New poll hands Fianna Fáil 12% lead over Fine Gael
The first opinion poll published since campaigning for General Election 2020 got underway has handed Fianna Fáil a 12-point lead over Fine Gael.
The Sunday Times Behaviour and Attitudes poll has seen Fine Gael’s popularity fall by 7% - while Fianna Fáil is up 5%.
The poll was carried between January 2nd and 14th – before the campaign got underway and at the height of the controversy over the planned RIC commemoration and record hospital overcrowding figures.
The poll, carried out using face-to-face interviews among less than 1,000 people, puts Fianna Fáil on 32% while Fine Gael on 20%. The margin for error is 3.3%.
LISTEN: Garda warns recreational drug use fuelling gangland murder
Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan briefs media at Dundalk Garda station in 2018 | Image: David Young/PA Archive/PA ImagesThe Garda leading the investigation into the murder of Keane Mulready-Woods says anyone taking recreational drugs is fuelling gangland murder.
The 17-year-old was murdered as part of the ongoing gang feud in Drogheda, Co Louth.
On Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh, Garda Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan told said the brutal murder should be a reality check for everyone.
Kilkenny school shelves plan to monitor attendance with facial recognition
A school in Kilkenny has shelved plans to use facial recognition software to monitor student's attendance.
CBS Kilkenny put the scheme on hold after the Irish Council for Civil Liberties warned that it may be in breach of European data regulations.
Speaking to The Business Post, the school’s principal said he was “surprised” that a parent had raised the issue with the ICCL and said the technology was in use at schools in China and the US.
Sinn Féin refuses to say if it wants Special Criminal Court abolished
File Photo Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny. Picture Mark Marlow/Rollingnews.ieSinn Fein is calling for the Special Criminal Court to be “reformed and reviewed” – but is refusing to say whether it still wants it abolished.
Speaking to Newstalk’s On the Record with Gavan Reilly this morning, the party’s justice spokesperson Martin Kenny labelled the non-jury court a “19th Century implement to deal with 21st Century crime.”
The court was established in the early 1970s to try terrorism and organised crime cases.
Three men injured in knife fight in Belfast city centre
Three men have been arrested following a knife fight in Belfast city centre on Saturday night.
Police said the fight broke out in the Great Northern Mall on Great Victoria Street at around 7.15 pm.
All three suffered stab wounds and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
