Irish consumers to pay €3 charge on online orders worth less than €150 under new EU rules
The duty will be charged by the parcel, so orders of multiple items will not incur the charge multiple times. Photograph: iStockIrish consumers are set to pay €3 charge on online orders valued at less than €150 in a bid to protect European retail businesses, following a vote by European Union (EU) member states. The charge will be placed on small parcels entering the EU – with low-cost platforms like Temu and Shein in line to be hit most – and will be payable from the 1st of July 2026. The measure is designed to bridge the gap until the EU Customs Data Hub is set up in 2028. EU data suggests as many as 12 million small items would have been liable for the charge every day in 2024.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 22:58 UTC
The Irish Times view on migration: Ireland joins the objectors
Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O'Callaghan: said an appropriate balance is needed between the rights of individuals and the public interest. (Photo: Sam Boal/Collins PhotosIThe Government’s support for watering down protections for migrants under the European Convention on Human Rights is another step rightwards. It calls for the European Court of Human Rights to take a narrower view of Article 3 of the convention, which governs torture. Germany, France and Spain have not signed the statement despite their governments’ own political difficulties in relation to migration. Few could have predicted the geopolitical turmoil that has led to the current high levels of migration.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 22:01 UTC
Investigation begins following ‘fatal incident’ at Irish Glass Bottle construction site
A spokesman for construction group Sisk, which was hired to build the first phase of the scheme, said it was 'aware of an incident on our Glass Bottle site in Dublin'. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienThe Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is investigating a “fatal incident” at the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin 4. Gardaí and emergency services were attending the scene of an incident on Friday afternoon at the construction site earmarked for thousands of homes in Ringsend. The HSA said it had begun an investigation into a “fatal incident” at the site. As of September 22nd, there had been 32 fatal workplace injuries in Ireland this year, according to the HSA.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 21:44 UTC
Scam calls: Phone users advised not to answer +44 calls from unknown numbers amid surge in reports
ComReg is set to deploy a new way of combating scam phone calls from international numbers. Photograph: PAPeople are being advised to avoid answering calls on their phone from unknown numbers that use the prefix +44 amid a surge in reports of scams. In the run-up to Christmas, Ireland is experiencing a significant rise in scam calls that appear to be coming from the UK, according to the State’s communication regulator. “It’s a time when there’s more communication with people abroad, so unfortunately, bad actors prey upon people.”ComReg is set to deploy a new means of combating scam phone calls from international numbers. Between February 2023 and October 2025, those measures resulted in the blocking of over 131 million scam calls.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 21:27 UTC
New rules around medication dispensing delayed after political backlash
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she welcomed the outcome of the engagement between health officials and the pharmacy sector. Photograph: Sam Boal/CollinsChanges to the way medication is dispensed to patients from pharmacies are to be delayed after political backlash over the issue. There are concerns that these changes could create a risk that patients with disabilities or cognitive conditions could consume incorrect doses of their medication. In a statement on Friday afternoon, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) said it had been “extensively engaging with the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive [HSE] on the implementation of measures under the agreement”. The rules around reimbursement were clarified under the new community agreement, leading to the political backlash.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 20:59 UTC
Four prisoners arrested over assault with suspected links to fatal Edenderry fire
Gardaí have arrested four men in the Midlands Prison. On Friday morning gardaí investigating the fatal fire carried out searches at three properties in Offaly and Kildare. Gardaí investigating the attack on the prisoner in the Midlands Prison, Portlaoise, Co Laois, arrested four prisoners in the jail on Friday. The arrests were carried out by gardaí from the Serious Crime Unit based in the Laois-Offaly Garda division. “I appeal directly to any person with any information on this violent fatal incident to speak with investigating gardaí.”
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 19:46 UTC
‘It’s surreal’: US sanctions lock International Criminal Court judge out of daily life
This summer Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), arrived at her home in The Hague and, as was her habit, called out “Alexa”. So effectively, they are interfering directly with the independence of a judge,” Prost said. “Basically, my job was to speak to people who wanted to come off the list,” Prost said. “[They believed] there should be a system designed to bring accountability for the gravest crimes: crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide,” she remembered. Al-Hassan ag Abdoul Aziz was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing torture, public amputations and floggings.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 17:47 UTC
Occupied Territories Bill strictly limited to goods, says Minister
Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said the Occupied Territories Bill 'is certainly not going to be implemented this year'. Photograph: Georg Hochmuth/APA/AFP via Getty ImagesPlanned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements will be limited strictly to goods, a Minister has said. Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, told Reuters that the Occupied Territories Bill is limited to the import of goods and it would not become law this year. Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien said, in reaction, to Mr Byrne’s comments on the Occupied Territories Bill that Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee is to bring forward an update to Cabinet. MEP Barry Andrews urged Dublin to go ahead with its occupied territories Bill.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 16:57 UTC
Uber protest: Assessment of taxi booking service licensing requested by Minister
The National Transport Authority (NTA) has been asked to conduct a 'regulatory assessment' on the issue. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish TimesAn assessment of taxi booking service licensing in Ireland has been requested by the Minister for Transport in the wake of driver protests over Uber’s new fixed price fare plan. Last month, Uber announced it was launching a fixed-price taxi service in Ireland. On Sunday, Taxi Drivers Ireland confirmed it was suspending further escalation in anticipation of Government engagement. The spokeswoman said the committee supported the regulatory model and acknowledged the important work of taxi drivers.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 16:56 UTC
New data centres must generate and supply electricity to wider market, regulator rules
Photograph: Getty Images/iStockPhotoNew data centres will only be able to connect to Ireland’s electricity grid if they also generate and supply power to homes and businesses, the regulator that oversees the energy industry has ruled. The highly anticipated decision follows the regulator’s review of the grid connection policy for large energy users, namely data centres. In February, the CRU published draft measures setting out new proposals to address increased electricity demand from new data centres. They are also now required to “develop and publish an engagement and connection process for data centre connection applicants”. “Their construction can double the cost of building a data centre,” said DII.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 16:19 UTC
‘It’s poverty’: Capuchin Christmas food voucher tickets draw ‘longest’ queue in years
People who had never sought charity before were among more than 3,000 who queued for tickets for Christmas food vouchers at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin on Friday morning. People, including those with children, began queuing for Christmas food vouchers from the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin from before 4am. And the bags are getting smaller so you have to buy more.”Large queues for food vouchers formed before 4am. Br Kevin Kiernan said it was one of the biggest demands he has seen for Christmas food vouchers at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin. Year-round it provides 1,000 hot meals a day, six days a week, as well as weekly food parcels and infant and baby supplies.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 15:39 UTC
Bridging finance is back on the table for Ireland’s homebuyers
Older homeowners whose children have moved on now have access to bridging finance to encourage them to trade down. To quote the long-time Ronseal advertising slogan, bridging finance does exactly what is says on the tin – it provides a bridge to cover a gap in funding. This is not purely a property product: bridging finance can be useful in pretty much any area of commerce. If you had found your ideal home but had not yet managed to sell your own, you could tap the banks for bridging finance to span the gap. Both your existing home and the one you are using the bridging finance to purchase will act as security on the borrowings.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 15:31 UTC
The seldom-seen Dee Forbes continues to influence RTÉ – The Irish Times
While RTÉ workers and viewers are forced to pay the price for poor administration, Forbes has eluded accountability. Forbes has never explained why the doomed show was not brought to the RTÉ board for final approval. The Brennan Report states there are “several examples of the former Director General not providing RTÉ’s board and others with information”. They matter to RTÉ viewers who should not be subjected to the same episodes of Cheap Irish Homes, Scannal and Room to Improve on a loop. They matter to democracy, when the absence of a dedicated security correspondent arguably undermines RTÉ’s public service while hostile drones and ships are skulking in Irish territory.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 15:04 UTC
Plans for 170km pipeline to bring water from Shannon to Dublin to be lodged
Piping water from the Shannon to Dublin has been discussed for almost 20 years but the idea continues to attract controversy. Photograph: Alan Betson Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish TimesUisce Éireann is to lodge a planning application next week for a 170km pipeline to bring water from the river Shannon to Dublin and surrounding counties. “The growing water supply deficit and lack of supply resilience in the eastern and midlands region is simply not sustainable,” she said. More than a third of the 1.7 billion litres of drinking water Uisce Éireann pipes to homes and businesses each day is lost through leaks. Uisce Éireann said it was also proposing a multimillion euro community benefit scheme to support communities affected by the construction.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 15:03 UTC
The new US poverty line: $140,000
Wall Street portfolio manager Michael Green set the cat among the pigeons recently by claiming the new poverty line for a family of four in the US was $140,000. Photograph: Brian Kaiser/BloombergWall Street portfolio manager Michael Green set the cat among the pigeons recently by claiming the new poverty line for a family of four in the United States was $140,000 (€119,000) a year. “We have been told, implicitly, that a family earning $80,000 is doing fine − safely above poverty, solidly middle class, perhaps comfortable,” Green writes. Instead of commanding a third of household income, they now command a half. “To reach the median household income of $80,000, most families require two earners,” he says.
Source:The Irish Times
December 12, 2025 15:00 UTC