shakes up government
Jacob Rees-Mogg has quit as British business secretary after conceding he would not get a job in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet despite recanting his claim that the new prime minister is a “socialist”.
The old ally of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss was the first to acknowledge on Tuesday that he was out as the newly appointed Conservative leader began a government shake-up.
Kit Malthouse, who was a deputy under Mr Johnson when he was London mayor, is out as education secretary, a source close to the outgoing cabinet minister told the PA news agency.
Johnson-loyalist Simon Clarke is no longer levelling-up secretary, while Jake Berry, a champion of the former prime minister’s levelling-up agenda, has been despatched as Tory Party chairman, saying “all good things must come to an end”.
