EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories you need to know before you head out the door.
1. #REFERENDUM: The Supreme Court has upheld an appeal against the government’s booklet and website for the Children’s Rights referendum – finding that some of the content there was in breach of previous rulings which ban the use of state funding to argue in favour of either side in a Referendum. The timing of Saturday’s vote will not be effected, but some independent TDs have called for the ballot to be postponed.
2. #AOIFE PHELAN: The family of Aoife Phelan has formally identified her body, following the completion of a post-mortem on remains found near a house outside Portlaoise yesterday morning. A man in his 20s continues to be held by Gardaí investigating her murder.
3. #ALLOWANCES: Staff at the HSE received over €166 million in allowances last year, the executive’s incoming director-general has said. Tony O’Brien told the Public Accounts Committee that almost 37,000 staff receive allowances – some of whom get them under systems dating back to the 1970s.
4. #SYRIA: A defiant Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has ruled out fleeing from his country in order to end the months-long armed conflict between his government and armed rebels. “I am not a puppet. I was not made by the West to go to the West or to any other country,” Assad said in an interview with Russian state-backed RT.
5. #DARTMOUTH: The Ranelagh park which was the centre of a high-profile legal wrangle seven years ago is up for sale. Dartmouth Square will be sold at an auction of distressed property next month, after the company of Noel O’Gara – the Athlone businessman who bought a freehold to the land several decades ago – went into liquidation. O’Gara had clashed with residents over plans to turn the park into a campsite, a car park, and a showroom for selling tiles.
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