We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A MASS VACCINATION drive for GPs and practice nurses has opened in three centres around Ireland.
Three centres delivering Moderna vaccine jabs have been opened in Dublin, Galway and Portlaoise and will operate across the weekend.
The initiative has been rolled out as the authorities adjust wider vaccination plans to reflect the temporary reduction in supply of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.
The slow down in supply to European countries is due to Pfizer upgrading its production facilities in Belgium.
Ireland hopes to have vaccinated four million people by the end of September.
Paul Reid / Twitter
Paul Reid / Twitter / Twitter
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said supply was the only factor that would limit the speed of the programme rollout.
He said the anticipated European approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab at the end of January would be significant.
“The truth is the only constraint at the moment is supply,” he said.
“We can speed it up but not until the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is approved.
“We’re hoping that’s going to happen on January 29 and that will allow us then to scale-up and speed-up the programme and we’ll get that vaccine out to GP surgeries, pharmacies, mass-vaccination centres, and that will really allow us to increase the numbers being vaccinated every week quite considerably.”
Another 50 Covid-19 deaths were confirmed in Ireland on Friday, along with 3,498 new cases of the virus.
Today, bolstered travel restrictions came into effect requiring passengers arriving into ports and airports to provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test.
Passengers need to show evidence of their test result prior to boarding any plane or ferry bound for Ireland and also produce it to immigration officials upon arrival.
The PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test for coronavirus must have been taken within 72 hours of departure.
Failure to produce evidence of a negative test result on arrival in Ireland in a criminal offence attracting a fine of up to 2,500 euro or a prison sentence of up to six months.
The new rules do not apply to anyone travelling from Northern Ireland.
Some international travellers are exempt from the new requirements, including international transport workers in the aviation, maritime and road haulage sectors.
Children aged six and under are also exempt.
Transit passengers who stop off in Ireland en route to another destination and do not leave the airport also do not need to produce a negative test result.
Extra restrictions apply to travellers arriving from Great Britain, South Africa and Brazil.
The measures, introduced in response to the emergence of new Covid-19 variants in those places, require passengers to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in Ireland.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
This reads like a press release.
Blackstone. That sounds familiar. Are they the same Blackstone who mercilessly hound people who get behind on the credit card payments? Perhaps after they spend too much in retail establishments?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Athens end of the day if you can’t afford to pay it back, don’t get the credit card
110 shoplifting day till Christmas.
@Pat Troy: So you’re counting down the days until you can go shoplifting? Okaaaay.
I live right beside the center. It’s a bit Looney traffic wise on busy days alright but tons of parking etc. Great news that there may be up to 6000 jobs ! There is a new bridge approved and being built soon which will overhaul the traffic flows on the M3 approach so that’s a good thing for both local business and the center ! Welcome to B-Town !
Maybe they’ll finally put in a few toilets
@JohnBeeRyan: theres pretty large toilets on both levels in the main centre ? I presume you mean more toilets ?? , id prefer they spend a few quid on the approach roads entry / exit they are way too bottlenecked and coming and going can be a shambles if its at all busy.
@Dave Hammond: too bottlenecked? As in the is a such thing as a right amount of bottlenecked?
Awful news, this will be a serious threat to the smaller shopping centres in the region.
@alphanautica: hmm I fail to see how adding more retail and jobs to the general area is awful news , the centre attracts massive amount of people from many surrounding counties into the area , it is far better to see retail being expanded than migrating online which is a far bigger commercial threat to the other shopping centres you mention.
@alphanautica: its great news! Jobs will be created, there will be more choice for shoppers and the smaller centres will need to up their standards fo stay relevant.. long overdue! Roselawn Shopping Centre, for example, is atrocious!
@alphanautica: which shopping centres specifiically?
More traffic from lunatic shoppers as if it wasnt already bad enough…roll on next recession
This is not a good news story, yes the construction jobs is great of course but the retail jobs will just be taking from other locations be that locally or city centre. There is a finite amount of money to go around all these retail units. The planners need to look at this effect it happened in Naas they build a centre outside the town and the life is sucked out of the town itself now just lots of empty units.
There shouldn’t be any expansion allowed at blanch until the approach and exit ways from the town centre are updated and improved. Extra Parking needs to be looked at in a big way also. Every bank holiday weekend, christmas, new year sales, etc etc. Security staff block cars leaving giving priority to cars entering. In effect this means cars have to circle for half an hour or so to find a parking space. The whole surrounding area becomes one big parking lot. Nothing moves. I lived next door for 10 years so I know all about it. Only in Ireland would this be allowed. But Hey lets build more shops and outlets to satisfy some developers greed who also happens to give a few political donations. Don’t mind about the serfs. Don’t put in any pre-conditions that just might make things work better or might also affect their bottom line. We can’t have that. Politicians just make plenty of big empty promises come each election and once they’re in, they’re untouchable for 5 years and the pensions guaranteed, so business as usual. Meanwhile Leo employs a high profile PR firm to do the window dressing.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say