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The average price of a newly built house in Louth is almost €400,000 with disability services that provide residential services cannot get funds to purchase the houses they need, Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú has told the Dáil.

In a debate last week about housing, the Sinn Féin TD said the average price for a new build in Louth is €385,000 – the average price in the State is €321,911, an increase of over 50% since before Covid 19.

Constituents, he said, are telling him that it’s not even the price of rent that is most urgent, it is the fact there is nowhere available to rent.

Deputy O Murchu spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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Ex-Minister Mary Hanafin wants to become President of Ireland and has thrown her hat in the ring to become Fianna Fail’s candidate.

However, the Fianna Fail stalwart will face a battle to get on the ballot as she faces competition from another ex-Minister and possibly even a former Taoiseach.

With just four months left before an election has to be held, the race for the Aras is finally starting to heat up as wannabe Presidents seek to secure a nomination.

Political Correspondent at the Irish Sun, Adam Higgins, is on the line with us now to talk to us some more about this.

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Dundalk Chamber recently formally submitted its comprehensive proposal to the National Development Plan (NDP) 2025 review, highlighting Dundalk’s critical role as a Regional Growth Centre within the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor (DBEC) and calling for urgent infrastructure investment to unlock sustainable regional growth.

Paddy Malone from Dundalk Chamber of Commerce spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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The family of missing man Mark ‘Rubber’ Duffy fear he has been killed and secretly buried by a drugs gang.

Mark’s distraught sister Leia Duffy, 39, made the claim as detectives continue to investigate the dad of two’s disappearance on October 3, 2022.

Leia spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the cost of almost 3,000 social homes which were to be delivered, and have now been delayed over value for money concerns, were so high that if they had gone ahead then the Minister for Housing would have been "up before the Public Accounts Committee".

The delivery of the homes was delayed after the minister pulled the plug on funding for a number of projects which were about to begin construction because of value for money concerns.

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has accused the Government of sabotaging its own housing strategy after 500 social homes were found to cost close to €1million each, and Deputy Hearne spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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None of the members of Belfast rap group Kneecap will be prosecuted over comments allegedly calling for British Conservative Party MPs to be killed.

The Metropolitan Police has decided not to prosecute the band over the comments made at a concert in November 2023.

A clip posted on social media showed an unidentified member of the group saying: “Kill your local MP. The only good Tory is a dead Tory.”

The smartphone footage was made available to the Met Police inApril following Kneecap’s appearance at the Coachella festival in the US, at which the group displayed banners criticising Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Journalist at the Irish Times, Ronan McGreevy, spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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The moves, which were first reported by the Sunday Times over the weekend, revisit attempts by the previous government which were not enacted before the election.

The changes also seek to put the system for determining eligibility for social housing and emergency accommodation by foreign nationals on a statutory footing.

The legislation, which is expected to go to Cabinet in the coming weeks, will also exclude those in receipt of temporary protection – the status afforded to those fleeing the Ukraine war – as being “habitually resident”, and “clarify” that where an EU citizen is not eligible for social housing supports, the local authority is not required to provide homeless services.

The Opposition also criticised the proposals, with Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin calling it a “deeply disingenuous and dangerous briefing”. He said it sought to shift blame for the housing and homelessness crises on to migrant communities, and Deputy Ó Broin spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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