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THERE HAVE BEEN 913 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Northern Ireland in the past 24 hours.
In an update this afternoon, the NI Department of Health said that a further three people have died, bringing the death toll to 624.
The latest figures come just a few days into new restrictions in the six counties, which see schools, bars and restaurants closed.
Yesterday, Arlene Foster urged Stormont Executive ministers to support each other on decisions around coronavirus restrictions.
The First Minister’s plea came amid the ongoing political fall-out over comments by her ministerial and party colleague Edwin Poots when he criticised the latest Covid-19 measures.
Further remarks by Poots in which he claimed coronavirus was more rife in nationalist areas than unionist areas have served to deepen the controversy.
Senior Sinn Fein member John O’Dowd branded those remarks an “absolute disgrace” and called on Poots to apologise.
In a video posted to Facebook, Foster acknowledged the DUP would have opted for different restrictions if it was making the decision on its own, but she highlighted the Executive made decisions on a coalition basis.
“We are in a five-party Executive and, by its very nature, any decision is going to have to be a compromise,” she said.
“And I think it’s fair to say that, left to the DUP on our own, it would have been a different decision that we would have came forward with.
However, it is important to say that everyone in the Executive recognises that there was a need to take some action to deal with the increase in transmission.
And I’ve always spoken about the balance needed and about the fact that we need to take proportionate decisions. I’m going to continue to seek proportionate decisions and seek balance as we move forward.
“And let us support each other as we do take these decisions.
“I think it’s important at this challenging time that we do that.”
With reporting from PA
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Isn’t it amazing that the families of the victims of the disaster are expected to pay legal fees when a drug dealer s unmbag can get free legal aid.
Just pay the bill Enda
He will only pay it if they sign away everything, so another well connected gangster will get away with murder and the victims family’s can FCUK off pure and simple
If there is an agreement in place it should be honored immediately. This is such an emotionally charged case and these people have been thru enough,please do the decent thing. I remember the event well even tho I was only 10 yrs old. Myself my sister and two neighbours set up a garage sale on the side of the road,we gave the proceeds to the local priest to give to the victims fund. The images on TV are still as vivid today to me as they were 33 yrs ago. An absolute tragic event that should never be forgotten .
I’m sure you just asked the government to do the right thing. Not going to happen unless the legal team are friends of FG.
I bet you every Gov politican would have promised to help them when they were in opposition but like every dog in the corner they will run away when challenged on their promise’s…also Happy Gilmore is out in Brussels trying to fix the problems in the Ukraine so don’t bother contacting him about it anyway
One should be careful about accepting promises from any government unless one is Ibec, RTE, a bank or a bondholder, multi-national or part of the farming lobby or some other part of the establishment; or a friend of a leading politician. That is show it is in Ireland.
When you see the word ‘promise’ in the same sentence as the word ‘politician’, the first word to enter your mind should be ‘lie’.
1st word is – It better be written down.
These are families that have never healed or gotten closure for their grief and loss. Could’nt Butterly toss in a few Euro’s towards this as well, seeing as how he did so well financially & legally out of the deaths of 48 young people on his sub-standard premises!!!
“They are agreeable to having their costs measured on the basis of all work done in connection with the above hearings”
Question. How much will the Governments charge for measuring that all work done was in connection with the hearings? I bet it’s more than €192k.
The Stardust Disaster was one of the most appalling tragedies to ever happen in this State and appropriately a Judicial Enquiry was held to uncover the cause even though we were all well informed at the time as to the likely cause. Jam factories are hardly ever likely to be suitable buildings for night clubs and especially when Emergency exit doors are chained and locked while large numbers are on the premises.
The Government should urgently look at this request but the problem is that the survivors are still demanding another Judicial Enquiry into the tragedy and someone has to eventually suggest we stop as its not going to be resolved after so many years no matter how awful the loss and cause.
Well, that explains a lot.
Finally, i’ve copped on. This whole Journal.ie site, it’s a load of horse shite. Set up for eejits, to make bigger eejita of themselves, but pretending to be about truth. I’m outa here, gone, bye bye.
Is this money owed to the grieving families or to a bunch of greedy lawyers?
Geraldine Foy has given us the power to fight on and only for her we wouldn’t have gotten this far
have your say