Pictures of Ireland’s most famous newlyweds Brian O’Driscoll and Amy Huberman adorn the front pages of all the papers, broadsheet and tabloid, this morning. The happy couple were yesterday wed in St. Joseph’s Church, Aughavas, Leitrim in front of 250 guests, which included Brian’s Leinster and Ireland team mates such as Gordon D’Arcy, Rob Kearney, Paul O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Paddy Wallace.
Away from the glitz and glamour of the big celebrity wedding, it’s serious business as usual on the front of today’s broadsheets.
‘Plan aims to turn empty hotels into schools’ reads the headline on the front of today’s Irish Independent. The Indo report that buildings seized by asset management agency NAMA throughout the country will be offered to local authorities and turned into schools or nursing homes as part of a radical new plan.
According to the report, it is hoped the move will help the Government to claw back some of the billions spent bailing out scandal-hit banks on behalf of taxpayers and help revive the collapsed property market.
More property related news on the front page of this morning’s Irish Times, who lead with the headline, ‘150 asylum seekers in Mosney told to move hostels within days’. The Department of Justice have told at least 150 asylum seekers living in the accommodation centre in co. Meath that they must move on as they seek to reduce number of residents from 800 to 650.
The Department said the transfers were being implemented as part of a value for money review of direct provision – the system for accommodating and feeding asylum-seekers.
The HSE come in for criticism on the front of today’s Irish Examiner. ‘HSE failed my daughter after rape says Mum’ goes the main headline.
The mother of a ten year old girl who was raped over a one year period, has blasted the HSE for not properly handling the case, claiming that her daughter, now 14, was not provided with a social worker or a psychologist despite talking about suicide, wasn’t given an adequate medical examination and that there were unnecessarily long delays in reporting the case to the relevant authorities.
Her mother maintains delays and mistakes made by the HSE during the investigation may have prevented the DPP from prosecuting and has called for an urgent review of the case. She is currently preparing to write to the DPP outlining the serious psychological effect the lack of prosecution is having on her daughter.
