Sinn Féin MEP on conviction of former partner
Sinn Féin MEP, Kathleen Funchion, talks about the conviction of her ex-partner, Sean Tyrell, who was convicted under the Harassment and Harmful Communications Act, also known as Coco's Law.
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RTÉ News
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- RTÉ News
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The next few days will be fraught politically. The Government is preparing what it believes is an intricate balancing act between renters' rights and developers' ambitions. The logic underpinning this is that enhancing tenants' rights can be delivered in tandem with less strict rent caps. Therefore, investors will get back to building more homes and ultimately the supply shortage can be eased. The backdrop to this move is record high rents and the growing feeling among many that the social contract has been broken. It all suggests that this will be a hard sell. Opposition parties already believe that renters are being thrown under the bus. It is all part of the long awaited redraw of the Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) where the annual rent hike is capped at 2%. In new buildings that cap will now be scrapped and instead rents will be linked to inflation. The proposal, which Minister for Housing James Browne will bring to Cabinet, will also allow landlords with existing properties to reset rents for new tenants to the market rate. After that they would be subject to the current 2% cap. In exchange tenants will get security of tenure for six years in a move that the Government believes will bring an end to no fault evictions. Questions are already being raised about just how secure current tenants are under these new changes. On the surface, at least they do not appear to be subject to significant change. However, Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin believes the proposals will put tens of thousands of tenants with pre-2022 tenancies at risk. That is because their landlords can evict them for no reason at the end of their six-year tenancy under the law as it stands. That means these landlords would have the right to reset rents to new market levels after these tenants' six-year tenancies come to an end. This is one of many pertinent questions about the changes that will inevitably lead to heated exchanges in the Dáil next Tuesday.
Irish Independent
13 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Obituary: Kenneth Bloomfield, central figure in Northern Ireland's civil service who survived IRA attack
Born in Belfast on April 15, 1931, to English parents, he received his secondary education at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution in the city centre. He went on to study modern history at St Peter's College, Oxford, and joined the civil service in 1952. He was appointed in 1956 as private secretary to then finance minister at Stormont, Captain Terence O'Neill, who later served as the North's prime minister from 1963 to 1969 and famously hosted a visit by then taoiseach Seán Lemass to Belfast in February 1965. Following the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, elections to a Northern Ireland Assembly were held on June 28, 1973, and talks on power-sharing subsequently took place at Sunningdale in Berkshire, between parties from the North. Under the Sunningdale Agreement of November 21, 1973, a power-sharing executive based on voluntary coalition was established, as well as a cross-border Council of Ireland involving the Irish Government. Bloomfield said he accepted Sinn Féin's presence in government notwithstanding the attack on his life With Bloomfield as its permanent secretary, the cross-party administration had its first meeting on New Year's Day 1974. The Ulster Unionist Party leader at the time, Brian Faulkner, was chief executive, with his Social Democratic and Labour Party counterpart Gerry Fitt as deputy chief executive and Fitt's party colleague John Hume as commerce minister, with Alliance leader Oliver Napier as legal minister and head of the office of law reform. However, there was deep unhappiness within the UUP over the agreement, particularly the cross-border body, and this led to Faulkner's resignation as party leader. He continued as power-sharing chief executive, but the Sunningdale Agreement collapsed because of the Ulster Workers' Council strike in May 1974, which lasted 14 days, with loyalist paramilitaries playing a prominent role. Bloomfield later served as permanent secretary at the Department of the Environment and the Department of Economic Development. On December 1, 1984, he became head of the Northern Ireland civil service and was the most senior adviser on a variety of issues to successive British secretaries of state. In 1987, he became Sir Kenneth Bloomfield after being appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). On September 12, 1988, he was subjected, along with his wife and one of their children, to an IRA bomb attack at their family home in Crawfordsburn, Co Down, but none of them was physically injured. Almost 19 years later, on August 23, 2007, at the Merriman Summer School in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, when a power-sharing administration in the North was headed by the Reverend Ian Paisley of the DUP and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, Bloomfield said he accepted Sinn Féin's presence in government notwithstanding the attack on his life. ADVERTISEMENT As I grow older, I care less and less which flag is flown and which anthem is played where I live 'I do not find the idea of some form of Irish unity or closer association — almost certainly after my time — in any way unthinkable in principle. But what is conceivably acceptable in principle would have to be mutually acceptable in practice,' he said. Offering a 'very personal perspective', he added: 'As I grow older, I care less and less which flag is flown and which anthem is played where I live.' He retired from the civil service in April 1991 and subsequently became a member of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains. Bloomfield also received honorary doctorates from Queen's University Belfast, the Open University and the University of Ulster. He was appointed to the chair of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission and his alma mater, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. n December 1997 he was invited by then secretary of state Mo Mowlam to become the Northern Ireland Victims Commissioner for a fixed term, which resulted in a report on issues concerning victims of the Troubles entitled We Will Remember Them, which was published in April 1998. He was the BBC's National Governor for Northern Ireland from 1991 to 1999. Kenneth Bloomfield died on May 30. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, whom he married in September 1960 and their two children, Caroline and Tanya, formerly called Timothy, who is transgender and has spoken warmly of the support she received from her parents in that regard.
Irish Independent
17 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Review of bail laws will consider introducing tougher new rules for offenders
People released on bail may also be electronically tagged as part of a pilot monitoring programme being rolled out this year. The Government is understood to be concerned about not interfering with the independence of the courts and judges, who decide if bail can be granted, as well as the presumption of innocence. The review will examine the entirety of the State's bail laws before making recommendations on possible reforms. It is expected that one of the recommendations may be removing bail for certain offences, but with a high threshold to be set on what those offences are, and what the conditions around them may be. The court can refuse bail to an individual if it believes the chances are high that they will commit an offence while out on bail. Those facing trial in the Special Criminal Court also cannot get bail unless the DPP has approved it. Senior counsel Lorcan Staines, who has been tasked with carrying out the review, will report to the Government in September. The review comes in the wake of the death of Evan Fitzgerald, who fired shots in a Carlow shopping centre and then took his own life. He was on bail after having been detected trying to buy guns over the dark web. In recent weeks, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan delivered a state apology to the family of hit-and-run victim Shane O'Farrell (23), who was killed in 2011 by a driver out on bail at the time. We need more youth diversions programmes and more gardaí to avert potential crimes, but there also needs to be a more robust application of our bail laws Data provided by the minister in response to questions from Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy revealed there has been a 12pc rise in crimes committed by those on bail over the past two years. It also showed that 64 crimes between 2022 and 2024 involving the possession of firearms were committed by people on bail. Other statistics released to Mr Carthy over the same three-year period show 2,312 crimes involving possession of an offensive weapon were committed by those on bail. In addition, 49 sexual assaults were committed by people on bail between 2022 and 2024. The statistics also reveal that 40,348 crimes in 2024 were carried out by suspects who were out on bail. Mr Carthy called for sweeping reform of bail laws, while acknowledging that issues such as the lack of prison space and the constitutional right to the presumption of innocence should be taken into account. 'People committing crimes while out on bail is a growing problem,' he said. 'We need more youth diversions programmes and more gardaí to avert potential crimes, but there also needs to be a more robust application of our bail laws.' The Sinn Féin TD said prison is not always the answer, especially considering Irish re-offending rates. 'A huge amount of our prison population comprises people serving short sentences. There is no societal benefit to that. There are a number of issues and it's not an easy problem to solve,' he added. Meanwhile, a judge in Co Kildare said last Wednesday that he wanted to 'set the record straight' in relation to the case of Evan Fitzgerald. Gardaí have their job to do, and if we feel someone should not be granted bail because they are a danger to the public or are a flight risk, we will object District Court Judge Desmond Zaidan said it had been reported that Fitzgerald was on bail on firearms charges at the time of the shopping centre incident. Judge Zaidan criticised the reporting and said while there were 'a lot of headlines about a man on bail', they omitted certain key things. 'Once gardaí consent to bail, the court cannot go beyond that. Remember that,' he told reporters. 'This judge — and no judge in Ireland — has the power to go behind that. They would be running to the High Court if I did. Once gardaí consent to bail, it must be granted. Amen. 'Please report sensibly. Please tread carefully,' he said. 'There are some sensational headlines out there about objections to bail, but my function ceased straight away, once there was consent to bail. I have to set the record straight.' A security source pointed out that bail applications can be 'complex'. Gardaí frequently object to bail at court hearings. It is a matter for the judge in each case to determine if it should be granted, and the person's constitutional rights must be taken into account, among a number of other factors. 'It is a tricky and complex situation,' a security source said. 'Gardaí have their job to do, and if we feel someone should not be granted bail because they are a danger to the public or are a flight risk, we will object. 'The judge has various factors they must take into account and gardaí understand the criminal justice system. The elephant in the room is that there isn't adequate space in the prison system.'
