LAST UPDATE | 29 Sep 2023

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

Housing

1. Housing prices the third quarter of 2023 were 1.1% higher than a year ago, according to the latest Daft.ie House Price Report released today.

This comes after the second quarter of the year marked the first time since mid-2020 that asking prices had fallen in year-on-year terms.

The typical listed price nationwide in the third quarter of 2023 was €322,602, up 3.7% on the previous year and roughly 13% below the Celtic Tiger peak.

Spinal surgeries

2. The chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) has “stepped back” from the serious incident review into the use of non-medical grade ‘springs’ in children’s spinal surgeries, after she learned “last month” of a letter purportedly sent to her in 2020 flagging concerns about the practice.

She said that the CHI deputy CEO has now taken over work in relation to the review, as the letter that was allegedly sent to her is now under investigation.

The deputy CEO did not attend today’s Oireachtas Health Committee meeting, and her absence was questioned by TDs.

Dáil protest

3. Social media posts featuring a mock gallows and which targeted politicians in the wake of last week’s Dáil protest remain online despite a Garda investigation into intimidation of TDs at the far-right demonstration.

The Journal analysed social media pages across multiple platforms which belong to prominent far-right figures who attended last week’s protest, and found multiple posts taking aim at politicians or featuring the controversial imitation gallows.

Meta and YouTube have both allowed content on such accounts to remain after reviewing posts and deciding they didn’t break moderation guidelines. TikTok has removed posts and taken down at least two accounts.

Mediterranean crossings

4. More than 2,500 migrants died or went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2023, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees official has said.

“By September 24, over 2,500 people were accounted as dead or missing in 2023 alone,” Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UNHCR New York office, told the Security Council.

That number marks a large increase over the 1,680 dead or missing migrants in the same period in 2022.

Gardaí

5. Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has said an appeals board did not uphold his recommendations to dismiss gardaí who he claimed had misused their power to coercively pursue sexual relationships.

He said there are a number of people who have been returned to service that he has concern about remaining as members of An Garda Síochána.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Policing Authority, he said: “These matters are around gross misconduct and they relate to the misuse of their position primarily, therefore, to pursue sexual relationships which I would have viewed as coercive but did not cross the criminal threshold.”

Extinction Rebellion

6. Two Extinction Rebellion  activists, who locked themselves to the gates of Leinster House preventing politicians from driving out to highlight the climate crisis, have been spared jail.

Dublin District Court heard Rónán Ó Dálaigh and Art Ó Laoghaire’s “lock on, lock off” action saw them attached to the Dáil gates with bicycle locks around their necks on the night of 10 October, 2019.

They argued that they used “non-violent direct action” because of Government inaction.

Netherlands

7. A gunman dressed in combat gear and wearing a bulletproof vest went on a shooting rampage at a house and a hospital in Rotterdam today, killing a 14-year-old girl, her mother, and a teacher.

Dutch police said they were still investigating the motive for the twin attacks by the 32-year-old man, who also set fire to the hospital and the house.

The man first burst into a house in the Dutch port city and opened fire, killing a 39-year-old woman and seriously injuring her 14-year-old daughter, police chief Fred Westerbeke told reporters. The girl later died of her injuries.

US democracy

8. US President Joe Biden launched a blistering personal attack on “extremist” Donald Trump yesterday, accusing his likely 2024 challenger of plotting to subvert the US constitution if he wins a return to power next year.

The Democrat said in a speech in the battleground state of Arizona that Republican frontrunner Trump was driven by “vengeance and vindictiveness”, and he urged Americans to stand up for democracy before it was too late.

The speech came as House Republicans launched impeachment inquiry hearings into the 80-year-old president, based on unproven allegations that he lied about his son Hunter’s business dealings.

Fukushima

9. Japan will begin releasing a second batch of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant from next week.

On 24 August, Japan began discharging into the Pacific some of the 1.34 million tonnes of wastewater that has collected since a tsunami damaged the facility in 2011.

“The inspections following the first release have been completed… The (second) discharge will start on 5 October,” TEPCO said yesterday.