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Proposals to scrap the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) have been met with opposition from 60 children and youth organisations. An internal Fianna Fáil paper seen by the Business Post reportedly proposes the abolition of the DCYA to make way for a new Department of Higher Educa

The State is required by law to provide single or household occupancy accommodation to ensure social distancing and to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to legal advice obtained by the Irish Refugee Council (IRC). The legal opinion by Michael Lynn SC and Cillian Bracken BL states that positive

Strangulation is a substantial, separate and distinct aggravating feature to be taken into account in sentencing for domestic violence, appeal judges in Belfast have emphasised while dismissing an appeal against sentence. The Court of Appeal this morning upheld the 12-month prison sentence handed do

Benjamin Bestgen explores trust and trustworthiness in his latest jurisprudential primer. See his last post here. Literature and movies are full of stories that have, either at their core or as a necessary ingredient, the topic of trust and trustworthiness. Recently, Marriage Story (2019) dealt with

The chairs of nine influential Westminster committees have called on the UK government to provide a mechanism for scrutiny of the Northern Ireland part of the Brexit deal. In a letter sent to Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the chairs said MPs must be "notified of, and enabled to

A five-year-old boy has been caught driving his mum's car in an ambitious bid to cross the United States to buy a Lamborghini. Police in Utah were stunned after they pulled over the car to find a "young, very underage driver", CNN reports.

Commercial law firms Philip Lee and McEvoy Corporate Law are set to merge, creating a combined firm with 35 partners and more than 60 lawyers across Dublin, London, Brussels and San Francisco. The merger, which will see the firms operate under the Philip Lee brand from the firm's Dublin headquarters

There will not be "catastrophic" delays in the Court of Appeal due to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Justice George Birmingham has said. The president of the court told The Irish Times that the court is "trying to ... keep the slippage to a minimum", in part by working on reserved judgments.

Plans to extend youth supports in the justice system to young adults aged up to 24 have been welcomed by penal reform campaigners. David Stanton, the minister with responsibility for youth justice, last week published his draft strategy for youth justice for the six-year period from 2020 to 2026.

The requirement to hold a public event as part of the pre-application process for major planning applications has been temporarily removed for five months. The changes, which came into effect via legislation on Friday 1 May, have been made to allow the planning system to continue functioning during

Employers' and public liability insurance data will be included in the National Claims Information Database (NCID), the Central Bank of Ireland has announced. The move comes five months after the Central Bank published the NCID's first annual report on private motor insurance, which provided detaile

A former barrister and solicitor advocate believes that solicitors’ firms must embrace technology if they are to survive in the coming months and year. Paul Kearney made the decision to open Kearney Law Group (KLG) in September 2019 and he did so with a revitalised, renewed approach and mindse

Criminal barrister Joanna Hardy shares her experience of remote courts in England. “I haven’t met the defendant, Your Honour,” I tell a screen in my kitchen. Silence. “Can… can you hear me?” My words echo through the judge’s laptop in a courtroom three mile

Ronan Daly Jermyn partner Darryl Broderick and trainee solicitor Sinéad Harrington examine the Irish courts’ general reluctance to grant an extension of the one-year limitation period in defamation cases. In a previous insight here, RDJ examined the 2018 case of Nóirín O&r

Prison healthcare workers are set to receive a £1,300 pay boost in recognition of their "vital work". The annual "environmental allowance" will be paid into salaries by July 2020, subject to necessary business case approval.