Coronavirus

Legal rights group FLAC has criticised ministers for giving "contradictory and confusing explanations" for the retrospective taxation of the Covid Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys told RTÉ's News at One that the government has "always been clea

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has today opened a temporary system which will enable citizenship applicants to complete their naturalisation process by signing a statutory declaration of loyalty. This signed statutory declaration replaces the requirement for citizenship applicants to attend citizens

Jason O'Sullivan, solicitor and public affairs consultant at J.O.S Solicitors, examines the dilemma employers will face when they encounter employees who refuse to take the vaccine and what measures they should take to deal with them. As the rollout continues with the Covid-19 vaccinations, its welc

Thousands of UK businesses will receive payouts for coronavirus-related business interruption losses after the UK Supreme Court sided with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a landmark test case. The complex 112-page judgment augurs poorly for Irish insurers in a similar test case in the Irish

The Law Society of Ireland has not followed the Bar Council in asking the government to include lawyers in the "key worker" priority category for the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. The government's Covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy says key workers are provisionally sixth in line to be vaccinated aft

Disabled people are being "left behind" and excluded from decision-making when it comes to Covid-19 planning by the State, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has warned. The watchdog pointed to the issue of school closures and disabled students’ specific educational needs as the la

Barristers should be included in the "key worker" category for the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine, the Bar Council of Ireland has said.

A female prisoner in Northern Ireland has tested positive for Covid-19 for the first time, the Northern Ireland Prison Service has said. The positive test at Hydebank Wood College comes around four months after the first positive test of a prisoner in Northern Ireland in Maghaberry last September.

Judges should challenge family lawyers who send emails outside acceptable hours, the president of the family courts in England and Wales has said. In an update on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the family courts, Sir Andrew McFarlane said court hearings and emails taking place "without any r

Nearly four in ten Irish-listed companies held closed AGMs in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report from business law firm Mason Hayes & Curran LLP. The firm's AGM Season Report 2020 reviews the types of AGMs that took place during the pandemic and the implications of

Property sales and viewings can continue under the new Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities has confirmed. The Northern Ireland Executive imposed increased restrictions for six weeks beginning 26 December 2020, which will be tightened further on Friday.

The High Court has ordered that Ryanair must pay the State’s fees in its unsuccessful challenge of the legality of the Government of Ireland’s coronavirus travel advice. Background

The International Convention Centre in Belfast (ICC) has been deployed as Northern Ireland's first "Nightingale venue" to facilitate court and tribunals business. However, the ICC is only being used for jury assembly this week pending "rigorous risk assessments", which the Northern Ireland Courts an

A former lawyer who used social media to report from Wuhan following the first outbreak of Covid-19 last February has been jailed for four years for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble". Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old human rights activist who was also detained in 2019 for speaking in support of anti

Immigration and international protection permissions have been temporarily extended for a further two months. This is the sixth extension announced by Justice Minister Helen McEntee since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the third described as "final".