LAST UPDATE | 19 Feb 2025

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Planning rules

1. In our main story this morning, our political editor Christina Finn reports that detached cabins and modular style buildings placed at the end of gardens are set to be exempt from planning under new measures being considered by government.

Current planning exemptions allow a 40 square metre extension to the rear of a property once it’s attached to the house. But the new Minister of State at the Department of Housing, with responsibility for planning, John Cummins wants to remove the requirement for the extension to be attached to the main dwelling.

Housing crisis

2. One in 20 female respondents to a survey of international students said they have experienced instances of leasers trying to extort sex in exchange for providing a bed.

Exorbitant rent costs, scams and being expected to share a bed with a stranger are among the challenges facing international students trying to find accommodation in Ireland, according to a report published by the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).

What’s the quark?

3. An Irish delegation of experts and government officials is set to visit the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, in Switzerland today, to confirm that Ireland is set to become an associate member for the first time.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless will lead the charge at the research centre in Switzerland to secure the associate member status, and put Ireland on a path to full membership alongside 24 other European nations.

Ukraine

4. US President Donald Trump has sniped at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and effectively blamed him for Russia’s invasion – even as he said he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks.

Leinster House

5. TDs will vote in a secret ballot today to elect a new Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the Dáil following November’s general election, with Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness expected to be selected for the role. 

Coup attempt

6. In Brazil, former president Jair Bolsonaro has been charged with attempting a coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat, in a plot that included a plan to poison his successor and current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and kill a Supreme Court judge.

Sexual health

7. Nearly one in three young men and one in five young women who are sexually active aren’t using contraception, a study has found.

Scam ads

8. The publisher of the Irish Independent is taking legal action against X, formerly Twitter, over “fake advertisements” on the social media platform.

Mother and baby institutions

9. Survivors of former mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland have been advised of a deadline to come forward and give testimony ahead of a public inquiry.