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A report on a fund designed to help the Midlands recover from the closure of peat-fired power stations found just one-sixth of the hoped-for jobs materialised.

Projects supported by the National Just Transition Fund (NJTF) had been expected to create up to 1,094 full and part-time jobs. However, just 183 posts resulted.

An analysis said it was also hoped the programme could lead to as many as 1,600 indirect jobs.

In this area, the project worked better but it was still well short of estimates with 956 full or part-time roles created.

The report by Indecon said the NJTF had a positive impact on the Midlands in terms of community resilience, training supports, environmental sustainability, tourism infrastructure and small business growth.

However, it said, “some issues are likely to exist around the long-term sustainable impact of the Fund.”

The report explained that “limited employment impacts” were evident and that the jobs that were created came at a “relatively high cost.”

It said: “There appears to be a disconnect between the overall strategic objective of the Fund and the KPIs [key performance indicators] used to measure its impact and contribution which were largely focused on employment impacts.

“A significant number of projects were not completed as per the original application.”

The report was published by the Department of Climate, Energy, and the Environment after a formal request for it was made under FOI.

The NJTF was administered through the Department with 56 projects chosen for funding after a competitive process.

It was intended to help Midland counties recover from the loss of employment caused by power plant closures in Lanesborough and Shannonbridge and the resulting fall in peat production.

The Government allocated €22.2 million, of which around €16 million was drawn down.

The report said: “The level of funding drawdown by the size of the project shows that the 11 largest projects that were awarded NJTF funding were only able to draw down 55% of the funding that had been awarded to them.

“Typically, smaller projects were able to draw down much higher percentages of their initial award.”

The analysis said if judged only as an employment measure, the scheme would be considered expensive compared to other schemes.

It said this worked out at “total cost per full-time equivalent direct employment of €106,726 and a total cost per full-time equivalent direct and indirect employment of €17,658.”

It said the NJTF had a wider role though in investing in sustainable businesses, getting new projects started, and providing opportunities for things like remote work.

“However, it is clear that the Fund did not deliver as initially set out in the project applications in terms of employment supported,” it concluded.

As part of the research, the authors contacted project organisers with 39 percent of those who responded saying they would continue in some form.

However, the report concluded: “The majority of projects that responded to Indecon’s survey of beneficiaries indicated that they do not plan to continue with their projects through their funds, ongoing support and other public funding.”

A government minister suggested changing the name of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to the Road Safety Agency, saying the authority had come in for “unfair criticism” over its work.

Minister of State Sean Canney floated the idea after he rejected a previous plan to break up the RSA into two separate bodies.

Mr Canney said the brand, while recognised by the public, could be used more effectively to encourage road safety.

In a letter to the RSA chair, he wrote: “I … propose to rename the RSA as the ‘Road Safety Agency’. Having the title of ‘Authority’ despite being one actor among many in the road safety space has led to unfair criticism in the past of the RSA.

“This will allow for the ‘RSA’ brand to be maintained.”

The suggestion was made against the backdrop of increased road deaths and growing pressure on the Road Safety Authority.

The RSA has been accused of having a conflict of interest in trying to promote safety while funding itself through driving tests and NCTs.

However, the plan for the ‘agency’ name change was subsequently dropped, the Department of Transport confirmed.

A spokesperson said: “In relation to renaming the Road Safety Authority as the ‘Road Safety Agency’, this was proposed but will not be taken forward as part of the reform programme.”

The RSA had been happy to move ahead with the rebrand, according to correspondence that was released under FOI.

Its chairperson Anne Graham wrote to Mr Canney saying: “The transfer of the National Vehicle and Driver File to the RSA is also welcomed as well as the proposed renaming.”

The records also show the minister raised the possibility of price hikes for services provided by the authority, including driving tests and NCTs.

An umbrella that concealed a sword, a war hammer, and a gauntlet with a hidden blade were among the dangerous items intercepted by Revenue at ports, airports and mail centres.

Customs officials also seized imports of ‘Bug-a-Salt’ guns designed to kill insects by blasting them with table salt.

The ‘weapons’ are novelty plastic pump-action shotguns that take down pests, including flies, mosquitos, spiders and “all sorts of irksome insects.”

Records released by Revenue log more than 1,000 seizures involving weapons and accessories since the beginning of last year, ranging from samurai swords and stun guns to knuckle dusters and throwing stars.

Some of the most unusual discoveries include a “tactical gauntlet with hidden blade and throwing knives” which was nabbed at the Athlone Mail Centre last year after being posted from France.

Two months later, officers in Westmeath intercepted two more rare items from France including a “sword umbrella” and a blowpipe.

A 700-gram war hammer was seized at Dublin Airport in May of this year after arriving from the Netherlands, although it was subsequently “released locally.”

There were nearly twenty seizures of the bug-busting guns including one model described as “Advanced Combat Fiber Optic 3.0.”

Altogether, Revenue recorded 636 seizures involving weapons and accessories during 2025 and another 384 in the first eight months of 2026.

Just two applications from former ministers, special advisers, and senior public servants seeking waivers from ‘cooling-off’ restrictions have ultimately been refused over the past decade.

Figures from the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) show that 54 applications have been made since the system was first introduced eleven years ago.

Of those, 50 waivers were granted “subject to specific conditions” while a single application was withdrawn.

There were three refusals in total, two of which were later appealed by the applicant seeking the waiver.

One of the appeals was successful while the other failed, according to records released under FOI.

The ‘cooling-off’ periods are intended to ease public concern over perceptions of a revolving door between public office and the private sector.

However, the legislation allows SIPO to consent to either a full or partial waiver of the normal twelve-month period required.

In many of the cases, the individuals involved have gone on to work in firms involved in lobbying, political communication, or public relations.

The figures reveal the chances of getting a waiver are incredibly high.

Of the 53 final decisions, 51 waivers were ultimately granted – a success rate of 96 percent.

Details of who applied, the specific arguments they made for their waiver, and the reasons for each specific decision are not made public by SIPO.

The Standards Commission said each application was assessed against a range of factors, which are published on its lobbying website.

These included the likelihood of the person’s new job conflicting with work they did while working for a government department or public body.

Other factors included whether the applicant was “head-hunted”, could give an unfair advantage over competitors, and what lobbying activity they would be involved in.

SIPO said that approvals were typically subject to a set of conditions that had to be followed by the applicant.

It said those conditions were also notified to the new employer as well as the former department or public body where the person worked.

SIPO said it published anonymised case studies explaining the types of applications it received, the circumstances involved and the rationale for its decisions.

A spokesman said: “In terms of giving more detail in relation to the applicants, you should note that Section 25(2) of the Lobbying Act 2015 specifically prohibits publication of information which may identify the applicants.”

The Information Commissioner has also ruled that details of individual waiver applications should not be released under FOI, largely on the basis that it is personal information.

The number of asylum applicants in Ireland flagged on a European fingerprint database surged by almost 50 percent last year despite a sharp fall in the numbers seeking international protection.

Figures from the Department of Justice show that there were 2,315 ‘hits’ on Eurodac last year, compared to 1,558 in 2024.

A ‘hit’ on the database shows that an applicant previously applied for international protection elsewhere in the EU or crossed irregularly into another member state.

It can lead to an asylum application being deemed inadmissible or discussions with another EU state over who should deal with the case.

Of last year’s total, 384 had a “marked” hit showing they had already been granted international protection elsewhere in the EU.

That figure was up from 297 in 2024.

Successful applicants will sometimes seek asylum in a different country to be reunited with family, because of poor accommodation or homelessness, or in the hope Ireland might offer a better life for them.

The department said there had been 1,527 matches on the Eurodac database in the first half of this year.

Of those, 257 were ‘marked’ where the person already had asylum status in another EU state.

For 2025, around 17 percent of the 2,315 total fingerprint ‘hits’ involved individuals who had successfully applied for international protection elsewhere.

In 2024, the proportion was even higher – with around one in five matches involving people granted asylum.

The Department of Justice said it could not provide a breakdown of the data by nationality.

The large increase in matches on the EU fingerprint system came against the backdrop of a decline in overall numbers seeking asylum.

In 2024, there were 18,561 applications but that dropped almost 30 percent to 13,160 in 2025.

Separate figures from the Department of Justice show that there were 311 cases of what are called “inadmissible decisions” in the first half of this year.

These are cases where the person has already been granted international protection in another member state and the Irish authorities do not need to examine the substance of the asylum claim.

There were a further 390 inadmissible decisions in 2025 and 158 in 2024.

Leinster House had to chase up a debt of almost €31,000 from a retired politician or their estate, part of more than €100,000 owed in overpayments at the end of 2025.

Figures from the Oireachtas show that former TDs and Senators, or their estates, were on the hook for almost €55,000 that was paid out in error.

At the close of last year, there were eight outstanding cases involving ex-members with an average of around €6,800 owed.

A further €29,000 was being recovered from political staff, retired political staff or from their estates in cases where they had passed away.

The average amount owed in those was much smaller, at around €1,000 per case.

Civil servants in the employment of the Oireachtas were also being pursued over €16,400 in overpayments at the end of 2025, according to information released under FOI.

The bulk of the €100,128 overall debt involved just ten cases.

In one case involving a former TD or Senator, or their estate, €30,868 was owed, more than treble the next highest debt.

There were another four cases in which at least €6,000 was owed, with the highest of those overpayments listed as €9,525.

The Oireachtas figures showed a sharp rise in the amount of money being recovered over the past three years.

In 2023, there were €59,120 in overpayments returned to the State while last year that figure was more than double at €126,306.

The amount of money outstanding at the end of the year has also fallen, though not quite as significantly.

The total owed at the end of 2023 was €130,624, falling to €98,144 in 2024, before increasing slightly to €100,128 last year.

In an information note, the Houses of the Oireachtas Service said there were no overpayments made to sitting TDs or Senators between 2023 and 2025.

The note said: “In respect of all overpayments outstanding at the end of 2025 … they were either fully recouped in 2026, repayments are underway, or the Service is engaging with the individual/estate of the individual to put a recoupment plan in place.”

An AI system for transcribing court hearings had to be tested on recordings from across Ireland to see whether strong accents and local turns of phrase would leave it lost for words.

The €170,000 Courts Service artificial intelligence project was trialled using audio from courthouses nationwide amid concerns that accents, dialects and “localisms” might prove confusing.

However, testing found the AI system performed strongly overall and made just 585 “word errors” across more than 30,000 words that were manually checked.

The Courts Service said this was a “word error rate” of 2.2 percent, with poor audio proving a far bigger impediment than regional accents.

The system, which is called the DAR AI Assistant, is now being moved to a small-scale live pilot for use by judges and Courts Service staff.

The AI is designed to make lengthy court recordings easier to search, allowing people to find testimony or sections of hearings without having to listen back through a full set of proceedings.

A spokesman explained: “For example, reviewing a five-hour court sitting to identify a specific exchange or testimony can be time-consuming.

“The DAR AI Assistant helps users find and access those sections more quickly.”

The spokesman said the system was not intended to replace external transcription services but instead to become a useful reference tool.

It will only be used by Courts Service staff and judges, who will be trained on both the capabilities and limitations of AI-generated transcripts.

The spokesman said: “Human review remains central to the process and users will be made aware that AI-generated outputs should not be relied upon without validation against the original audio.”

Internal records said the project would face additional challenges, aside from accents including courtroom sound quality.

A business case said personal information in the transcripts would be carefully stored and processed and that a data protection impact assessment had taken place.

On project disadvantages, it said: “Introduction of the [system] will require judges and staff to familiarise themselves with new functionality and ways of working, which may initially slow adoption.”

A list of risks said data quality would be closely monitored as “inaccurate transcripts or delays in audio availability could reduce confidence in the solution.”

Another risk assessment document said a separate sound modernisation project was underway to improve audio quality. To deal with “poor quality audio, Irish accents, and localisms,” it said the AI could be provided with bespoke dictionaries and tweaked over time.

Government officials said an enhanced pension for the directly elected mayor of Limerick could end up costing an additional €320,000 for just a single term of office.

The Department of Public Expenditure said it could not sanction fast-accruing benefits for John Moran, saying it would set a risky precedent.

A standard pension arrangement for the mayor from one five-year term was estimated to have a net cost of just over €124,000 based on twenty years of retirement.

However, the fast-accruing pension that Mr Moran sought, the same as that of a junior minister, had an estimated cost of almost €450,000.

Officials said the difference was close to €325,000 and that if granted, it would likely apply to other directly elected mayors in future.

The estimates were based on a mayor serving one five-year term, meaning the potential cost would be even higher if they were re-elected.

An internal department submission suggested other people could start looking for special pension deals where they would look to “mix and match salary and retirement terms.”

It said: “The decoupling of pension and salary entitlements for new posts would set a precedent that could create challenges for maintaining cohesive employment and retirement terms across the public service.”

Mr Moran had sought the enhanced retirement benefits that apply to ministers of state.

A business case submitted by the Department of Housing supported his request and said that at the very least, enhanced pension terms for TDs and Senators should apply to the position.

However, the Department of Public Expenditure (DPER) disagreed and said arrangements should be consistent with chief executives of local authorities.

An internal submission said: “A decision to adhere to the original sanction would also be associated with significantly lower Exchequer liabilities, with cumulative savings of over €300,000 over the retirement span of someone who held the office for one five-year term.

“There is also a possibility of other mayoral posts being created in the future, for which the Mayor of Limerick terms will likely serve as a benchmark.”

It said the bigger risk was that others would seek to “capitalise” to try and wangle better pension terms in state jobs.

“[This] would in turn have an inflationary effect on overall compensation packages for senior public servants,” it explained.

It said a decision would also be needed on how to manage a situation where a directly elected mayor reached, or had already passed, the age of seventy.

Standard members of the public service pension scheme are generally required to step down at seventy, but a directly elected mayor could technically top the poll at any age.

A letter was subsequently sent by DPER to the Department of Housing saying it could not agree to any enhanced terms.

It said the “unique nature” of the position was acknowledged but that pension terms had to be compatible with the original sanction for the role.

The letter concluded: “Therefore, in line with current pension policy, the position of Mayor of Limerick shall be pensionable on a standard accrual basis.”

Asked about the records, a spokesperson for DPER said it had nothing further to add.

Fire inspectors found a catalogue of safety problems in emergency homeless accommodation, including rooms repurposed as bedrooms without approval, inadequate escape routes and faulty fire doors.

At one centre, Dublin Fire Brigade found there was no procedure explaining what residents or staff should do if a fire broke out or an alarm was activated.

The accommodation had no escape route on display or a designated assembly point, a report said.

Inspectors also discovered there were no smoke or fire detection devices in most of the storerooms, in some bedroom lobbies and in void spaces, including roof areas.

Recent upgrade works to the fire detection and alarm system had also not been documented or certified.

Inspectors found extra bedrooms had been created in rooms that were approved for other uses while other parts of the building did not match up with agreed fire safety designs.

The inspection said: “Examples of these include, but are not limited to, the inclusion of many storerooms throughout many areas of the building, the inclusion of additional bedrooms in rooms approved for other uses in various locations throughout the building.”

The reports from Dublin City Council also showed escape routes “were not adequately enclosed in fire-rated construction.”

Fire doors were found to be in a poor state of repair, with missing smoke seals, ineffective self-closers and excessive gaps around some doors.

The city council had originally refused to release the records. However, following an appeal under FOI laws to the Information Commissioner, two reports were made public.

At a second centre, inspectors found more fire doors in poor condition, including along escape routes, while several had been propped or wedged open.

An inspection said: “This was particularly the case amongst the doors examined along the common escape routes (corridors, stairs, etc.). There were screws missing from hinges in numerous locations.”

One exit at ground-floor level had nine separate locking mechanisms while several bedroom windows were not suitable for escape or rescue.

The inspection also found fire extinguishers were outside their service dates while one external escape route “terminated at [an] electrically powered roller shutter.”

The building was, however, unoccupied at the time of the inspection but had a proposed occupancy of around 25 people plus staff.

Asked about the records, a spokesperson said the DRHE and Dublin Fire Brigade (DFB) conducted inspections of all emergency homeless accommodation.

They said: “Where issues are identified during an inspection, the service provider is contacted and required to carry out any identified repairs or remedial works.

“The DRHE remains committed to ensuring that all providers – commercial and NGO – meet the high standard expected for the delivery of safe accommodation. “The rolling programme of internal, external, announced and unannounced inspections together with the work of DFB is fundamental to ensuring any issues are addressed quickly and that high standards are maintained.”

The final wind-down of NAMA left a bill of almost €8 million in termination payments for staff this year.

New figures show that 54 employees were eligible for payments totalling €7.96 million, an average cost of around €147,000 per employee.

The largest cost was just over €4 million in ex-gratia redundancy payments, which was shared among 47 departing staff.

A further €1.53 million was paid in salary to those 47 employees while they were on garden leave, according to records released under FOI.

Retention payments totalling €1.13 million were also payable to a total of 49 employees as the asset management agency shut its doors.

Seven staff were subsequently transferred to the Resolution Unit of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

That unit will oversee the management and disposal of NAMA’s remaining assets.

A detailed breakdown of €6.43 million in payments shows that €681,000 was paid out in statutory redundancy.

A further €4.066 million was paid in “ex-gratia redundancy” with additional payments of €172,000 and €249,000 respectively for employer PRSI and employer pension.

There were retention payments of €1.134 million, and €127,000 in employer PRSI on those lump sums.

NAMA said “only contractual remuneration” was paid during garden leave.

Just under €270,000 was paid out for untaken annual leave, the records also showed.

Asked about the payments for untaken holidays, a spokesperson for the NTMA said this was additional to the €7.9 million in termination benefits.

NAMA’s 2024 annual report had estimated that the cost of payouts for staff leaving would be in the region of €12.4 million.

However, the spokesperson said overall costs so far included payments made last year and this year, with further payments scheduled for 2027.

They said: “The difference between this figure and the €12.4m figure in the 2024 NAMA Annual Report is primarily attributable to payments made in 2025 and payments that are scheduled to be made after certain staff members’ fixed term contracts come to an end in 2027.”