LAST UPDATE | 18 Apr 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Organised crime

1. In our main story this morning, Niall O’Connor reports that some trafficked sex workers are being forced to pay €1,000 per week for use of apartments in Irish towns, cities and villages – often on top of a €1,000 monthly fee.

HSE

2. Patients who sought to be reimbursed for legitimate costs they incurred after receiving essential medical treatment abroad were not reimbursed by the health service, an investigation has found.

Lobbying

3. The European Parliament has decided to prohibit former members from lobbying legislators for six months after leaving office in response to a bribery scandal that has rocked the EU.

Regency Hotel

4. Gerard Hutch was found not guilty in the Special Criminal Court trial for the murder of David Byrne in the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.

Ukraine

5. G7 foreign ministers have warned that those helping Russia evade the measures and acquire weapons for its war against Ukraine would face “severe costs”.

Inflation

6. Finance Minister Michael McGrath is expected to tell Government that inflation this year will average between 4% and 5%, down from the current rate of 7%.

Sudan

7. An Irish diplomat was injured when he was attacked at his home in Sudan as fighting intensified in the capital city.

Enoch Burke

8. Law student Simeon Burke was convicted and fined €300 over a “volatile” breach of the peace following a “melee” at his brother Enoch’s case in the Four Courts in Dublin.

Tony Holohan

9. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said there are “very clear lessons to be learnt” after a report into the secondment of former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan to Trinity College Dublin concluded that he should not have been involved in aspects of the move.