The Minister for Education has said mask wearing in primary schools is an expert public health recommendation that is for the benefit of all children, individually and collectively, within the education sector.

The European Union rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for five- to 11-year-olds will begin on 13 December, a week earlier than previously planned, Germany's health ministry has said.

Assistant professor of virology at UCD, Dr Gerald Barry, has said antigen testing on travellers coming into Ireland will not reduce the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 and is just "window dressing".

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested after three students were killed and eight other people were injured in a shooting at a secondary school in Michigan.

Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme rates will be reduced from today as part of a plan to gradually wind it down.

Commuter traffic has barely decreased since the Government asked people to return to remote working last month.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers as Fiji opened its borders to international travellers today for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic swept the globe and devastated its tourism-reliant economy.

The Chief Medical Officer has appealed to the parents of school children to join in "a concerted effort" to follow the new measures "for at least the next two weeks".

The Department of Social Protection has said 1.4 million social welfare recipients will receive their Christmas bonus next week.

Up to €5.4bn could be spend by consumers this Christmas, Retail Ireland has predicted.

Two-thirds of referees quit within two years due to the level of abuse they receive, the FAI will tell an Oireachtas Committee later today.

The growth of renewable electricity capacity across the world is set to break records again this year and to accelerate in coming years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has arrived in the US for a series of meetings in Washington DC and New York.

In its response to this year's Budget, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has recommended that government commitments on spending limits should be backed up with legislation.

Novak Djokovic is not being "blackmailed" by Australian Open organisers, a senior official has said, insisting a requirement for players to be vaccinated was about safety.

Racial discrimination in workplaces is more likely to be combatted by changing recruitment and workplace practices rather than through training, according to the ESRI.

The Government has opposed a bill to create a special category of peat extraction for horticultural purposes - even though it was proposed by two government Senators.

People arriving at Irish ports and airports will need a negative Covid-19 test from Friday, the Cabinet has agreed.

The Taoiseach has described the new mica redress scheme as an "unprecedented State intervention," which would cost €2.2 billion and will cover 6,000 to 7,000 properties.

A Frankfurt court has jailed an Islamic State militant for life for genocide against the Yazidi minority, the first legal case worldwide to deliver a genocide verdict in relation to the Yazidi community.