The Agenda

This morning on The Agenda, we were joined in-studio by Drogheda Mayor Declan Power, who says he’s had enough of the town being constantly portrayed in a negative light.

Declan spoke about the positive things happening across Drogheda, from local businesses and community groups to the people working hard to make a difference, and why he believes the town deserves to be celebrated for the good as well as challenged on the bad.
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The Irish Sun has launched a new investigative series examining Ireland’s children-in-care crisis, looking at serious failures within the State care system and the experiences of some of the country’s most vulnerable children.

The series, ‘State of Neglect’, examines cases involving children going missing from care, grooming and sexual exploitation, as well as unexplained deaths and concerns around the protection and oversight of children known to the State.

One of the cases at the centre of renewed scrutiny is that of local boy Kyran Durnin, whose disappearance and presumed death raised serious questions about the systems in place to protect vulnerable children.

The Irish Sun is calling for greater accountability from Tusla and for an independent statutory body to investigate all child deaths in Ireland.

Keith Faulkner, journalist with the Irish Sun, joined us on The Agenda to discuss the investigation, the case of Kyran Durnin and what needs to change to better protect children in State care.

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This morning on The Agenda, we were joined by Labour TD Alan Kelly, who has hit out at TikTok for refusing to appear before an Oireachtas Committee to answer questions about how it protects users, particularly young people, from dangerous and harmful content.

Deputy Kelly says the company needs to take responsibility, especially following concerns over social media content glorifying dangerous behaviour in the wake of the tragic M9 incident.
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There are growing calls for social media companies to take greater responsibility for content that glorifies dangerous, reckless and illegal behaviour, including dangerous driving.

The issue has come into sharp focus following the recent incident on the M9 motorway, where a car was reported to have travelled in the wrong direction. There are now concerns about the role social media can play in promoting or glorifying this type of behaviour, particularly among younger users.

TikTok has refused an invitation to appear before the Oireachtas Media Committee to answer questions about the safeguards it has in place and how it deals with content that could encourage dangerous or illegal activity.

Sinn Féin is calling for social media companies to be held accountable, but Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy says that while the incident was shocking, introducing new legislation is not necessarily the answer.
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Gardaí in Louth are investigating an assault on a volunteer at Blackrock Haggardstown Community Centre on Tuesday evening.

The incident happened at around 5.20pm, with the centre committee saying one of its volunteers was physically and verbally attacked by a young man.

The volunteer was left badly shaken and will require time off to recover. Gardaí are investigating, and the incident was captured on CCTV.

The community centre has now taken the decision to keep its front door locked, saying it is not the first time staff and volunteers have faced abuse from groups of teenagers. As a result, the centre’s toilets will also no longer be accessible to the general public.

The volunteer who was assaulted, Paul Kavanagh, joined us on The Agenda this morning to tell us more about what happened.

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