Clarity on eligibility criteria for social housing applicants which are similar to the requirements for social protection supports are welcome and will eliminate ambiguity, a Louth Fine Gael TD has said.

Deputy Paula Butterly said legislative changes brought to Cabinet will help speed up the decision-making process around the provision of social housing with a clear set of criteria for applicants and Local Authorities.

Deputy Butterly, who is also a member of the Oireachtas Housing Committee, spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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Third-level students preparing for the new academic year in September are voicing growing concerns over the severe shortage of rental housing in County Louth. Rising property prices and a lack of available homes are compounded by limited purpose-built student accommodation, creating anxiety among those planning to study in Drogheda and surrounding towns.

Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú told the Dáil in late June that “constituents say it’s not even the price of rent that is most urgent, it is the fact there is nowhere available to rent” in Louth. With new-build homes averaging around €385,000 (significantly higher than the national average) the rental market has been squeezed to breaking point.

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

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Excavation work is due to commence at the site of the former mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The start of the effort to exhume and identify human remains from the site comes more than 11 years after research by Catherine Corless found that there were no burial records for almost 800 babies and infants who died at the home over a 36-year period.

Irish Historian Catherine Corless, who began researching the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway in 2010, spoke to us this morning on The Agenda to tell us more about what is expected to happen today and over the next number of weeks/months

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Fianna Fáil TD for Louth, Erin McGreehan, has hailed that the Right to be Forgotten Bill is to be brought forward for legislation before summer recess.

Deputy McGreehan has said this is a vital step to protecting cancer survivors when accessing financial products, and specifically mortgage protection.

Deputy McGreehan spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this. 

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Since the end of the ceasefire on 18 March, 1,309 children in Gaza have reportedly been killed and 3,738 injured.

In total, more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023.

This morning on The Agenda we spoke to Aiblín O'Leary from UNICEF Ireland to find out more.

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It was not until her fifties that “only child” Anna Corrigan discovered she actually had two older brothers she never knew – and could never know.

Both boys had died as infants at St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in the west of Ireland, and became two of an estimated 796 babies secretly buried in a septic tank beneath the site.

Earlier this week speaking at the grounds of the demolished home in Tuam, which later became a housing estate, Anna, 68, read out a letter she had written to her late mother Bridget in 2017.

Anna spoke to us this morning on The Agenda.

We also spoke to Alison O’Reilly from The Irish Examiner to get all the latest on the exhumation.

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The recent decision to reject a Judicial Council recommendation to increase personal injury awards has been welcomed by Fine Gael Senator Linda Nelson Murray, who stressed that such increases would have burdened small businesses and employers with higher insurance premiums.

Senator Nelson Murray spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this.

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The number of people who believe that those who are dependent on drugs only have themselves to blame has fallen by almost the past 25 years, dropping from 57% to 30%.

Research published by Merchants Quay Ireland has revealed a shift in attitudes towards drug addiction, however, it found stigma remains.

CEO of Merchants Quay, Eddie Mullins, joined us on The Agenda this morning to tell us more about the research and its findings. 

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Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has said he has “absolutely no” sympathy for the residents living in the environs of Dublin Airport who complain about noise pollution.

Mr O’Leary described the noise complaints as “utter nonsense”, and, when asked whether he has “any sympathy for the residents”, he answered: “Absolutely none”.

This morning on The Agenda we spoke to Niamh Maher, who is the spokesperson for St Margaret’s/The Ward Residents’ Group to gather

her reaction to his comments.

Niamh branded the comments “disgraceful”, and said they are the “opposite of the truth”.

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Louth County Council has been urged to reconsider its policy of not carrying out energy retrofits or maintenance work on properties where tenants owe rent arrears.

Sinn Féin Cllr Kevin Meenan made the call at the Dundalk Municipal District's monthly meeting yesterday evening where he said excluding them from the retrofit programmes highlights that they are in rent arrears to their neighbours.

He also argued that there could be coercive control in the household and "drinking all the rent money".

Councillor Meenan spoke to us this morning on The Agenda about this. 

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