Ashling Murphy murder
An investigation into the killing of Ashling Murphy is continuing after Gardaí released a man held for questioning stating he is no longer a suspect in the case.
The 23-year-old teacher was killed as she jogged along a canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly on Wednesday evening.
Vigils have been held around the country in Ashling's memory, including one outside Leinster House at 4pm - around the time she was killed.
A list of vigils being held around the country and overseas over the coming days can be found here.
BT Young Scientist
Two third year students from Dublin have been announced as the winners of this year's BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.
Aditya Joshi and Aditya Kumar (both 15) from Synge Street CBS claimed the top spot, and the €7,500 prize, for their project: 'A New Method of Solving the Bernoulli Quadrisection Problem'.
The pair will now go on to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in September.
Reopening
The Taoiseach has said he is hopeful Covid restrictions can be removed at the end of the month, allowing events and the hospitality sector to remain open after 8pm.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is meeting next Thursday and will advise the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly on the current restrictions.
Speaking on Friday, Micheál Martin said the country is making progress against Omicron, saying he hopes we would "be in a position to move forward in terms of the current restrictions".
Driving offences
Gardaí arrested 914 people for driving while intoxicated over the Christmas period.
Approximately one in five (21 per cent) of drug driving arrests occurred between 6am and 1pm, while 35 drink and drug driving incidents occurred on New Year’s Day, 12 of which occurred between 6am and 1pm.
There were 13,950 speed detections over Christmas, while 1,269 fixed charged notices (FCNs) were issued to drivers using mobile phones and 525 FCNs were issued to learner drivers driving unaccompanied.
