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RTÉ News
22-07-2025
- Health
- RTÉ News
Starving Gaza children say they wish to die, charity says
Children in Gaza have told the charity 'Save the Children' that they wish to die because they cannot access food and clean water, according to the charity's humanitarian director Rachel Cummings. Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, Ms Cummings said the war in Gaza has inflicted an enormous toll on the mental health of Palestinian children. "We have children in our child friendly spaces, where we provide psychological support, sharing with us that they now wish to die because there is food and water in heaven. "And their family members, their mothers and fathers, are there and they wish to be with them," she said. "It is absolutely catastrophic the impact that this is having immediately on children, but this medium and longer-term impact on children is really, really concerning," she added. The charity has also observed many children and pregnant and breast-feeding women showing signs of malnutrition. Ms Cummings said no food has been available to purchase in the market in Deir al-Balah over the last five days, which is typical of the wider situation in Gaza. She added her team working in the territory also cannot find or buy food. "The situation gets worse and worse every day, which is impossible and incredible to think about. "This is symptomatic of the wider picture being that people don't have enough food to eat. "They're rationing food for their children and this is the situation in the whole of Gaza." People are 'hungry, exhausted and terrified' Ms Cummings said that everyone in Gaza is hungry, exhausted and terrified and have to make very difficult choices when it comes to food. "They're bulking out whatever food they have with water they know to be dirty, that they know may cause their children to be sick." Save the Children in Gaza is loated around 3km away from the area which Israel has demanded people evacuate from as it continues its air and ground attacks. Ms Cummings said they can hear "active" and "heavy" gunfire and bombardments. "There is nowhere safe in Gaza and people being displaced further south into al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, along the beach. "It's very, very congested already, overcrowded, and we know that people have nowhere to go. They have no means to move and people making the impossible decision to stay," she added.
RTÉ News
18-07-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
Bank of Ireland apologises over oil spill at Dublin site
Bank of Ireland has said that it sincerely apologises for an oil spill at one of its sites in south Dublin, which impacted a number of animals at a public park. The diesel spill was detected at the bank's data centre in Cabinteely. The spill contaminated a lake in Kilbogget Park in the area. An assessment carried out on 16 July discovered diesel oil on the water, which was emitting strong fumes. A family of swans with four cygnets were rescued at the location; volunteers continue to try to rescue other water birds from the area. A spokesperson for Bank of Ireland said that it engaged with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in relation to the spill. "We would like to sincerely apologise to the local community for the impact caused," the spokesperson said. The EPA said that it was contacted by the bank yesterday about the oil spill, which happened following a delivery of fuel. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has said that booms and pads have been installed at the Kilbogget Park site to absorb the oil spill. The spokesperson said that the booms and pads will be replaced regularly while the oil is there. Animal rescue efforts also took place in Laois following a separate oil spill this week. Kildare Wildlife Rescue was alerted to an incident in the Kilminchy area of Portlaoise on 11 July, where severe oil pollution had affected three connected lakes in a residential area. The incident impacted a range of wildlife, including a family of swans with four cygnets along with several mallards, moorhens, coots, cormorants and herons. KWR had an emergency response team bring the swans to safety. KWR Rescue Coordinator Pearse Stokes, who has attended numerous oil spills, said the fumes were among the strongest he had experienced. "The site at Kilbogget Park had the most intense fumes that I have ever encountered in any oiled wildlife response. This is not just concerning for the wildlife affected, but also a public safety concern for people and their pets walking and exercising in the park. "This is a beautiful park with rich biodiversity and the impact of the oil will be severe on the wildlife in the area." Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, he said: "Rescuing oiled wildlife is additionally difficult because you need to wear PPE like facemasks and gowns to protect yourself from the contaminates and working then in the high heat that we had last weekend. "And with that heat also comes an added complication where the oil in the water is evaporating and becoming quite toxic fumes for people so it's a kind of public safety concern, as well as a concern for the safety of our first responders and the wildlife." Mr Stokes said the rescue team gathered up the swan family that lives on that particular pond and brought them to Kildare Wildlife Rescue. "We are all quietly very hopeful for both sets of swan families" that have been rescued, he said. He said a few days later when they responded to the second oil spill in south Dublin, he experienced "the worst fumes" he ever encountered on an oil spill. "We get a lot of them, but this was really, really heavy in the air and you couldn't really spend too long in there just because of the smell." He said they will continue to monitor both sites and pick up any animals that are sick and need to be taken into care. While the swan family from Laois are washed and stable, the charity said that the swans in Kilbogget are still undergoing treatment. An adult female is the most affected and is receiving intensive care from the Village Vets Greyabbey. The rehabilitation of oiled birds can be a difficult process, according to KWR Manager Dan Donoher. "The birds need to first be stabilised, warmed and given fluid therapy," he said. "Washing can never be done on the same day, they need to be strong and pass multiple health checks before the stressful washing process begins." He said that both swam families will remain in their care until their territories are clean and safe again. KWR currently has over 400 animals in its rehabilitation centre. While the source of the spill in Laois remains unknown, local county councils have begun clean-up operations and opened investigations into a potential cause. KWR thanked Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Laois County Council for their support with the rescue efforts.
RTÉ News
16-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
'Bittersweet time' for fans amid scramble for All-Ireland final tickets
Hurling fans are set to be disappointed as the demand for All-Ireland hurling final tickets once again is set to outweigh supply. Tipperary face Cork for the first time in an All-Ireland hurling final at Croke Park on Sunday. Cork GAA have issued a statement acknowledging the huge demand for tickets and thanking their local clubs for playing a crucial part in distributing their allocation. Cork GAA Chief Executive Kevin O'Donovan described it as a "bittersweet time" for hurling fans. Speaking to RTÉ's News At One, he said: "It's a bittersweet time for us here, all looking forward to Sunday, but understanding there's a lot of heartbreak along the way for our supporters too." "In terms of the numbers, we would have 60,000 at the All-Ireland semi-final. Our allocation for the final is closer to 20,000, so you can imagine it's a case of the loaves and fishes then." Mr O'Donovan said Cork would have liked to have received a higher allocation of tickets, but acknowledged that the All-Ireland final is a national occasion. "I suppose if you look at the 80,000 ballpark figure at an All-Ireland final, let's say Cork get 20,000, Tipperary get 20,000, another 20,000 are for central distribution by Croke Park and roughly 20,000 go to the other counties. "I think it's important to recognise that All-Ireland final day is a national occasion. It's for every boy and girl in the country, it's not confined to Cork and Tipperary. "I do understand there's the national element that An Cumann Lúthchleas Gael have to adhere to as well. It's not a simple matter of just distributing every ticket to the two participating counties," he added. Mr O'Donovan said he had never seen such demand for All-Ireland tickets. "This is a new era for us, Tipperary have a very short famine. We have a 20-year famine. You have a massive backlog of people trying to get to that elusive All-Ireland final and be there, if we were lucky enough to cross the finishing line. "What we've seen this year and it's really come about over the last 12 months, is a youth movement, a whole generation of people who have never seen Cork win, and they're absolutely drawing on tickets now. "For our previous games, we've had eight consecutive sellout fixtures. That generation are just cleaning up tickets. Anything goes on public sale, they gobble them up. "Unfortunately, there's no public sale this time, so they're left a little bit shortchanged and we regret that," he said. Mr O'Donovan said that plans are in place for fans who are not lucky enough to get their hands on a ticket for Sunday's final, but reiterated that all tickets from Cork had been distributed. "We're delighted with the support. We'll have a fanzone with 20,000 more spectators on the field in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoímh on Sunday. We're doing our best to be informative and honest, and help as many people as possible get there. "With e-ticketing now and with the processes before, it would take four weeks to distribute All-Ireland final tickets. Now all that's done within a week, and our clubs have distributed theirs, and we've distributed ours. So I think it's fair on our voluntary officials now to let it lie. "Maybe a ticket will return from another county and somebody might be lucky with a cousin living elsewhere. But in terms of the official distribution channels of ours, they're all simply closed at this point," he added.
The Journal
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Journal
Explainer: What's going wrong with ComReg's new new scam-text warning system?
A NEW SYSTEM to help phone users identify scam texts has caused some important messages from organisations such as hospitals and banks to be marked as 'Likely Scam'. The Communications Regulator rolled out the system last Thursday to prevent people opening or responding to spam messages which attempt to trick people into clicking unsafe links or sending money. However, issues with the system are causing people to avoid messages from some trusted companies and agencies, including VHI, the CAO, AIB and several hospitals, potentially causing customers to miss important information. Companies had to add themselves to a register to send messages to customers without being labelled as 'Likely Scam', which 8,000 companies have already done, however, a glitch in the system is causing messages from registered companies to be marked as 'scam'. Now, instead of the sender information showing up as the company name, it will appear as 'Likely Scam' so customers cannot tell who they have received a text from. What is the new scam text system? The new ComReg system labels texts from unregistered businesses as 'Likely Scam' to crackdown on the widespread issue of fraudulent messages, and protect people from losing money or revealing sensitive information to scam artists masquerading as trusted businesses. Europe Economics estimates over €300 million is lost each year by Irish consumers and businesses targeted by scam calls and texts. The system labels messages from untrusted senders as 'Likely Scam', and will completely block messages with this label from 3 October this year. Companies must register themselves with the communications regulator's new scheme if they want to send texts to customers without them being flagged as a scam. Advertisement Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS messages often include a SMS Sender ID to indicate who sent the message. It's usually the name of the company or organisation. Now ComReg must be made aware of the ID, otherwise texts sent will be flagged to recipients as 'Likely Scam'. If someone receives a message that says 'Likely Scam', this may be because the sender hasn't yet registered their ID, which companies must do before October to prevent being blocked. What are the issues with the system? The system is accidentally labelling messages from some legitimate businesses as 'Likely Scam'. Speaking to RTE's News At One programme, Comreg's director of market frameworks, George Merrigan, said the issue is caused by ComReg's technical partners. 'In terms of Comreg's own systems, all are working exactly to expectation,' he said. 'The issues we're experiencing are that some industry players are having some technical issues and we are working with them to resolve those issues as quickly as possible.' What are ComReg doing about it? ComReg has apologised for any inconvenience and said they are 'working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible'. 'ComReg is aware that some already registered Sender IDs are being modified to 'Likely Scam' and continues to work with industry parties to resolve any technical issues they are experiencing', they told The Journal . Tom Butler, Public Affairs Manager for ComReg, could not say whether ComReg will disable the 'Likely Scam' programme until the issues are fixed. ComReg are continuing to register all new SenderID applications received. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
08-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Comreg blames telecoms firms for national scam text mess
In an interview, the telecoms operator's director of markets George Merrigan said that 'some industry players' were having 'technical issues' while its own systems were working as required The telecoms regulator says that a nationwide scam text problem is the fault of its technical partners. Speaking to RTE's News At One programme, Comreg's director of market frameworks, George Merrigan, apologised for the 'confusion' that a misfiring crackdown on scam texts has caused, where hospital patients being told that their appointment reminders were scam texts by the regulator's new system.
