LAST UPDATE | 26 Feb

GOOD MORNING.

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

Supervised injection facility

1. Over 270 non-fatal overdoses have been treated in Ireland’s first supervised injection facility since it opened over a year ago, an Oireachtas committee will hear today.

Help wanted

2. Ireland must find an extra 100,000 construction workers in the next four years if the country is to meet its housing and infrastructure targets – this means the workforce would have to grow by 50% by 2030.

Epstein files

3. Former US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors today before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

Sinn Féin by-election candidate

4. Janice Boylan has been selected as Sinn Féin’s candidate to contest the Dublin Central by-election, winning out over Gillian Sherratt.

US-Iran talks

5. The United States and Iran are set to hold indirect talks in Switzerland today aiming to strike a deal to avert fresh conflict and bring an end to weeks of threats. 

School absences

6. The State think tank has found that short absences in teenagers aged 13 can have an effect on Leaving Certificate performance.

The grid

7. The operator of the national grid has warned of “a potentially challenging situation” in meeting electricity demand between 2026 and 2028.

State apology

8. The Government has committed to making a State apology to thalidomide survivors “as soon as possible” following a “constructive” meeting with a representative group last night.

Border Czar vs Pope

9. Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan, who is a practicing Catholic, has hit out at comments from Pope Leo XIV about US immigration policy, stating that the religion supports law enforcement, and the Pope “should too”.