LAST UPDATE | 21 Apr 2025

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. Undocumented Irish

In this morning’s lead story, Diarmuid Pepper highlights the crackdown on illegal and undocumented immigrants that is creating ‘fear across the board’ for Irish migrants in the US, according to a leading lawyer.

As US President Donald Trump continues pouring resources into arresting and deporting undocumented migrants, Irish immigration lawyer Fiona McEntee told The Journal  “The fear is across the board, and it’s not just undocumented people that are feeling afraid.”

2. Coast Guard

The search for a man who is believed to have fallen overboard from a yacht on Saturday is set to continue this morning.

On Saturday night, a 999 call was received from the UK-registered vessel by the Coast Guard Coordination centre in Dublin. Despite extensive searches, he has yet to be found by the Coast Guard or its partners in the operation. 

3. Disability care

More than 1,200 people under the age of 65 in Ireland are living in nursing homes designed for much older people, leaving them frustrated and calling for alternatives. 

In many cases, these people are in nursing homes due to a lack of availability of more appropriate housing and care services. 

Reporter Lauren Boland spoke to John*, a man in his 50s who has been living in a nursing home since the death of his mother in 2023.

4. Mountjoy Square

Certain bus services in Dublin city centre continue to be impacted in the wake of an alleged threat against a bus driver by a man “who appeared to be wielding a gun”, a union has said.

The incident is said to have occurred at around 11:10pm on Friday on Mountjoy Square. 

5. Driving test wait times

The estimated waiting time for a driving test in Tallaght in Dublin has hit 35 weeks – over eight months – making it the longest waiting list in the country.

“Things are going in the wrong way and something drastic needs to happen,” Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward told The Journal.

6. Irish Aid

A government minister has said that Ireland will not cut aid budgets, unlike other countries, and he is advocating to have the allocation increased. 

Neale Richmond, the Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, made the comments during a visit to Sierra Leone and Liberia where he went to a number of Irish Aid projects.

7. Education

Newly qualified teachers will be able to get permanent contracts sooner under new changes by the Department of Education aimed at addressing the staff shortage.

There have also been moves to allow eligible teachers who have qualified outside of Ireland to apply for registration for the Teaching Council and complete their induction requirement in Ireland.

8. Traffic Corps

A garda spokesperson has said that it will not provide comment “on uninformed remarks and unproven accusations by third parties who have been convicted of road traffic offences and been subject to civil judgement by their peers for serious violent conduct”, when asked about remarks made by Conor McGregor about its Traffic Corps.

McGregor, who has 19 traffic offences to his name, made the accusation that the Traffic Corps had ‘destroyed families’ and led to people taking their own lives during an interview last week. 

9. Donegal church fire

A church in Donegal has been destroyed following an early morning blaze. 

St Mary’s Church in Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore) caught fire in the early hours of the morning, with emergency services responding to the scene at roughly 4am.