DUP demands action on NI Protocol
The DUP will not re-enter the Stormont power-sharing Executive without “decisive action” from the UK government on the Northern Ireland Protocol, Jeffrey Donaldson has said.
The DUP leader is resisting pressure from other parties and the UK and Irish governments to nominate ministers for a new Executive following a dramatic election result at the weekend which saw Sinn Féin emerge as the largest party.
Earlier today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the DUP is wrong to place conditions on participating in the Assembly and should “take their seats and get on with it.”
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has meanwhile shot down any claims that the election results have brought a border poll closer, saying convening a Citizens’ Assembly on a border poll is “not even on the radar” of the Government.
Govt firm on maternity hospital plans
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has warned that moving the new National Maternity Hospital to a new location or using a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to buy the site from the St Vincent’s Group would add 10-15 years to the project.
The existing national maternity hospital at Holles Street is not fit for purpose, he said, adding that in some cases very ill women had to be transported by ambulance to St Vincent’s for urgent treatment.
Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government is planning to press ahead with plans to locate the new hospital at the St Vincent’s site in Dublin.
He said that concerns about the ownership of the new hospital have been “comprehensively addressed”.
In the courts
A jury has found Barbie Kardashian (20) guilty of seven counts of threatening to kill or cause serious harm to her mother following a four-day trial at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court.
Elsewhere, a murder trial heard that two-year-old Santina Cawley died of “forcefully inflicted injuries” not consistent with a fall or an accidental death.
Two Limerick men were meanwhile sentenced to 12 years in prison, with one year suspended, for what a judge described as the “cynical and calculated” rape of a 14-year-old girl.
In Dublin, a taxi-driver who fraudulently claimed over €345,000 in social welfare payments over the course of 12 years was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Finally, a woman who said she was raped 1,000 times by her foster father from the age of 11 has said that she stands before him now a survivor and is determined not to let the abuse define her.
Dublin 'ghost station'
Irish Rail has confirmed a €3.8 million investment is needed to make a disused train station in west Dublin operational.
Kishoge station, situated between the Adamstown and Clondalkin-Fonthill, was completed in 2009 but was never opened.
As reported by the Irish Independent, Irish Rail are now planning to open the station, however, the significant investment is required due vadalism and general disrepair since its original completion.
A statement from Irish Rail confirmed work on Kishoge station is expected to begin "towards the end of this year" and it is anticipated the station will be operational in the third quarter of 2023.
