The Agenda

Families whose relatives died in nursing homes during the pandemic have criticised the Covid-19 Evaluation for continuing to ignore their experiences.While the evaluation held its first public session with expert advisers and academics on Wednesday, it has yet to confirm dates for meeting with families. These were expected to begin in February.Care Champions, the advocacy group representing dozens of families, pointed out the family meetings are to be in private anyway.“There is a jarring contrast between the live roundtable for professionals and the private forums for families,” Majella Beattie,Founder of the Care Champion group, said

On Monday on The Agenda, we spoke to Nuala Donland from Greyhound Action Ireland, who said that Greyhound racing could not survive in Ireland without State subsidy. Earlier this month, the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments both announced bans on greyhound racing. Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has said the Government has no intention of doing likewise. However, the Greyhound Action Ireland spokesperson told us that cutting State funding would have a similar impact. Nuala told us about how she remains especially concerned about the welfare of the dogs, noting many of them sustain serious injuries every year from injuries sustained while racing, and Nuala joins us on the line now to talk to us some more about all of this.we were joined Chairman of the Irish Greyhounds Owners & Breeders Federation, Damien Matthews, who is a greyhound owner, trainer and breeder based in Newry - Damien felt that the interview with Nuala on Tuesday was a little one-sided and he is going to give us his thoughts on what was said now. 

A garda crackdown in north Louth on boy racers at the weekend which saw a number of cars seized near the border has been welcomed by Sinn Fein councillor Antoin Watters.Gardai from the Dundalk Roads Protection Unit put a policing operation in place after observing so-called boy racers “driving in a dangerous manner and placing the public at risk over the weekend along the border

We are joined on the programme now by Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora & Fine Gael TD, Neale Richmond, who is going to talk to us about the announcement yesterday that Ireland will provide a record €65m this year to respond to the war in Ukraine, providing humanitarian aid and long-term development for people.

The Government has totally rejected any suggestion of making Drogheda a city despite the increased population and thousands of new homes being built in the locality.Both Louth County Council and Meath County Council were totally opposed to any such move and were terrified of losing land or income.

An obesity expert is urging parents to buy only one easter egg for each child.Professor Donal O’Shea, who is HSE’s clinical lead on obesity, has warned that it was “a flawed narrative” if parents think it is okay to indulge for one day.He has also said in the past that such an attitude was flawed because the food and drinks industry wanted to increase the daily consumption of ultra-processed foods and used occasions such as Halloween, Christmas and Easter to promote them.Professor O’Shea joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

A mum whose unborn child died when she was injured in a car collision said it was almost more traumatic discovering no one was legally accountable for her son’s death.Speaking outside Leinster House, Saoirse Alyward said: “Jax was a four pound baby, he had to have a post-mortem, I had to bury him, my 11-year-old daughter was at his graveside, yet the law says he doesn’t exist."In January 2024, the mother was rushed to Wexford General Hospital after being injured in a three-vehicle collision on the main Wexford/ Rosslare road. Saoirse was 31 weeks pregnant and had to have an emergency c-section, but when she woke up she was told her son Jax was stillborn.Saoirse joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

The lack of bus services in Ashbourne is leaving residents "stranded”, a Meath councillor has said.At the March meeting of the Ashbourne Municipal District, Sinn Féin councillor Helen Meyer called on Meath County Council to contact the National Transport Authority (NTA) to discuss plans for increasing bus services in the town.In response, Meath County Council said its role is limited to assisting the NTA with infrastructure such as bus stops, while the operational aspects of bus services remain the responsibility of the NTA and bus operators.Speaking afterwards, Cllr Meyer said she “strongly disagrees” with the idea that the council’s “only responsibility is to assist in providing bus services”.Councillor Meyer joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this. 

Tenants in some housing estates across Louth are being "held to ransom" by antisocial behaviour. Labour councillor Pio Smith told the March meeting of Louth County Council that the issue is leaving residents unable to "live in peace in their own homes". It comes as Louth County Council has launched its new tenant engagement strategy to tackle antisocial behaviour across the county. We heard more about all of this on The Agenda this morning.