Ireland

Five things you need to know today

Coast Guard resumes search; Irish woman killed in Goa; Trump’s tax returns

Debris is taken from a trawler at the pier in Blacksod, Co Mayo, during the search for a missing Coast Guard helicopter crew. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times

Wed Mar 15 2017 - 07:19

1. Coast Guard helicopter may have experienced 'catastrophic' incident
Air, sea and shore searches are continuing this morning for the three crew missing from the Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky S-92 helicopter which crashed off the north Mayo coast early yesterday morning.
Senior Irish Coast Guard pilot Capt Dara Fitzpatrick (45), the mother of a three-year-old boy, died in the crash.
The three missing crew have been named as chief pilot Mark Duffy from Dundalk, Co Louth and winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith from north Co Dublin.

2. Murder inquiry after Irish woman's body found in India
A murder investigation is under way in India after the body of an Irish woman was discovered in Goa.
The woman, believed to be in her late 20s, was found in Canacona, a district in the south of the state.
Sammy Tavares of the Goa police said the woman was found with injuries to her head and face. She is understood to have arrived in the district with a friend on Sunday.

3. Donald Trump paid $38m in taxes in 2005, White House says
US president Donald Trump paid $38 million (€35m) in taxes on more than $150 million (€141m) in income in 2005, the White House said on Tuesday, responding to an MSNBC report that the network had obtained two pages of the returns.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said she received the documents from journalist David Cay Johnston, who said on her show that he received them in the mail.
Mr Trump has repeatedly refused to release his tax returns, drawing criticism throughout his campaign last year and speculation from his political rivals he was hiding something.

4. Noonan expresses confidence in Nama despite PAC findings
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has expressed his confidence in Nama and its senior leadership in spite of the many adverse findings against the agency in the Public Accounts Committee's report on the sale of Project Eagle loans in 2014.
The Minister and Taoiseach Enda Kenny have also strongly disputed a conclusion by the committee that it was not "procedurally appropriate" for Mr Noonan to have met a senior representative from Cerberus in March 2014, just before final bids were due to be lodged for Project Eagle.
The committee said this could have given the perception that Cerberus was benefiting from preferential treatment.

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5. Enda Kenny to defend EU during meeting with Donald Trump
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to launch a strong defence of the achievements and benefits of the European Union when he meets US president Donald Trump on Thursday in the White House.
Mr Kenny will become the first EU leader to meet the president after Theresa May following the postponement of German chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the White House until Friday.
The US president has been a frequent critic of the EU, describing Brexit as a "great thing" and urging other countries to follow Britain in leaving the bloc.

And finally: Why helicopters crash: fuel, pilot error and mechanical failure
Analysis: Of the three main causes of crashes, mechanical failure seems probable in yesterday's Mayo tragedy.

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