The Agenda

It’s been a stormy start to 2026 with the bill for severe weather impact on Louth coming in at €1.2 million, the council have confirmed.The figure was revealed at Monday night’s meeting of Drogheda Borough District, where councillors were told that repeated weather warnings in January and early February had left the county’s road network “riddled with potholes”.The discussion prompted Fine Gael councillor Anne Marie Forde to renew her call for Louth County Council to make an “evidence‑based” case to Government for additional support every year, arguing that the county’s roads carry a disproportionate volume of cross‑border traffic.“We really need to push this agenda… to get more money for the council for our roads. They are in an awful state,” she said.Cllr Forde proposed sending a letter to Government, signed by all Louth councillors, setting out the evidence for increased funding. She noted she had first raised the issue last year and stressed that road conditions were a countywide concern, not just a Drogheda issue.However, Labour councillor Pio Smith rejected the idea, arguing that a Parliamentary Question from a TD would yield a quicker response, and Councillor Smith joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.We also spoke to Councillor Anne-Marie Ford.

***TRIGGER WARNING - UPSETTING/SIDTRESSING CONTENT***A brave domestic abuse survivor has revealed to LMFM how she exposed her ex-’s coercive control by secretly recording him and admitted: “I have invisible scars.”Rachel Barry kept a diary and notes on her phone of ex-partner Ian’s disgusting abuse.The mum of three’s decision to document her abuse led to the ­software engineer, 45, pleading guilty to coercive control in May 2025.Rachel, who married Barry in 2005, has now waived her right to anonymity and hopes to encourage other victims to come forward.Rachel joined us on The Agenda this morning to tell us more about her harrowing story and about how what she went through still affects her to this day.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has named Freddie Scappaticci in the Dáil as the former British army agent referred to as ‘Stakeknife’.Martin said that Stakeknife’s identity is “clear to everybody”. He further said that Scappaticci was implicated in “grotesque and serious crimes committed for and with the Provisional IRA”. Martin said this included 14 murders and 15 abductions. Scappaticci was from West Belfast and died in 2023. He has never been identified by the British Government due to their policy of ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ regarding intelligence practices. We were joined on The Agenda by Reporter at The Journal, Eimer McCauley, who told us more about this.

The organisation that represents more than 11,000 frontline ­gardaí has voted to take industrial action over the three days around St Patrick’s Day – traditionally an extremely busy time for policing.At a Special Delegates Conference in Co Kilkenny yesterday four “urgent motions” were passed by the Garda Representative Association (GRA) as a response to its dispute with the Government over allowances and pay.Frontline gardaí will not ­engage in “voluntary overtime” on the three days, inclusive from March 16 next, it was decided. This means there will be a ­potential shortage of gardaí to police the festivals and parades that take place across the ­country on St Patrick’s Day.Assistant General Secretary at the GRA, Tara McManus, joined us on The Agenda this morning to tellus more about this.

MEP Nina Carberry is calling on the European Commission to urgently step up EU-wide action on nitrous oxide, commonly known as ‘laughing gas’.The Midlands Northwest MEPis seeking that the EU formally recognise nitrous oxide as an emergency psychoactive substance of concern, incorporate it into the EU’s Early Warning System and accelerate its classification under new EU chemical rules. Her calls follow revelations that more than €8.6 million worth of gas has been seized in Ireland since 2020.Across the EU, Member States have reported a sharp rise in severe poisonings and deaths linked to the recreational use of nitrous oxide and the HSE has previously found that one in four drug users at Irish festivals were using the substance. We were joined on The AGenda this morning by Nina Carberry, who spoke to us some more about this

The housing crisis is trapping women in domestic violence situations between homelessness or staying with their abuser, according to the National Women’s Council.The council has made a submission to the Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan, which aims to reduce the amount of time spent in homeless emergency accommodation by children and their families.The National Women’s Council wants stronger legal protections for women and children in situations of domestic, gender-based, or sexual abuse to be able to remain in the family home.It says that women seeking to escape domestic violence with their children “are faced with stark choices — often having to choose between homelessness or returning to their abuser”.Ivanna Youtchak, Senior Policy Coordinator for violence against women at the NWC (National Women’s Council), joined us on The Agenda to tell us more about this.

EU countries may soon be able to find it easier to send asylum seekers to countries they did not come from, but that Europe deems “safe”.It’s after a majority of MEPs in the European Parliament agreed to the move during a contentious debate today in Strasbourg, where they also sought to further tighten migration policy via the creation of a list of countries prohibiting people from seeking asylum in the EU.The list – comprising Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco and Tunisia – was blasted by left-wing and left-of-centre groups as risking human rights breaches and putting people’s lives in danger.The measures will now be forwarded to the European Council and, if brought into effect, would speed up the processing of asylum claims and accelerate returns for some from the listed countries.Of Ireland’s 14 MEPs, three Fine Gael members – Seán Kelly, Regina Doherty and Nina Carberry – voted in favour of the safe countries proposal, and Regina Doherty joined us on Teh Agenda this morning to talk to us in more detail about this.

A Meath councillor has spoken out about misogyny in politics after facing what she described as “targeted, gendered” abuse on social media for raising concerns about coastal erosion along the Laytown–Bettystown coastline.Fine Gael councillor Sharon Tolan said she woke to more than 100 hostile comments after highlighting what she described as a serious public safety issue.Some of the messages included sexist remarks, with one reading: “Get back to the kitchen, you retarded c**t”.Despite the attacks, Councillor Tolan said she would not be deterred from raising issues affecting her community, and Councillor Tolan joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

A scheme to compensate more than 800 survivors of the 1981 Stardust fire, which will see each person get €20,000, has been described as “absolutely horrendous” and a “fiasco”.Lawyers acting for survivors of the north Dublin nightclub inferno in which 48 young people died, say the survivors have been treated with “contempt” by the Department of Justice as promises made to them have been “reneged on”.In a statement on Tuesday, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he was “very conscious” the 45th anniversary of the tragedy was “imminent” as he announced a scheme of ex gratia recognition payments to survivors injured in the blaze.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan, who described the compensation being offered as a "huge insult".