Your top stories on Friday: Asylum seekers pitch tents in Ballsbridge; united Ireland costs would ‘equal austerity’

Asylum seekers pitch tents in park on St Mary’s Road in Ballsbridge

Gardaí attended a private park in Dublin 4 on Thursday night as up to 15 homeless asylum seekers, told earlier by the International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) there was “no accommodation at this time”, pitched tents for the night.

The men, from Afghanistan and Somalia, arrived at St Mary’s Church Park on St Mary’s Road in Ballsbridge shortly before 9pm.

All had been sleeping in tents at the International Protection Office (IPO) in recent weeks until the camp was cleared on Wednesday morning. While some had been provided with shelter on Wednesday night, they had been bussed back to the IPO on Thursday morning and told to wait for news of further accommodation offers.

News

RSA declines to appear before TDs because of ‘immediate road safety priorities’: Social Democrats TD and deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee Catherine Murphy has described as “incredible” a decision by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) not to appear before the PAC.
Vast majority of anti-immigration posts relating to Wicklow protests came from non-Irish accounts: The vast majority of posts on X concerning the anti-immigration protests in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, last week came from outside Ireland, according to an analysis of online traffic.
Costs of united Ireland would equal pain of the austerity years, economists say: The costs of Irish unification would equal the worst of the effects of the austerity years between 2009 and 2011 and last for considerably longer, the Oireachtas has been warned.
Three Irishmen charged over alleged $1m Melbourne robbery spree: Police in Australia have charged three Irishmen in connection with a spate of alleged “sophisticated residential burglaries” across Melbourne.
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World

UK Labour party claims victory in Blackpool byelection: The UK Labour party has won the Blackpool South parliamentary byelection and made gains in council contests to heap pressure on British prime minister Rishi Sunak.

The Big Read

The Aparto student accommodation block at Montrose on the Stillorgan Road, opposite UCD, where the landlord has sought to impose 51-week leases on students. Photograph: Tom Honan

Student accommodation: A market plagued by bed shortages, rising rents and 51-week leases: Facing soaring rents and an acute shortage of housing options, Ireland’s third level students – and their parents – have been exposed to some of the harshest realities of the free market over the past decade or so.

Opinion

Business

Microsoft’s Irish subsidiaries pay US parent $56bn in dividends: Microsoft’s main Irish subsidiaries paid their US-based parent company just under $56 billion (€52.2bn) in dividends last year, accounts just filed here indicate.

Sports

Leinster v Northampton: Less than 48 hours to sell out Croke Park? Leinster will take that: You might not have noticed the recent ticket-buying spree. If you were a Leinster rugby fan you may have known about it but sat back, wistfully thought about Croke Park’s capacity and said to yourself “give it a few days and I’ll pick up a ticket”, writes Johnny Watterson