Woman (20s) dies after assault in Co Meath
A woman in her 20s has died following an assault in Athboy, Co Meath.
Gardaí responded to a call of an unresponsive woman in a house in the Rathmore area of Athboy in the early hours of Friday morning.
National Ambulance Service staff also attended the scene where the woman was declared dead. Her body remains at the scene, which is currently preserved for forensic and technical examination.
The office of the State Pathologist and the Garda Technical Bureau have been notified and a postmortem examination will be arranged.
A man aged in his 30s was later arrested at a different location and is currently detained in Ashbourne Garda station.
Gardaí have launched an investigation and an incident room has been established at Kells Garda station.
High temperature warning in place nationwide with 31 degrees likely
Forecasters are warning that Ireland's highest-ever August temperature could be recorded over the next few days.
Sunny days and balmy nights are predicted with Met Éireann indicating that Ireland could reach a higher temperature than the 31.5 degrees recorded at Oak Park in Co Carlow on August 2nd, 1995.
Met Éireann senior forecaster Gerry Murphy said a status yellow high temperature warning is in place for the Republic this weekend.
"Temperatures did get over 30 degrees [on Thursday]. And we can expect those temperatures to go possibly higher today and certainly higher in few places tomorrow," he said.
"It is quite possible that we could reach that August [temperature] record hit in 1995."
Abbott to invest €440m and create 1,000 jobs in Ireland
US medtech giant Abbott Laboratories is investing €440 million in Ireland with plans for a major new manufacturing plant in Kilkenny and additional jobs in Donegal.
The expansion, first reported in The Irish Times and due to be announced on Friday, will mean the company adds 1,000 jobs to its Irish workforce and make the State a leader in the production of high-tech diabetes glucose monitoring devices.
The company’s Freestyle Libre 3 glucose monitors allow diabetes patients to avoid carrying out finger-prick tests several times a day to check glucose levels.
Abbott said the decision to invest in Ireland comes as a result of the “rapid growth” of the company’s Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring systems, which it says are now used by more than four million people living with diabetes across more than 60 countries.
Property price index now level with Celtic Tiger peak
The residential property price index is now level with the peak recorded during the Celtic Tiger.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said the national index reached the value of 163.6 points in June 2022, equal to that recorded in April 2007 ahead of the global financial crisis.
However, actual property prices are not yet at the level recorded in 2007 before the market crashed. In Dublin, residential property prices are 8.1 per cent lower than their February 2007 peak, though outside Dublin they are now just 1.3 per cent lower than their May 2007 peak.
House price inflation slowed slightly for the third consecutive month in June in a further signal that the market may be cooling in the face of higher living costs.
