Galway Bay fm newsroom – Gardaí have sent a file to the DPP in relation to the investigation surrounding the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner, which was held in Connemara last summer.

81 people, including politicians and members of the judiciary attended the event in Clifden in August, during a period of COVID-19 restrictions.

Golfgate was followed by the resignation of Phil Hogan as EU Trade Commissioner and the resignation of former Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary.

A number of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael senators also lost the party whip as a result.

Supreme Court judge Seamus Woulfe was also in attendance, but a report by former Chief Justice Susan Denham found it would be unjust to seek his resignation.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The report from the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes has been described in the Dáil by Galway West TD Catherine Connolly as ‘a colour by numbers’ exercise where ‘the picture was pre-determined’

The Independent Deputy again raised the report in the Dáil this week arguing its conclusions are at odds with witness testimony.

Deputy Connolly questioned the findings of no evidence of forced adoptions and no evidence of pressure to put women into the institutions.

She also questioned the findings on vaccine trials with no side effects recorded, while a minimum of 10 thousand deaths were recorded at the homes.

The Galway West TD told the Dáil the report quotes ‘all of society’ and argued it was the ‘powerful in society’ while the government bowed down.

The Dáil heard the report described as a ‘colour by numbers’ exercise where the picture was pre-determined….

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Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 61 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

Of the deaths reported today, 58* deaths occurred in January.

The median age of those who died was 83 years and the age range was 41-100 years.

There has been a total of 2,768** COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Tuesday 19^th January, the HPSC has been notified of 2,488 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 179,324*** confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 1,090 are men / 1,383 are women
• 51% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 44 years old
• 726 in Dublin, 314 in Cork, 148 in Galway, 133 in Limerick, 130 in Meath and the remaining 1,037 cases are spread across all other counties. 

As of 2pm today, 1,923 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 210 were in ICU at 11am. 85 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: “The number of cases and deaths that we are reporting today and the persisting high incidence rate of COVID-19 across the country shows that we cannot underestimate the highly infectious nature of this disease and the impact that it can have on families and communities.

“The virus spreads through close contacts, through the congregation of people. We need everyone to stay at home as much as possible, and to work from home, where possible. You should not meet up with friends or loved ones, unless you are caring for them. If you go out for exercise, you need to stay within 5km from your home, wear a face covering where appropriate and wash your hands when you return home to protect yourself from infection.

“If you are COVID positive you should self-isolate and stay at home, in your room, avoiding contact with other people. This is to protect the other people that you live with.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

ENDS//

*There are 3 deaths where the date of death is under investigation.

**Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 1 death. The figure of 2,768 deaths reflects this

***Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 3 confirmed cases. The figure of 179,324 confirmed cases reflects this.

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 19 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

5-day moving average 2,556

7-day incidence 424.8