The Agenda

The lack of parking facilities in Athboy “is killing local business” particularly in the run up to Christmas. Shoppers often drive up and down the town searching for somewhere to park, before moving on elsewhere, according to local businesses. Cllr David Gilroy raised the issue at a meeting of Kells Municipal Council last week where he called on the council to “engage, as a matter of urgency, with...

The need for the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to make a statement on the need to ensure that social media companies protect real information and remove misinformation on social media platforms was raised by Senator Linda Nelson Murray in the Seanad this week.  During her speech, Senator Nelson Murray said:  “I use social media both personally and professionally. Profess...

Trade unions Forsa have said talks on pensions for school secretaries and caretakers at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) have broken down this evening. The decades-long row over pay and pension entitlements between the Department of Education and school secretaries led to a strike in late August and early September. More than 2,800 staff across 2,300 schools withdrew from work over seven d...

Tina and David Maguire, two parents from Louth, are speaking out about the lack of support and services for their young son with autism who was also recently diagnosed with ADHD. Senan is now 13-years-old and was diagnosed with autism when he was four-years-old and has had very little if any support for his complex needs, particularly around psychology services, they said. His father David says it...

Christmas is the “most dangerous” time of year for some children in Ireland, the ISPCC has warned, as new data from its Childline service shows 14 children a week contact it about sexual abuse. Launching its Christmas appeal, the ISPCC said its Childline team spends the equivalent of 146 full days a year talking to children and young people in immediate crisis, while 300 children a year make conta...

More than a quarter of calls made to a support organisation last year involved people who had an ­eating disorder for over 10 years. The annual report of Bodywhys said living with a long-standing eating disorder or supporting somebody with one “is incredibly difficult and we strive to provide ongoing support for people in this situation”. “Seeing that 27pc of calls are from people in this situatio...

US President Donald Trump has signed legislation ordering the Justice Department to release documents from its long-running investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The files were eagerly sought by both his political opponents and members of his own base who have pressed for greater transparency in the case. The material could shed more light on the activities of Epstein, who socialised wi...

Civil society groups say we have to "get it right" when we transpose the EU Migration Pact into Irish law. It comes as the Justice Minister waits to see how changes to the UK's migration system will impact our legislation here. Groups like Doras say our current deportation scheme fails to respect people's dignity and is putting migrants in harm's way. CEO John Lannon says just copying the British...

We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Emma Hallahan, who has bravely agreed to speak to us here on LMFM about surviving horrific domestic violence at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Anthony Mackessy.  Emma was put through a horrific sustained assault at the hands of Anthony, who dragged her up and down stairs by her hair, beat her, held her at knifepoint and told her he'd kill her at he...

Children from high-income families are more likely to attend afterschool clubs and centres than those from low-income families – and the gap is widening, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). Alongside the Department for Children, the government think tank looked at patterns of afterschool for children aged nine and 13 over a 10-year period and found that children from le...

Meath-West Sinn Fein TD Johnny Guirke will discuss the contracts homebuyers signed in Ringfort in Rathmolyon, County Meath, with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the Dáil this morning. It is one of the Topical Issues selected by the Ceann Comhairle and scheduled for discussion from 9:00 am. The Deputy has 4 minutes to make an initial statement and the Minister/Minister of...

The Government will ban the sale of nicotine pouches to under-18s and progress plans to ban the sale of disposable vapes, the Cabinet will hear today. Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will update Cabinet on her plans to add nicotine pouches to legislation, banning the sale of certain nicotine products to children as part of amendments to the Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Product...

Dundalk Institute of Technology is set to become a University College following an agreement with Queen's University Belfast today. The major new partnership will see it change from an IT to a University College of Queen's University Belfast. The move was formally approved by the governing bodies of both institutions today. The plan also secured Cabinet approval after the proposal was put before i...

Autistic people in Ireland “experience critical gaps in consent education”, a new report has found. The report, commissioned by Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) and autism charity AsIAm, identified “significant gaps” in sexual consent education and support for autistic people. Surveys were carried out of young autistic adults and parents of autistic children and young people as part of the report....

A new Drinkaware report shows Ireland’s drinking culture is shifting, with more people now drinking at home and alone. The charity’s 2025 Barometer finds one in three adult drinkers consumes alcohol alone at home at least once a week, while one in four still binge drink. The research also shows strong demand for alcohol-free social spaces, especially among younger adults, who say more sober events...

A child living in State care was reported missing 274 times in just one year, new figures obtained by The Journal Investigates reveal. The data, released by Tusla under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), shows a pattern of repeated disappearances from Ireland’s State-run residential centres, with some young people going missing dozens of times every year. Internal records reveal that children i...

Sinn Féin TD for Meath East, Darren O’Rourke, alongside local Cllr Maria White will host a public meeting to discuss the lack of progress on a new fully functioning Garda station in Laytown and Garda numbers in Meath on Tuesday 25th November 2025 at 8pm in the Village Hotel, Bettystown. Cllr Maria White said: “The most recent census showed Co. Meath is one of the fastest growing counties in the co...

Tánaiste Simon Harris is set to become the Finance Minister in the wake of Paschal Donohoe’s resignation. On Tuesday morning, Harris’ Fine Gael party colleague Donohoe announced that he would be abandoning his job as a Cabinet Minister, a TD, and head of the Eurogroup, in order to take up a senior job at the World Bank in Washington DC. Harris will now be leaving his role as Minister for Foreign A...

Asylum seekers will not view Ireland “more favourably” than the UK, according to aims set out by the Minister for Justice. Jim O’Callaghan commented after the UK Home Secretary announced sweeping changes designed to reduce the UK’s attractiveness to asylum seekers. Mr O’Callaghan said they could result in changes to the flow of asylum seekers between the UK and Ireland. In a statement on Tuesday,...

People receiving unregulated Botox treatment are placing themselves at a “serious risk of harm”. That’s the warning from the Irish Medical Council, who say that people could suffer issues including “infection, paralysis or life-threatening complications” from the injections. Consultant Dermatologist at the Institute of Dermatologists Professor Caitriona Ryan said professionals don’t have “any idea...

An update on the case of Dundalk man John McNeela, whose request to government for a pension paid to his late wife following the death of their son, Michael, on UN duty, to be paid to him was given to Sinn Féin deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú last week. The Louth TD asked Tánaiste Simon Harris for an update on what progress is being made to ensure that Mr McNeela can get the small pension from the Defence...

The sister of two infant boys who it is feared died in the Tuam mother and baby home has issued a legal notice to gardaí over what she claims is the force's failure to launch a formal criminal investigation into their deaths. Dubliner Anna Corrigan discovered in December 2012 that her mother Bridget Dolan had given birth to two boys in the former mother and baby home in 1946 and again in 1950. The...

The impact of social media on young people deserves a Dáil debate, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said, as he confirmed the Attorney General has been asked for advice on further laws that can be introduced. In the Dáil, Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney noted that there had been “disturbing cases” that highlighted the “dangers” that children face on social media. Ms Gibney stated that Snapchat was “sup...

A Louth mother has told of her anger after making eight trips to Egypt to try and find her abducted children and got nowhere. Mandy Kelly has not seen or heard from her sons Zayn, 7 and Kareem, 4, in three-and-a-half years since they were snatched by their father while on holiday in Cairo in March, 2022. She is now pleading with the Irish Government to make the safe return of her boys a top diplom...

The Government is listening to women's charities when it comes to helping gender based violence survivors. That's according to a Fianna Fail TD who has welcomed plans to allow victims to cut their time on the social housing waiting list. New proposals, as part of the latest housing plan, will mean any time already spent on the list will be transferred if the person is changing local authorities. W...