LAST UPDATE | 25 Jan 2024

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Fare increases

1. Increases in public transport fares for areas in Cavan, Wicklow, Kildare and Meath will discourage commuters from using bus and rail services, according to local representatives. 

In our lead story today, Christina Finn reports that some public transport routes will see increases in fares this year, the National Transport Authority announced yesterday. 

South Africa case against Israel

2. A motion tabled by the Social Democrats that would see Ireland join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice has been defeated.

An amended version put forward by the Government passed 71-59.

Covid Inquiry

3. The terms of reference for the upcoming Covid inquiry will not be finalised until members of the opposition have had an input, it is understood.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will consult and share the draft terms of reference with opposition parties today.

‘Two-state solution’

4. David Cameron has told Benjamin Netanyahu of the need for a two-state solution after the Israeli prime minister rejected allies’ demands for Palestinian statehood.

The UK Foreign Secretary warned of “unimaginable” suffering in Gaza after he reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in a meeting in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Lone parents

5. Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys will today publish a bill which will introduce significant reforms to social welfare entitlements for lone parents.

Her department has said over 16,000 lone parents will benefit from the reforms which include the exclusion of maintenance payments from social welfare means tests for the first time.

‘Playing with lives’

6. Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “playing with the lives” of Ukrainian prisoners of war after a military transport plane carrying 65 prisoners was shot down.

Death sentence

7. A Japanese man found guilty of carrying out an arson attack that killed 36 people at an anime studio in 2019 has been sentenced to death, AFP reports.

Manslaughter

8. A man in England who stabbed three people to death, including a student from an Irish family, is due to be sentenced for manslaughter at Nottingham Crown Court later today.

Referendum prep

9. The new Electoral Commission has launched its information campaign for the upcoming referendums on whether to amend Article 41 of the Irish Constitution to provide for a wider concept of family and – in a second separate vote – whether to remove a reference in Article 41.2 of the Constitution about the role of women in the home, and to replace it with a new Article that would recognise family care.