Politics (Page 324)

Updated: 9am. Additional reporting by Vivienne Clarke. The Omicron wave of Covid-19 infections is likely to be “overcome” faster than previous waves of the virus, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said. Although acknowledging that January will be a “difficult” month, he said Covid hospitalisations will not reach the highs they didContinue Reading

Irina Bg / Shutterstock The dramatic changes in technology over the past 20 or so years, from the internet to the smartphone and digital assistants like Alexa, have made communication more accessible than ever before. We have created an online world where we post, share, comment, express views and seekContinue Reading

A further 6,735 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic, with some businesses struggling to keep their doors open as soaring infection numbers impact staffing. Overall test positivity reported on Monday was 49.7 per cent, increasing from 39.8 per cent on Stephens’ Day and 32.4 per cent onContinue Reading

shutterstock/supermao “We don’t want to be tripping over Zimmer frames all the time,” said John*, 73. He clearly felt frustrated and had a strong objection to the older, more frail residents in his retirement village. John and his wife, Jean, had moved to the retirement village about a year ago.Continue Reading

While leaks and uncertainty around the Covid-19 pandemic are bad for people’s mental health, a professor of psychiatry has said the tendency to blame public health officials and politicians comes because blaming the virus itself is “emotionally unsatisfactory”. Leaks of National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) advice to Government haveContinue Reading