The Agenda

Something very new happende on The Agenda this morning. We had our first ever segment of ‘The LMFM Roundtable’, where we were joined in-studio by 4 contributors from different parts of Louth and Meath to discuss and debate the big stories of the week. This week we were joined by: Fine Gael Councillor in Ashbourne, Alan TobinIndependent Councillor in Navan, Alan LawesMayor of Drogheda & Labour Councillor, Michelle HallFianna Fail Councillor in Dundalk, Emma Coffey. We discussed the anti-social behaviour in Oriel Park last week, road safety after a Meath girl was tragically killed in a hit and run, and Monday marked 4 years since Russia invaded Ukraine.

RTÉ has reiterated that it will broadcast football matches involving Israel, despite calls for a Eurovision-style boycott.Sinéad Gibney, the Social Democrats sports spokesperson, wrote to the broadcaster asking them not to support Israel’s “sportswashing endeavours” ahead of the country’s Nations League match with Ireland in October.“Last year, RTÉ took a laudable stance in response to Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest by opting to not broadcast or participate in the 2026 competition,” Gibney wrote.“I’ve asked that RTÉ now make the same commitment in this case. It is unconscionable to support the sportswashing endeavours of a country whose regime is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians by broadcasting and legitimizing their sporting pursuits.”In response, RTÉ has maintained that it has contractual “and therefore binding legal obligations” to show the match.The broadcaster said it is the Football Association of Ireland’s (FAI) responsibility to make decisions regarding participation. The FAI said Ireland will fulfil the fixtures.Deputy Gibney joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

The Independent Disciplinary Committee announced the sanctions last night, which includes a ban on Drogheda supporters for their next four away games.Drogheda United Football Club have been handed a hefty punishment, arising out of the disorder seen at Oriel Park in Dundalk this day last week. Flares were thrown from the away end onto the newly laid surface in Dundalk, with significant damage being done to the synthetic astroturf pitch. A 12 year-old boy also suffered burns to his face during the pre-match display. Last night, the Football Association of Ireland's Independent Disciplinary Committee announced record sanctions were being handed down to the Drogs as a result of their supports behaviour. The punishment includes A fine of €15,000;A ban on Drogheda United FC supporters attending the Club’s next four away fixtures; andA ban on Drogheda United FC supporters attending all fixtures at Oriel Park for the remainder of the 2026 season.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by LMFM Sports Reporter Colum Corrogan to find out more.We also spoke to Minsiter for Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, to het his reaction to all of this.

The Junior Minister for Sport says only the "idiots" responsible should be punished for damaging League of Ireland pitches.Charlie McConalogue disagreed with Sports Minister Patrick O'Donovan's suggestion of a collective punishment over the issue.It came after significant damage was done to the playing surface of Oriel Park in Dundalk following the throwing of flares at a recent game.Minister McConalogue says a blanket approach to something like this won't work.Minister McConalogue joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

Sinn Fein's hit out at the Government using the "guillotine" function to force through the International Protection Bill.The controversial asylum legislation made its way through the Dail last night in part due to significantly shortened debates.Opposition parties have criticised the lack of time for debate with eight hours last week in a single Dáil committee stage session and four hours last night.Deputy Matt Carthy says the Government's quick rejection of their "community impact assessment" amendment shows they're not listening to the concerns of the people.Deputy Carty joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

Labour TD Ged Nash has warned that Louth is "in the firing line" of delayed installation of flood defences. The Louth TD told the Dáil that rainfall events that were once one-in-a-century, are now becoming much more frequent. He warned that there is "huge strain on already stressed infrastructure, road networks and flood defences". "The severity of the storms and the impacts we are experiencing are going to become ever more complicated and we need to do more to adapt, mitigate and manage," he said. Deputy Nash said that dozens of "critical" flood defence projects have been "in the system for almost a decade", and he joined us in-studio on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.We also discussed the protests that took place all across the country yesterday after the Government U-turn on SNA cuts.

Protests took place at locations across the country yesterday to highlight the ongoing concerns of parents, schools and Special Needs Assistants following controversy over the last week around SNA allocations for schools.The demonstrations were called before the Government moved late Monday evening to reverse the planned changes. The Government last week paused a review and reallocation of SNAs for the coming school year after it caused concern and outrage among parents, teachers and SNAs.One of the locations where a protest took place was in Ashbourne, so I decided to go along and check it out. The protest was led by Sinn Fein Councillor Maria White, who is also a school principal at junior school which has 5 autism classes and 20 SNA’s.Councillor White joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us about how the protest went last night in Ashbourne, and about why it was so important to her to be a part of it.

A journalist who was mocked online for wearing ashes on his forehead on Ash Wednesday has described his critics as “bigots”.Last week, Fionnán Sheahan of the Irish Independent appeared on Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show. Of all the panellists, he was the only one wearing ashes on his forehead - something many viewers noticed at home. Fionnan says he had been surprised by the negativity directed at him afterwards. His issue isn’t so much with the reaction, because that's just the moron hurlers on the ditch on social media,” he said. What surprised him was the sane and sensible people saying, ‘Oh, but you should expect to be slagged off in a situation like that’.Fionnan joined us on The Agenad this morning to talk to us some more about this.