Monday’s Top Stories: Gold for Wiffen; faulty goods cost Irish consumers €1bn a year

Legal body criticises ‘sexist’ amendment on carers

A legal analysis carried out by the Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) concerning next month’s referendum proposals has led to it supporting the proposed “family” amendment to the Constitution but not the “ineffective” and “implicitly sexist” amendment on carers.

The care amendment is unlikely to provide carers, people with disabilities or older people with new enforceable rights or improved services from the State, Flac said.

The proposal gives constitutional expression to “harmful stereotypes” in care provision and “potentially compromises” the rights of people with disabilities.

Top News Stories

• Problems with goods and services leave Irish consumers out of pocket by €1bn a year: Faulty goods or services cost Irish consumers almost €1 billion a year while about 1.6 million adults have problems with something they bought over the last 12 months, a new study finds.
• Male cyclist and girl (6) die following road traffic incidents in Dublin and Westmeath: A male cyclist has died in a road traffic incident in north Dublin and a girl (6) has died from injuries she received in a crash earlier this month in Co Westmeath.
• ‘I managed to hop, walk and crawl to the end’: Fundraiser finishes 50th marathon in 50 days in Dublin: Having completed his 50th marathon in 50 days in Dublin on Sunday as part of a fundraising effort for the Irish Cancer Society Dymtro Moyseyev said he was really pleased to have taken on the challenge but acknowledged, “I’m very happy I don’t have to do another one in the morning”.
• Bakhurst called to meeting with Minister over exit payments to senior executives: RTÉ is facing strong political pressure to reveal the details of exit packages paid to senior executives who have left the station in recent years.
• Michael O’Regan, ‘generous, compassionate’ Irish Times journalist, dies at home in Dublin: Michael O’Regan, the long-time correspondent for The Irish Times, has died suddenly at his home in Dublin.
• Reform of Stormont rules needed to avoid further collapses, says Martin: New rules to govern the establishment of the next Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive must be agreed before the next Assembly elections in three years, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin has said.
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News from around the World

• Israel-Hamas war: Israel to launch Rafah attack unless hostages freed by March: Israel will launch a ground offensive on the Gaza city of Rafah unless hostages still held by Hamas are released by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next month, a member of the Israeli war cabinet said on Sunday.

The Big Read

• Donegal’s rent crisis: ‘I can no longer afford to live in the Republic. That’s not something you want to admit’: Donegal has seen one of biggest jumps in rental costs recently as local tenants compete with tourists for scarce properties.

The best from Opinion

• Una Mullally: The drip-feed of information from RTÉ is just not good enough
• Alex Kane: The flatpack Stormont Assembly has been glued back together. I don’t expect it to last
• Unthinkable: Empathy is bountiful in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but not for the other side

Today's Business

• Irish consumers out of pocket by €1bn a year due to faulty goods and services, study reveals: Faulty goods or services cost Irish consumers almost €1 billion a year while about 1.6 million adults have problems with something they bought over the last 12 months, a new study finds.

Top Sports news

• Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen wins second gold medal at World Championships with dominant swim: Armagh native chased world record in 1500m freestyle as he finished 10 seconds ahead of next competitor.

Picture of the Day

Culture Highlights

• Baftas 2024: Cillian Murphy scoops best actor award for Oppenheimer: Cillian Murphy has been named best actor at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, in London, for his performance as the eponymous father of the atomic bomb in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which also won the award for best film. He therefore remains on track to become the second Irish person – and the first born in the country – to win best actor at the Oscars. (Daniel Day-Lewis won as an Irish citizen.)

Podcast Highlights

• In the News: ‘He has to be fired immediately’ - how landlord Marc Godart punished workers for cooperating with authorities

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