Poll suggests Labour Party support at 25-year low

Support for the Labour Party has fallen to its lowest level for more than 25 years, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.

When undecided voters are excluded, the poll found Labour support to be 6%, the lowest level since 1987.

At the time of that poll, the party had just emerged from a five-year coalition with Fine Gael.

The survey indicated that Fine Gael is the most supported party with 26%, with Sinn Féin overtaking Fianna Fáil in second place, with 23%.

Fianna Fáil has dropped four points since the last poll in June, to 22%.

Support for independents and others has also risen in the poll, to 21%, while the Green Party was on 2%.

Reacting to the poll, Labour's Brendan Howlin admitted "it is a concern".

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform said the Labour Party is on a journey to recover the economy, which he said is difficult.

He said that Labour will not see a significant rise in the polls until people see money back in their pockets.

He predicted that that will happen in the next two and a half years.

Asked if the poll threatened Eamon Gilmore's leadership of the party, Mr Howlin said the Labour team is everyone from grass roots to party leader and they are all in it together.

Frank McBrearty Jnr resigns from Labour

Donegal County Councillor Frank McBrearty Jnr has resigned from the Labour party saying that the party had broken promises it made to the people of Donegal and Ireland.

Cllr McBrearty joined the party in 2009 and later ran as a Labour candidate in the 2010 by-election in Donegal South West and in the General Election of 2011 but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

The Raphoe-based businessman said he will remain in Donegal County Council as an independent and has not decided yet if he will contest the next local elections.

Mr McBrearty served as Mayor of Donegal last year.

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'Opt out' system recommended for organ donation

The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is recommending that the Government introduce a soft "opt out" system for organ donation.

If implemented, Ireland will join countries where citizens are presumed to be organ donors unless they say otherwise and opt out of transplantation.

GAA football analyst Joe Brolly was among a number of individuals and groups, including the Irish Kidney Association, the Irish Heart and Lung Transplant Association and the National Organ Procurement Service, that contributed to a public consultation last April.

Under the proposals, citizens will be presumed to give consent for their organs to be donated, although relatives can refuse the process in the event of a family member's death.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, committee chairman Jerry Buttimer said the unanimous recommendations are designed to increase the number of organs available for transplant.

"It's very difficult for them (families) to make decisions like organ donation. And what we're saying is that at the end of the life of that person if the family says we can't do this, then that's their decision and they cannot give consent."

The Fine Gael TD said the existing "opt in" system has not worked, and that it was imperative that the recommendation was expedited by Government.

Mr Buttimer added that the "opt out" proposals would only work in tandem with increased investment in transplant services, including greater numbers of surgeons and transplant co-ordinators.

He said: "This move in itself will not give the desired increase.

"It requires an attitude change by the public, infrastructure support by Government and it requires investment in the health service."

The committee chairman said he was hopeful the recommendations could be implemented within a couple of months.

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Child waited months for HSE action over rape claim

The Health Service Executive took two months to arrange a specialist medical examination for an 11-year-old girl who claimed she was violently raped on several occasions, according to a report by the Ombudsman for Children.

It says the actions of the HSE contributed to an adverse effect on the child, who did not receive therapeutic support.

The HSE also failed to appoint a social worker.

Between December 2006 and July 2007, the girl made disclosures of multiple instances of severe child abuse.

She alleged repeated instances of violent rape by an adult male, which involved death threats with a knife.

Over several months the child underwent detailed interviews with gardaí.

The child's mother reported her daughter's threatened suicide and depression around the time of the disclosures.

In May 2009, the mother complained to the Ombudsman for Children about the HSE's response in the case.

The report says that within the first 72 hours of an instance of sexual abuse or rape, there is a higher probability that a specialist medical examination will yield evidence that may be significant.

In February, the mother asked the HSE to conduct a medical examination.

Initially, the HSE arranged for a male specialist to perform it but the child felt a male would be too stressful.

It took two months for the HSE to find a female specialist to do the examination.

In June 2010, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to mount a criminal prosecution in the case.

The report says that the allegations had been made two days before Christmas in 2006 and two weeks had passed.

The HSE decided not to allocate a social worker, citing capacity and procedural reasons.

It said that allocating a social worker would be uncommon, unless there was an ongoing risk to the child.

The mother sought therapeutic support from a private specialist.

The report also found that the HSE's actions and contacts in the case were not recorded contemporaneously, or in a uniform or consistent fashion.

Information is also missing from the case notes.

The Ombudsman said the HSE failed to consider the child's best interests as a primary factor.

The child was present for some of the arguments that occurred between the HSE and her mother on the telephone in 2006 over support.

Seven years on, the child does not trust the HSE and feels betrayed by their actions.

HSE's actions may be result of negligence - Ombudsman

Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan has found that the actions of the HSE may have been as a result of negligence.

She recommended that the HSE continue to engage with the child and mother in order to assess the child's current needs.

She said it should also prioritise direct contact with children and have face-to-face contact with families.

Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms Logan said the HSE's perception of the girl's mother as "difficult and challenging" became an impediment to ensuring the child's interests were paramount.

She said that during her investigation she had formed the view that the mother was a person of great capacity who would work hard to get her daughter the resources she required.

The report says the HSE should allocate a social worker to complex cases and improve its record-keeping.

It should also streamline the system for organising medical examinations and ensure a gender balance of physicians.

HSE accepts Ombudman's report

The HSE has said it has accepted and is currently implementing the recommendations made by the Ombudsman for Children in her report.

It said that since the allegation was first reported in 2006, the provision of services and national practices in relation to child sexual abuse have evolved and improved significantly.

These improvements include the assignment of extra social workers and dedicated sexual assault treatment units, which are available on a 24-hour basis with access to female consultants.

The HSE said that it works under agreed protocols with An Garda Síochána to ensure that allegations of child abuse are investigated in accordance with statute and in compliance with Children First.

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Garda fails to preserve anonymity in court bid

A garda accused of possession of over 650 images of child sexual abuse has failed to preserve his anonymity.

The garda, who is in 50s, is stationed at a Dublin garda station.

He is currently on suspension.

He told the judge in Blanchardstown District Court today that he would be pleading not guilty to the charge, which relates to images and movie files of explicit child sex, child exposure, and other graphic images.

The garda also applied for reporting restrictions imposed at the last hearing to be renewed.

He said that publication of his name would put him at risk of attack, which could affect his right to a fair trial.

Legal representatives for RTÉ, the Irish Mail and Independent Newspapers opposed the application on the grounds that the law was very clear, the defendant had no right to anonymity and the court had no discretion in the matter.

The Director of Public Prosecutions submitted that the garda's claim that his life could be at risk was hypothetical.

Judge David McHugh said he was satisfied that identifying the garda posed no real risk of an unfair trial and lifted reporting restrictions.

However, he put a stay on the order until 5pm to allow the garda to decide whether or not he would apply for a judicial review of the ruling.

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US enters partial shutdown as spending talks fail

The US government is partially shut down for the first time in 17 years.

The shutdown will potentially put up to 1m workers on unpaid leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects.

Federal agencies were directed to cut back services after politicians could not break a stalemate over an emergency spending bill.

"This shutdown was completely preventable. It should not have happened," President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to government employees.

After House Republicans floated a late offer to break the deadlock, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea.

He said Democrats would not enter into formal negotiations on spending "with a gun to our head" in the form of government shutdowns.

The political dysfunction at the Capitol also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7 trillion (€12.4 trillion) debt ceiling.

Both parties tried to deflect responsibility for the shutdown.

President Obama accused Republicans of being too beholden to Tea Party conservatives in the House of Representatives and said the shutdown could threaten the economic recovery.

If Congress can agree to a new funding bill soon, which Mr Obama insists not be tied to the reforms, the shutdown would last days rather than weeks, with relatively little impact on the world's largest economy.

But no signs of compromise emerged immediately as the Democratic-controlled Senate formally rejected an offer by House Republicans to break the logjam.

The political stakes are particularly high for Republicans, who are trying to regain control of the Senate next year.

Polls show they are more likely to be blamed for the shutdown, as they were during the last shutdown in 1996.

Some government offices and national parks are shut, but spending for essential functions related to national security and public safety will continue, including pay for US military troops.

"I think it's outrageous. You know these guys are put into office to help the people, not to hurt them," said federal worker Ronald Jackson, who commuted 55 miles in to work at the Treasury Department only to find the office empty.

"If we're not getting paid, they shouldn't get paid."

In the hours leading up to the deadline, the Democratic-controlled Senate repeatedly stripped measures passed by the House that tied temporary funding for government operations to delaying or scaling back the healthcare overhaul known as Obamacare.

The Senate instead insisted on funding the government until 15 November without special conditions.

Whether the shutdown represents another bump in the road for a Congress increasingly plagued by dysfunction or is a sign of a more alarming breakdown in the political process could be determined by the reaction among voters and on Wall Street.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed about one-quarter of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, 14% would blame Mr Obama and 5% would blame Democrats in Congress, while 44% said everyone would be to blame.

An anticipated revolt by moderate House Republicans failed to materialise yesterday after House Speaker John Boehner made personal appeals to many of them to back him on a key procedural vote, said Republican Representative Peter King of New York.

There are fears the conflict could spill over into the more crucial dispute over raising the federal government's borrowing authority.

Mr Obama said negotiating over the demands would only encourage future confrontations, and Democrats are wary of passing a short-term funding bill that would push the confrontation too close to the deadline for raising the debt ceiling.

"The bottom line is very simple - you negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt ceiling," Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said.

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Athlone rape accused appears in court

A 30-year-old man has appeared at a sitting of the district court in Longford, charged with the rape of two young girls in Athlone, Co Westmeath last Saturday afternoon.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested last night and charged with two counts of rape against each of the children.

The man, who was wearing a black jacket, jeans and white runners, was brought before the court this morning.

Sergeant Yvette McCormack said she arrested him at 18.54pm last night at Barrack Street, Athlone, and he was charged with two counts of rape against each of the children.

The court was told he made no reply when the charges were made against him.

Supt Noreen McBrien asked Judge Seamus Hughes to remand the man in custody to appear again at Harristown District Court in Co Roscommon on Friday.

Supt McBrien asked the judge to make an order on pre-trial publicity.

Judge Hughes said he wanted to remind the media of its obligations under Section 2, 7 and 8 of the Sexual Offences Act.

He said journalists and broadcasters should be familiar with the legal entitlement to anonymity of the complainants and the accused.

Judge Hughes said he understood the heightened emotion of the public over the last couple of days, but said he was confident the public will now do everything to co-operate with the legal process.

A solicitor for the man said he also wanted to raise concerns about publicity surrounding the case by the print media and other organisations.

Before the case concluded, the solicitor asked the court to order a psychiatric report on the accused.

He also asked Judge Hughes to make an order that the man be kept on suicide watch.

The man will appear in Harristown District Court in Castlerea at 10am on Friday.

The girls, aged six and nine, were taken to hospital after the alleged incident on Saturday.

They are expected to be interviewed by gardaí in the coming days.

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42 killed in bomb attacks in Iraq

At least 42 people have been killed after a series of car bombs exploded in busy areas in the Iraqi capital this morning.

Dozens more were wounded in the blasts in predominantly Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

The deadliest attack took place in Sadr City, where a car bomb blew up near a place where workers had gathered.

It killed at least seven people, including two soldiers.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attacks.

More than two years of civil war in neighbouring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions in Iraq.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque where a Shia funeral was being held, killing at least 40 people in Mussayab, 60km south of Baghdad.

The United Nations mission in Iraq said about 800 Iraqis were killed in acts of violence in August.

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Three firms to create 250 jobs

A new nursing home in Bray, Co Wicklow is promising 120 new jobs over the next three months in nursing, administration and other roles.

Elsewhere, professional services company EY is creating 80 jobs on the island of Ireland, and travel firm TripAdvisor is to create 50 jobs in Dublin.

McMahon Healthcare Group, the developer of Cairnhill Nursing Home, which opens today, said its new positions will include catering, managerial and support roles.

The group has operated a 42-bed nursing home in Foxrock, Co Dublin, for the past 17 years.

EY has said it is to create 80 jobs across its five sites on the island of Ireland.

The company, known as Ernst and Young until it rebranded last July, already employs 1,260 people in Ireland.

It hopes to fill 40 of the new positions by Christmas and the remainder early next year.

EY provides assurance, advisory tax and transaction services to its clients.

Meanwhile, a further 50 jobs are to be created in Dublin with the establishment of a new engineering hub for TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website.

All the jobs will be web engineering roles and recruitment is to begin immediately.

The new Dublin hub will be located in the area known as Silicon Dock in the Dublin Docklands.

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UN inspectors leave Syria after second visit

UN chemical weapons inspectors investigating allegations of chemical and biological weapons use during Syria's civil war have left Damascus after their second mission in two months.

A convoy of four United Nations vehicles carrying the team departed from a central Damascus hotel, and was expected to arrive in Beirut later in the day.

Another team of UN experts, charged with starting the process of verifying and eliminating Syria's chemical weapons, landed in Beirut.

About 20 of them arrived on a private flight from the Netherlands, a source at Beirut airport said, and are expected to continue on to Damascus this week. 

Their mission, endorsed by the UN Security Council last week, was hammered out by Washington and Moscow after a 21 August chemical weapons attack in Damascus prompted US threats of air strikes against the Syrian government.

Inspectors who were in the country at the time confirmed that sarin gas was used in the attack, which killed hundreds of people.

President Bashar al-Assad's Western opponents said the inspectors' report left little doubt that his forces were to blame for the attack.

Syrian authorities denied the accusation, and Russia has said the inspectors' report did not provide irrefutable proof that Mr Assad's forces were responsible.

"We have presented the evidence we possess ... that lead to the conclusion that this was done by the opposition. And we have serious suspicions that such attempts continue," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Kommersant newspaper.

Mr Lavrov said Russia is prepared to contribute cash to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to fund the weapons-destruction operation, but did not say how much and suggested Moscow's main contribution would be personnel.

Michael Mann, a spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters in Brussels that the EUis "happy to provide technical and financial support" but is awaiting an official request from OPCW.

The inspectors who left Damascus investigated six other alleged cases of chemical arms use, including three reported around Damascus in the days after the 21 August attack.

Restrictions on media access made it difficult to follow the inspectors' activity inside Syria, but the United Nations said they would issue a comprehensive report on their findings next month.

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Man held in Athlone sexual assault inquiry

One man is still being questioned at Athlone Garda Station following a serious sexual assault on two young girls in the town.

Two other men who were being questioned have been released without charge.

A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The girls, aged six and nine, were hospitalised after the incident and are expected to be interviewed by gardaí in the coming days.

Officers are using the services of a trained specialist interviewer to try to ascertain what happened to the two children on Saturday afternoon.

The girls were outside a house at a birthday party in a busy residential area at 4pm when they were asked to accompany a man they did not know to another building nearby.

After being lured inside, they were detained in a room where they were seriously assaulted.

The alarm was raised when they returned to the party a short time later.

An immediate attempt was made to forcefully apprehend a man inside the house where the assault took place.

Earlier, a group of people gathered outside the courthouse in Athlone to show support for the families of the young children.

The group of about 100 people has now moved to Athlone Garda Station.

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