Stormont election
A "long and tense" counting of votes is continuing in the North to decide the composition of the next Stormont Assembly.
The count got underway at 8am on Friday morning, with Kellie Armstrong of the Alliance Party and Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill among the first candidates to be elected.
Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney warned it could be months before an executive is formed following the election, expecting it to be “difficult” to form a powersharing executive amid “a lot of polarisation on certain issues within Northern Ireland politics”.
Driving offences
Gardaí made 146 arrests over the May bank holiday weekend for drink and drug-driving, while 2,298 speed offence detections were also recorded, according to figures released by Gardaí.
A Garda operation began at 12pm on Friday, April 29th, lasting until 7am on Tuesday, May 3rd, during which time 722 mandatory intoxicant testing checkpoints were carried out, resulting in 2,978 breath tests and 86 oral fluid tests being administered around the country.
The results of the tests led to 58 arrests for drug-driving, and a further 88 arrests for drink-driving.
Turf ban
Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has said peat briquettes may be included in the Government's proposed ban on smoky fuels if they are found to be over the excess pollution threshold of 10 micrograms per hour.
The Green Party leader made the comments in the Dáil on Thursday, clarifying that turf may not be the only product to be impacted by the ban, which is expected to come into force next September.
The ban aims to reduce the use of smoky fuels, such as turf and smoky coal, due to the high emissions they produce and their impact on people's health.
Offaly crash
A teenager has died after the tractor he was driving left the road and entered a deep drain in Co Offaly last night.
Gardaí and emergency services were alerted to the fatal road collision at Clonmore, Rhode shortly after 11pm.
The tractor left the road and entered a deep drain at the Black Castle Bog, a Garda statement said.
The road was closed at the scene of the incident on Friday morning to allow for an examination by Garda forensic collision investigators to take place.
