LAST UPDATE | 15 May 2024

GOOD MORNING.

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

Citywest

1. In our lead story today, Eimer McAuley reports that the government is paying millions per year for security at an asylum seeker centre in Dublin, but a number of the staff who worked there were not always garda vetted and did not always hold appropriate licences.

Intimidation

2. A local election candidate and former TD has voiced concern about people with far right ideology trying to “frighten” and “intimidate” candidates after one of her campaign posters had a Nazi symbol cut into it. 

Leading Europe

3. Ireland is expected to hear today if the Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces will get the job of leading Europe’s military committee.

Nakba

4. Tens of thousands of civilians fled the southern Gaza city of Rafah ahead of a threatened Israeli ground offensive, as Palestinians today mark the anniversary of their “Nakba” or “catastrophe” of 1948.

Bus crash

5. At least 16 people were killed in Peru yesterday when a bus rolled off a ledge in the mountainous Ayacucho region, authorities said.

Dublin riots

6. A 19-year-old male is due to appear in court this morning in connection with the riots in Dublin city centre last November.

Mica and pyrite scandal

7. Sligo is being added to the remediation scheme for homes damaged by defective concrete blocks.

Roads policing

8. The garda commissioner is to tell the Oireachtas Transport committee that gardaí have detected 2,148 people using phones in the first month of a new plan that involves all frontline gardaí dedicating 30 minutes of their shift to roads-policing. 

EU elections

9. In the first webinar of the The Journal‘s EU 2024, Explained series, we’re pulling back the curtain to explore how three journalists working on the coalface of this important election are approaching it: Shona Murray, Europe Correspondent with Euronews; Christina Finn, Political Editor with The Journal; and Muiris O’Cearbhaill, reporter with The Journal who focuses on European affairs.

Join us live on Zoom on Thursday, 16 May from 11.30am to 12pm. Register for free access here or tap the button below.