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Morning top 5: Varadkar warned against snap election; EPA to publish boil water report; Concern over National Drug Strategy

The Taoiseach has been warned against forcing a snap general election as the UK prepares to head ...
Michael Staines
Michael Staines

07.00 30 Oct 2019


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Morning top 5: Varadkar warned...

Morning top 5: Varadkar warned against snap election; EPA to publish boil water report; Concern over National Drug Strategy

Michael Staines
Michael Staines

07.00 30 Oct 2019


Share this article


The Taoiseach has been warned against forcing a snap general election as the UK prepares to head to the polls.

Leo Varadkar is under pressure from some ministers to collapse the Irish Government after MPs in the UK backed holding a vote on December 12th.

Some within fine Gael believe there won’t be a better time – with a Brexit deal agreed in principle and the latest opinion poll putting the party eight points clear of Fianna Fáil.

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Last night, the Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath warned the Government that forcing a pre-Christmas election would be a “serious and potentially very costly mistake.”

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The Environmental Protection Agency will today publish a report outlining why over 600,000 people were left without clean drinking water last week.

The boil water notice for Dublin, Meath and Kildare was put in place after a malfunction at the Leixlip Water Treatment Plant.

The EPA will outline its findings regarding Irish Water’s response to the malfunction, amid reports it allowed untreated water to flow into the system for 14 hours.

The boil water notice was in place from Tuesday to Friday last week.

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A number of former government ministers claim the National Drugs Strategy is in danger of collapse.

They believe the state has failed to work with community and voluntary sectors, as it promised to do so.

The statement has been signed by all former drugs ministers, including Pat Rabbitte and Alex White.

Anna Quigley, from the CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign, is calling on the government to urgently restore confidence in the strategy.

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The government plans to introduce 'use it or lose it' rules on certain developments in a bid to tackle land hoarding.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy will extend special planning rules that allow a streamlined planning process for developments of 100 homes or more to the end of 2021.

It comes on the back of a review into strategic housing developments.

The Minister also plans to introduce rules meaning developers who use this system have to start work within 18 months or they lose the planning permission.

It's part of a bid to tackle land hoarding.

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Ireland will reach less than half of its targeted number of electric cars by 2030, according to experts.

The government aims to have 1 million on the roads in 10 years' time - even though there are only about 5,000 at the moment.

A climate-action conference will discuss the topic in Ballsbridge in Dublin this morning.

Ethanol Europe spokesperson James Cogan said Ireland is not going to get “anywhere near” its target in the coming years, “even with the most dramatic uptake in electric vehicle sales.


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