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Children born in Ireland to parents who are not Irish citizens will be able to gain Irish citizenship sooner under new government plans. The government will include the necessary legislative changes in a forthcoming bill following discussions between Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Labour Senator

Asylum seekers who enter the UK illegally will find it harder to stay under significant new plans announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Ms Patel will later set out her plans for the "biggest overhaul of the UK's asylum system in decades", which has already come under sharp criticism from human ri

Technical legislation is set to be brought forward to facilitate the "full rollout" of An Garda Síochána's new operating model. Ministers today published the general scheme of the Criminal Justice (Garda Síochána Operating Model) Bill, which will eliminate legislative imp

A barrister whose application to become Queen's Counsel was opposed by two judges faced apparent bias in the appointments process, an investigation has concluded. Marc Beaumont unsuccessfully applied to the Queen's Counsel appointments panel in 2016 and again in 2018.

Trade unionists who were imprisoned for their role in the 1972 builders' strike have been exonerated by the Court of Appeal in London nearly half a century later. The "Shrewsbury 24" were arrested five months after the strike and charged with over 200 offences including unlawful assembly, intimidati

A purported haul of MDMA worth over €1 million was actually strawberry-flavoured sweets, police have admitted. Paris police boasted on Twitter of their massive bust at an alleged "narcotics packaging workshop feeding underground parties".

The High Court has rejected a medical negligence action arising from the provision of IVF fertility treatment to a woman. The plaintiff had alleged that the defendants had failed to properly identify a fibroid in her uterus, which caused a number of unsuccessful and painful IVF procedures. Giving th

Plans to modernise the civil and family justice system over the next year have been set out by Justice Minister Naomi Long. Speaking in Stormont this morning, Mrs Long said she would take forward changes before the next election to make the civil and family justice system "more accessible for citize

Mr Justice Michael Humphreys has been appointed as deputy chairman of the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. The Boundary Commission is an independent and impartial public body which reviews UK Parliament constituency boundaries in Northern Ireland in line with the Parliamentary Constituencie

Victims of sexual offences should receive independent legal representation throughout criminal trials, rather than limited to the questioning of their previous sexual experience, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) has said. The NGO has published its submission to the Oireachtas justice committee, whic

Our regular round-up of deals involving Irish law firms. Submit your deals to newsdesk@irishlegal.com. A&L Goodbody has advised long-standing client General Electric (GE) on the €30 billion combination of GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) and AerCap.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has laid regulations in Westminster giving him the power to direct Stormont to commission abortion services. The Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 will come into force on 31 March 2021 and will allow Mr Lewis to direct Northern Ireland ministers, d

Ireland's former director of public prosecutions James Hamilton has cleared Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code. Mr Hamilton, who headed Ireland's prosecution service from 1999 to 2011, has served as the Scottish government's independent adviser on the ministeri

Draft legislation to provide for a fresh referendum on Scottish independence has been published by the Scottish government ahead of the May elections. Ministers say it will be up to the government formed after the elections to consider whether to formally introduce its proposed Scottish Independence

A man arrested for allegedly stealing a police car managed to escape custody by stealing a second police car, a police force said. Police in Quebec, Canada say they were alerted just after noon yesterday that a police car had been stolen during a police operation.