Valerie Flynn

2 weeks ago | thejournal.ie | Valerie Flynn

IN THE FEBRILE political atmosphere that followed the Dublin riots in November 2023, then Minister for Justice Helen McEntee sought to reassure the Dáil that she had law and order in the capital firmly in hand. “I am responding,” McEntee insisted, of the issues facing Dublin city centre. With the threat of a motion of no confidence hanging over her, McEntee listed the actions she had taken – among them, “a new community safety partnership in the north inner city”.

2 weeks ago | thejournal.ie | Valerie Flynn

IRISH WHATSAPP USERS may have noticed a new ring-shaped icon in their chat screen in recent days. It’s a link to parent company Meta’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool, which is also being rolled out to other Meta apps such as Facebook Messenger. What is it and what does it do? It’s a chatbot, like ChatGPT, that generates responses to questions and prompts.

1 month ago | thejournal.ie | Valerie Flynn

EUROPE’S BUSIEST AIRPORT, London’s Heathrow, has been closed by a power cut caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation. Among more than 200,000 passengers affected by the closure – which is set to last all day – are those who were due to travel on over 60 flights between Heathrow and airports on the island of Ireland. Continuing disruption is expected for the coming days. Belfast City Airport and Dublin have been particularly badly hit with a large number of cancellations today.

1 month ago | thejournal.ie | Valerie Flynn

TWO DUBLIN LOCAL authorities have come together to push for national legislation to enable councils to levy taxes on overnight stays by tourists. Fingal County Council has written to all councils nationwide calling for the introduction of enabling legislation for locally collected “transient visitor tax” on overnights in hotels, short-term rentals such as Airbnbs, and other accommodation.

1 month ago | thejournal.ie | Valerie Flynn |Christina Finn

IARNRÓD ÉIREANN IS planning new “bridge strike cameras” in a bid to tackle delays to services caused by vehicles colliding with railway bridges. There were 80 such incidents nationwide last year. In a market consultation document published last week, the rail company said the new systems will be focused initially on the Dublin suburban rail network. It has identified 17 bridges where strikes are a “frequent occurence”.