NEED TO CATCH up? TheJournal.ie brings you a round up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Sheep in snowy conditions in the Maam Valley, north of Galway. Niall Carson Niall Carson

• A woman was arrested following the deaths of three children in Dublin, who were described as “beautiful” with “bright futures ahead of them” by their father
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he accepts an apology from Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone who described him as “autistic”
• Irish pharmacies experienced a surge in demand for surgical face masks from customers since the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.
• Sinn Féin’s manifesto pledged to build 100,000 homes and secure a referendum on Irish unity
• Labour promised a 3-year rent freeze and a raise in the minimum wage in its manifesto
• The Soc Dems and the Greens look set to win seats in Galway West, while Independents Catherine Connelly and Noel Grealish are in danger of losing theirs.

WORLD

Lorries queue for ferries at the Port of Dover in Kent as the UK prepares to leave the EU on Friday. PA Wire / PA Images PA Wire / PA Images / PA Images

#CORONAVIRUS: Germany confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, marking it’s spread to Europe, and one of the first cases of it spreading from human-to-human. 

#ISRAEL-PALESTINE: US President Donald Trump announced a “realistic” two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict, suggesting that Jerusalem remain as Israel’s capital but that Palestine would get a capital in occupied east Jerusalem. 

PARTING SHOT

Housing is one of the two most important issues for voters in this election, and so it’s no surprise that it dominated the debate last night.

A helluva lot of figures around the amount of houses built, the Help-to-Buy scheme, and the amounts spent on housing and homelessness were thrown around last night – so we FactChecked them. Have a read.