Video: Homeless figures climb to new record; Kilkenny crash victim named as former county hurler

Homeless figures

The latest figures from the Government show there were 8,190 adults and 3,442 children living in homelessness in December, an increase on the previous record of 11,542 recorded in November.

It is the sixth consecutive month that the number of people in emergency accommodation has reached a new peak, despite a temporary eviction ban being in place.

The figures from the Department of Housing also noted that just 221 people in the third quarter of 2022 were recorded as having moved out of homelessness and into rented accommodation, a 310 per cent decrease on Q3 figures from 2021.

Enoch Burke fine

Enoch Burke faces paying a fine of at least €700 after he spent Friday outside on the grounds of Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath.

On Thursday, Mr Justice Brian O’Moore ruled that Mr Burke would incur a fine of €700 for each day that he breached a court order restraining his attendance at the school, unless he purged his contempt of court by 2pm on Friday.

When asked by reporters, Mr Burke was vague as to whether he would pay the fine, but said that he did not believe he should be fined for having religious beliefs.

Meanwhile, the school has told the High Court it wishes to correct certain statements made in a document it is relying on as part of its ongoing legal action against Mr Burke.

In a brief application before the court on Friday afternoon, counsel for the school said two factual inaccuracies in documents sworn on behalf of the school had come to light since Thursday evening.

While these matters needed to be addressed by way of a corrective affidavit, counsel said that the issues in question do not affect any of the orders previously granted by the court.

Kilkenny crash

A former GAA player who was selected for the Kilkenny senior hurling team was killed in a single-vehicle collision in the county in the early hours of Friday morning.

James 'Shiner' Nolan (34) who was named locally from close to Clara village died when the car he was driving hit a wall at Carn in Dunbell, Co Kilkenny at 2.30am.

Mr Nolan, who played at corner forward for the senior team and for his local Clara GAA club, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Election expenses

There is a  "world of difference" between controversy surrounding Paschal Donohoe's election expenses and that of Sinn Féin, the party's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has said.

"The attempts by some politicians to draw an equivalence to what are effectively relatively minor administration errors on our part versus refusal and failure to declare very significant corporate donations in kind, is a world of difference," Mr Ó Broin said.

He added once the errors had been brought to the party's attention they were immediately rectified.