NewsBank (Irish Times: Web Edition Articles (Dublin, Ireland))

Sir, – It is dispiriting to hear that "there's nothing more we can do" from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), the body responsible for managing traffic congestion on the M50 and other major roads.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI) has received the overall excellence award at The National Procurement Awards 2025, in recognition of the delivery of one of Ireland's most ambitious infrastructure programmes.

Sir, – If they wanted to guarantee we watched The Life of Brian, they couldn't have done a better job. In 1979, banning it ensured that everyone in my friend group watched it.

Regulators will press ahead with controversial plans to demand that new data centres must supply electricity to homes and businesses in return for power grid connections, it has emerged.

Irish businesses need to "urgently" prepare for making the switch to electric vehicles (EV).

As an Irish man who has spent much of my life abroad, Seamus Heaney has been my companion, helping me grow up into literature, Irishness and, ultimately, myself.

It is not possible to provide a firm timeline for the sale of a large cargo ship seized by the State as part of the country's largest ever cocaine haul which is costing €110,000 per week to detain in Cork, the Revenue Commissioners have said.

The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities will press ahead with controversial plans to demand that new data centres must supply electricity to homes and businesses in return for power grid connections, it has emerged. Barry O'Halloran has the details.

Energia Group's earnings declined by more than a fifth in the six months to September, just before French private equity firm Ardian agreed to buy the all-Ireland power company in an estimated €2.5 billion deal.

Uefa Conference League: Shelbourne v Crystal Palace, Thursday, 8pm – Live on Premier Sports 1 & TNT Sports 3

There are wine bottles everywhere. Hand-written chalkboard signs carve the shelves into regions: Italy, Austria, Germany, Jura/Savoie, Loire, Burgundy, Bordeaux. The space reads more as a wine shop – as you'd expect in 64 Wine in Glasthule, one of the country's most highly awarded wine shops – than as a restaurant. Floor-to-ceiling shelving is lit from within, giving the space a warm, amber glow.

When Andrew Hines talks about Ireland's artificial intelligence (AI) future, he doesn't start with algorithms or supercomputers. He starts with housing and the cost of living.

What is your background and your current role?

Last Saturday's 40-14 beating in Bath was a profoundly disappointing start for both Munster and their prodigal outhalf JJ Hanrahan in his third Champions Cup campaign with his native province. Yet it still served to demonstrate why Munster signed him and vindicated his decision to come back again.

Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson's feature-directing debut, is built on a formidable foundation: June Squibb, who is now in her 90s and coming off a career high with the action-comedy Thelma. She plays Eleanor Morgenstein, a sharp Floridian golden-ager – you'd better know where those pickles are, young man.

Irish retailer SuperValu will exit its long-standing Getaway Breaks programme which was previously run in partnership with travel company Digibreaks, the company has said.

Dear Trish

Government TDs and senators tripped over themselves on Wednesday to praise RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst for leading the organisation's charge to trim costs and "restore trust and confidence" after the scandal that rocked the broadcaster two and a half years ago. They should be careful what they wish for.

Ireland's largest nursing home groups, mostly now in foreign ownership, posted a fourth straight year of losses in 2024 as they continued to pay the price for a flurry of deals completed before interest rates spiked, a continuing gap in Government funding for beds in private and public facilities, and rising running costs.

For those saving to put a deposit down on their first home, the goalposts keep moving, with property prices in the State rising year on year.

Uefa Conference League: Breidablik v Shamrock Rovers, Thursday, 5.45pm – Live on Premier Sports 1 & TNT Sports 4

There is an order to the things that go missing in my home. Keys are at the top, followed by phones. Both of those are relatively easy to find thanks to Bluetooth tags; as long as you have one you can find the other. But when it comes to glasses – offender number three on the list – things get a bit more difficult.

Shout-out to Ethel Gannon, Benjy and Frankie Byrne, Coco Gould, Padmé Murphy, Jenko O'Connell, the recently departed Cosmo Donnelly and the little pup Stout.

When was the last time you thought about the Roman Empire? It's a common meme that men spend an inordinate amount of time and mental bandwidth on Rome.

Listening to the shifting debate on asylum policy in the European Union over the last two years, you would start to wonder when values and respect for international law became optional.

Why did Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour go along with a Sinn Féin stunt at the European Parliament?

How have property sale prices changed across the capital from the post-recession low in 2012/2013 to today?

A centre-right German newspaper might seem an unlikely home for a Booker International-winning novelist's essayistic experimentation. But Jenny Erpenbeck's pieces on transience, decay and resilience, most of them first published as biweekly columns in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 2007 onwards, show it can be done.

Given its central importance to everything we do, it really does surprise me that politicians don't know how to use the internet. Well, some do. Zohran Mamdani in New York has a clever videographer; and Rupert Lowe of Reform in the UK is quite good at posting on X/Twitter. But for the very most part, finding an elected official with a proficiency in the humour, grammar and vocabulary of social...

The M in M50 stands for motorway – multiple lanes, fast speed limits and easy access to a network of national roads. More than 30 years ago it was designed as a modern piece of infrastructure to get the country moving.