The Agenda

A 16-year-old girl who died in a hit-and-run in Navan, Co Meath has been named as Mia Lily Keogh O’Keefe.The young girl was killed after being struck down while out walking with her dog on Saturday evening after 8pm on the Slane Road in the town.The driver fled the scene but a man in his 20s has since been arrested by investigating gardaí.In an update this morning, a garda spokesperson has confirmed that the man has been released without charge and a file will be prepared for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Crime Editor at The Irish Sun, Stephen Breen, to find out more about this horrific incident and about the GoFundMe which has been set up for Mia’s family.

A 12 year old Drogheda United fan ended up in the Emergency Department of Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda on Friday night, after he was struck by a flare fired from the Away fans end at Oriel Park during the Louth derby.The boy sustained burns to his face and hand but was not hospitalised. During the game flares were fired at the newly laid artificial playing surface leaving over 30 burn marks, which may see the Boynesiders sanctioned in the coming days. Before the match, flares had been fired when rival fans clashed outside Clarke train station on the Carrick Road.Drogheda United and Dundalk also issued a joint statement yesterday condemning crowd trouble at Friday night's Louth derby, which resulted in major damage to the pitch at Oriel ParkThis morning on The Agend we spoke to Minister for Sport, Patrick O'Donovan, who condemned these "gougers" with the flares who destroyed the game for everyone.Minister O'Donovan also has called for any investment into artificial pitches to be pulled.

The HPAT for medical students is a “performance of cruelty” and should be scrapped, a consultant psychiatrist and associate clinical professor has argued. The Health Professions Admission Test is an examination used to help universities select students who apply to study medicine. It lasts for 2.5 hours and tests applicants on logical reasoning, problem solving, interpersonal understanding and non-verbal reasoning. Dr Matthew Sadlier says he does not believe that some of the skills assessed in the HPAT are needed in a medical career, noting that some doctors have no need of interpersonal understanding - or ‘bedside manner’ - as they never deal with patients.Dr Sadlier also doubts very much that a person’s bedside can be accurately assessed in an HPAT exam, and he joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

A 12 year old Drogheda United fan ended up in the Emergency Department of Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda on Friday night, after he was struck by a flare fired from the Away fans end at Oriel Park during the Louth derby.The boy sustained burns to his face and hand but was not hospitalised.During the game flares were fired at the newly laid artificial playing surface leaving over 30 burn marks, which may see the Boynesiders sanctioned in the coming days. Before the match, flares had been fired when rival fans clashed outside Clarke train station on the Carrick Road.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by LMFM's Pat O’Shaughnessy, who is a friend of the family of the young boy who was hit by the flare, and he told us more about what happened and about how the boy is doing.We spoke to by CEO of Dundalk FC, Joe McGuinness.We were also joined by eye-witness Patrick O’Connor, who says himself and his children were in the middle of it as the flares were being thrown, and we spoke to Barry Kenny from Irish Rail, who told us all about the damage that was caused at the train station by the flares.We also heard from Sin Fein TD for Louth, Ruairi O Murchu, who is questioning the level of security at these matches and how to stop this happening again in the future

There are roughly 4,500 empty beds free for either Ukrainian nationals or asylum seekers at present, but they cannot be offered to more than 500 male applicants sleeping on the streets, an Oireachtas committee has heard.The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard that there are about 53,000 beds available in the system at the moment.Just under 36,000 are designated for international protection, with the remainder set aside for refugees from the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Of those, some 4,500 are vacant.However, many of them are unavailable for use — either due to the need for refurbishment or their placement as spare units within family complexes — officials from the Department of Justice told the PAC on Thursday.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by John Lannon, CEO of Doras, to get his thoughts on this.

The Bettystown–Laytown area has been hit by a rising crime wave, and a new Garda station for the area needs to be built urgently.The claim was made by Senator Alison Comyn in the Seanad, and she is demanding that the Justice Minister, Jim O'Callaghan, intervene to resolve the issue.She said she had received a plethora of emails in recent days from concerned residents worried that crime is spiralling out of control in East Meath.One email was entitled ‘Scared In Our Own Home’ and the author revealed: “Within the last month there have been at least three attempted break-ins on the roads—of cars and homes—the most recent one last night.Senator Comyn joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

Abuse received by politicians is predominantly aimed at women, Louth councillors have been told. Councillors were told during a presentation by the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) that all political parties are facing issues getting people to run in the next local and general elections. A spokesperson for AILG said parties are particularly struggling to recruit female candidates as online abuse is "predominantly leaning towards females". Mayor of Drogheda, Cllr Michelle Hall said she had been subjected to "a lot of online abuse" which she said was "very difficult to deal with". Mayor Hall said receiving online abuse was a "normal occurrence" and criticised social media companies saying they had "refused to work" with her in an effort to take abusive posts off their platforms.Mayor Hall joined us on The Agenda this morning to talk to us some more about this.

Talks were underway at Drogheda United on Thursday to try broker a boardroom solution following a fractious 24 hours.Joanna Byrne remains as co-chair of the club despite claiming she was asked to resign on Monday due to her calling on the FAI to boycott the Nations League games against Israel later this year.Ms Byrne was speaking in her role as full-time serving Sinn Féin TD for Co Louth. She was to the fore in recommending the takeover by the club of US firm Trivela in 2023 but, now that the relationship has become fractured, the parties are left with three options.We were joined on The Agenda this morning by Sinn Fein TD for Louth and party colleague, Ruairi Ó Murchú, who gave us his thoughts on all of this.

In light of the publication today of North Kerry CAMHS Lookback Review Report (Maskey 2) ADHD Ireland calls on both the HSE and the Department of Health to ensure barriers around funding, recruitment and Clinical Governance are resolved so that long term solutions are implemented to deliver world class outcomes for all our young people.