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The 9 at 9 Flood relief scheme, health budget debate, and French president visits Israel.

LAST UPDATE | 24 Oct 2023

GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.

Ashling Murphy trial

1. A woman has described how murder accused Jozef Puska made her feel uncomfortable when he cycled behind her “very slowly” and fixed her with what she said “felt like an intimidating stare”, less than 90 minutes before Ashling Murphy was stabbed to death by the Grand Canal in Tullamore.

Annemarie Kelly was speaking at the trial of Jozef Puska, who denies murdering the 23-year-old schoolteacher, where she said that she contacted gardai both on the evening after hearing of Ashling Murphy’s death and the following day.

Kelly told the court this was because, “There was a man following me as I was out on my walk and he was following me for quite a bit of time.”

Flooding

2. A scaled-up flood relief scheme for victims of Storm Babet could mean affected businesses may qualify for payments of up to €100,000.

A proposal will be brought to a meeting of Cabinet ministers today on flood relief for small businesses, as well as sporting and voluntary organisations, that were affected by the storm.

The Journal understands that existing humanitarian relief scheme for businesses will be stood up with quick payments of €5,000 and assessed and audited payments of up to €20,000.

Additionally, a second exceptional humanitarian relief scheme for businesses will be stood up with quick payments of €10,000 and audited and assessed payments of up to €100,000 under the proposal coming before Cabinet today.

Health budget

3. Budgetary control, more efficiencies and savings in the health service is what is needed in the short-term, according to Secretary General Robert Watt.

In his opening statement to the Oireachtas Health Committee, where he is appearing today alongside HSE boss Bernard Gloster today, Watt will defend the health budget for 2024.

Criticism over the €22.5 billion health budget has been levelled at the government, with a blame game playing out between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael as to who signed off on it.

With just €100 million for new measures, there are concerns that a number of programmes will not have sufficient funding to continue next year.

Israel

4. French President Hamas Macron has arrived in Tel Aviv to express his country’s “full solidarity” with Israel after the deadly 7 October attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

He is also expected to call for the “preservation of the civilian population” in Gaza, amid Israel’s relentless bombardment, and as it prepares for a ground invasion of the overcrowded Palestinian enclave.

Macron will in particular call for a “humanitarian truce” to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza, whose 2.4 million people have been largely deprived of water, food, electricity and other basic supplies after an Israeli blockade, the Elysee Palace said. 

Sligo murderer

5. Serial killer Yousef Palani, who killed two men in Sligo because they were gay, has been jailed for life.

At the Central Criminal Court yesterday afternoon, Justice Mary Ellen Ring sentenced the 23-year-old to the mandatory term for the murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee.

She also sentenced Palani to a concurrent sentence of 20 years for causing serious harm to a third man, Anthony Burke, by stabbing the victim in his left eye with a kitchen knife.

Ukrainian accommodation

6. A proposal to offer Ukrainians three months in State-provided accommodation before they must find their own home has been “deferred” following a meeting of coalition leaders last night.

The plans had been mooted to be brought to Cabinet today, however, following a meeting between Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, the item was pushed off the agenda.

A senior source confirmed that it was decided that “more work” was needed on the specifics of social welfare.

Tenancies

7. Landlords selling up will be obliged to invite their tenants to bid on the property under legislation going to Cabinet today.

Such measures were first announced ahead of the lifting of the eviction ban in March, however, the General scheme of the Residential Tenancies (Right to Purchase) Bill, which sets out a new statutory ‘right to purchase’ for tenants, is only going for government approval today.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien had previously promised to push the new tenant right to first refusal through the Dáil before the summer. However, it will be some time before the legislation is enacted.

Maui

8. All but the worst-hit areas of Maui will reopen to tourism on 1 November less than three months after the Hawaiian island was hit by the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century.

Maui County mayor Richard Bissen said all but the burned-out sections of Lahaina will reopen after discussions with his advisory team, the Red Cross and other partners.

Travellers were evacuated from hotels in West Maui when the fire raged through Lahaina on 8 August, killing at least 99 people and destroying more than 2,000 buildings.

New Orleans

9. At least seven people have been killed after a “super fog” of smoke from marsh fires and dense morning fog caused a series of crashes near New Orleans in the US that left a long stretch of mangled and scorched vehicles.

An estimated 158 vehicles were involved and 25 people were injured in the incident on Interstate 55, according to the Louisiana State Police.

They warned the death toll could climb as first responders worked into the night looking for victims.

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    Mute kerrill thornhill
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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:21 AM

    >5000 Civilian dead, over 2000 kids. Collective punishment, denial of water, food & power – numerous atrocities & war crimes carried out with impunity. Scant reporting of the slaughter in western media, no calls for sanctions, no fundraisers or calls to provide arms to Palestinian resistance. Why do our media organisations deny Palestinians the same human dignity they gave Ukranians? or even advocate for the basic application of international law? just silently supporting genocide. The ugly underbelly of the EU & US is there for all the world to see

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:25 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: it’s shocking isn’t it, Israel targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure, 2500 children dead for israels insatiable thirst for stealing land.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:33 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: what about the hundreds of thousands that putin has slaughtered?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:51 AM

    first of all, you only have Hamas’s word for the casualty numbers. Secondly, you do know a large slice of the Palestinian leadership WANTS its civilians to die, don’t you? They know the gullible West laps up images of babies being pulled from rubble and will put pressure on Israel. It’s win/win for them. Newsflash: Islamists like ISIS and Hamas love death like we love life – they are a death cult. They don’t think like you. Just look at memri.org if you don’t believe me. If this were purely a territorial dispute, the Palestinians would’ve had a state of their own long ago. They object to a Jewish state in Islamic territory, end of. You think they wring their hands about Islamic colonialism the way our friend Kerill does about Western colonialism? Not a chance. They are Islamic supremacist.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:58 AM

    Russia had been sanctioned relentlessly, thrown out of international financial systems, Russian individuals wealth was take from them. I personally organised a fundraiser making €1.5k for Ujranian refugees, my home village was 25% Ukranian (welcomed with open arms) at one stage last year. The West bombed Russian infrastructure, provided >$150bn in weapons & military support, it runs non-stop propoganda for Ukraine. Conversely, the West provides bombs for Israel to kill Palestinian refugees, it denies them food, water & electricity and our media dehumanisees them. Both people are resisting illegal occupation – other the white western supremacy, how do you explain this absurd difference in treatment?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:02 AM

    @Squarepeg 01: There are thousand and thousands of images and videos of the destruction of Gaza, buildings razed and dismembered children, which our media is dutifully ignoring – you’ve lost the plot if you think the deaths are made up… Palestinians have been living there for centuries – you clearly don’t understand the term colonialism is you think Benny Netanyahu from Philadelhia is the local to the region…

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:37 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: to reinterate, Hamas WANT their citizens to die and in many cases stop them from following Israeli instructions to evacuate so that they WILL die. Jews have been living in Palestine for centuries, too. Towns like Hebron had an uninterupted Jewish presence since Biblical times until the pogrom of 1929. ‘Oh but Jewish immigration stepped up following the 19th century Zionist project.’ Sure, but Arabs immigrated to work for the British, too. How come they’re not called illegal occupiers?
    There is a moral difference between people killed as collateral damage and terrorist gangs going house to house, raping women, burning families alive, shooting kids in the head, murdering babies in their cribs, abducting >200 hostages etc.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 11:49 AM

    @Squarepeg 01: Your argument is primarily an emotive racist diatribe.. I know many Arabs and Palestinians – they are no different to us. The number of people killed would indicate that Israel is considerably more barbaric – unless you think Palestinians are non-human? There are clear international borders (1967) between Israel and Palestine – the occupation is clearly defined in law as illegal, as are the settlements. The solution to this conflict is respecting both parties, international law and a negotiated peaceful coexistence.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 12:14 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: you are living in a fantasy land. Both sides covet the land, but only one party wants peaceful coexistence, the other wants to annihilate all Jews from Palestine. What clearer proof of that do you need than Hamas’s rampage on Oct 7th, which you never seem to mention.
    Nothing racist in what I said. Of course, the Palestinians are as human as you or I, but I was referring to their culture, which is absolutely different from ours. I mean, it’s not like they go to much trouble to hide it. They glorify martyrs by naming streets after them and paying their families rewards. This world is just a stepping stone to Paradise. Did you not know this?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 12:46 PM

    @Squarepeg 01: Your racist depiction of Arabs is ridiculous, straight from the daily telegraph. As is your insistence that Palestinians want to wipe out Israel – Fatah agree to the legal boundaries, even Hamas changed their charter to recognise the 1967 international boundaries. If you think Israel can continue illegally occupying & ethnically cleansing Palestine without starting a regional war – you are mistaken. World opinion is firmly in Palestinians court, and against the genocide in Gaza – Israel is alienating every one of it’s friends by ignoring international law.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 1:24 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: The settlements may exacerbate the situation, but the deeper problem for Islamists is the existence of Israel itself. You and the millions of other pro-Palestinian Westerners can continue to bury your heads in the sand about the types of people you are supporting all you like, but doing so has consequences. If they destroy Israel, do you think the West won’t be next? 10% of France’s population is Muslim. Many major European cities are already hotbeds of jihadi activity – what do you think it will be like as the Muslim population approaches parity? Putting Mulsim grievances down to Western colonialism would severely mischaracterise the situation – a very large number of them want to live under some form of sharia law. This is a spiritual battle, for us and them.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 3:43 PM

    @Squarepeg 01: You are completely ignoring the internationally recognised legal position, rambling about holy wars & spiritual battles – weirdos thinking the bible/torah is a property register started this mess. How about respecting the internationally recognised border, that over 130 countries have agreed to, along with Palestinian leadership. Just enforce this border, demilitarise the region and bring in peacekeepers. No one will win in a war

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    Oct 24th 2023, 5:07 PM

    @kerrill thornhill: with every reply you make, the more obvious it becomes that you don’t really understand the people you are supporting. You’re secular. You mouth the left wing shibboleths of ‘colonialism’ and ‘occupation’ while mocking ‘weirdos’ who believe in the Torah and the Bible. Are you so unself-aware not to realise how strongly your Palestinian buddies believe in the Qu’ran? Why do you think they shout ‘Alahu Akbar’ when they kill the Kafir? It’s funny in a way. Saul Alinsky taught the radical left how to use the values of the West against its own institutions in order to bring them down. Hamas and other Islamists are using a similar tactic, only this time they are hooking into the intersectional oppression narrative of the Left. In other words, you are being played.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:07 AM

    Where is kerrill the Russian bot? Where are you with your deflection?

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:40 AM

    Last seen entering the Gaza strip in a hot-pants and gimp mask waving a rainbow flag.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:52 AM

    Good morning invisible man. I’m working, but will take a moment to share with you Bibis own published plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza below: EU/US politicians & media are aware of the plans, but have done nothing to stop this genocide – effectively controlled by military intelligence. They are blindly going along with a decades long campaign to dehumanise Palestinians, cover up their appalling treatment and normalise the llegal occupation. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/?utm_content=buffera2434&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer

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    Oct 24th 2023, 9:56 AM

    If our media is too cowardly to report the thousands of dead children and the carpet bombing of schools, hospitals and churches – I consider it an obligation to speak out about it. An anonymous person accusing me of deflection or being a bot, is quite ironic. Have a good day

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:32 AM

    @kerrill thornhill: tell it to putin, I’m sure he cares.

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    Oct 24th 2023, 10:34 AM

    Lol! He heard you! Kerrill the gimpo!

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