LAST UPDATE | 22 Dec 2025

GOOD MORNING.

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

Hotel prices

1. Ahead of Ireland hosting the EU Presidency next year, Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne has said that Irish hotels should not scalp European delegations who make bookings.

“I would certainly urge them to treat [delegates] with the respect that they will deserve, because it will have an impact on the perception of Ireland from a tourism point of view,” he told The Journal.

Christmas message

2. President Catherine Connolly has called on the public to “celebrate diversity, champion sustainable solutions to the climate crisis and advocate for peaceful resolutions to war” in her first Christmas message from Áras an Uachtaráin.

Flu cases

3. The HSE expects flu cases to peak this week as the country enters Christmas amid already intense pressure on hospitals and emergency departments.

Bondi attack

4. In Australia, police have alleged in new court documents that two suspects in last week’s deadly mass shooting at Bondi Beach carried out “tactical” training for the attack in the countryside. 

On track

5. Back home, an additional 100 new carriages have been ordered for the DART rail service, which will entirely replace the original fleet which has been in operation since the service first opened 1984.

Kildare

6. Access to the Castletown House estate via the M4 access road in north Kildare is set to be reopened today, bringing an end to more than two years of restricted public access to one of Ireland’s most visited historic estates.

Gaza

7. Dr Mohamed Shaalan, an Irish-Egyptian orthopaedic surgeon currently working at Tallaght University Hospital, spoke to The Journal about being repeatedly blocked from trying to return to Gaza to volunteer his expertise.

Housing

8. The government has announced a new €400 million investment in the country’s sovereign wealth fund towards the delivery of new homes.

Christmas injuries

9. Knife injuries sustained while preparing Christmas dinner, wrist or upper limb injuries resulting from a fall while decorating the tree and alcohol-related injuries are some of the most commonly treated by hospitals around Christmastime, an emergency consultant has told The Journal.