The Indo Daily

Jim O'Callaghan is a politician with leadership ambitions and a reform agenda.


But in his bid to overhaul Ireland's legal system, he has picked a high-stakes fight with a formidable adversary: the lawyers of Ireland.


It has been a month since solicitors withdrew their services in a deepening row over criminal legal aid fees, and tensions look to be escalating.


At the heart of the controversy is a new flat-fee payment model introduced by the Justice Minister, which he argues is necessary to control the spiralling cost of legal aid.


For O'Callaghan, the stakes could hardly be higher. The minister has made the legal reform a cornerstone of his leadership ambitions.


A victory could bolster his credentials as a future Fianna Fáil leader, but a stalemate could turn into a political crisis.


And while the political battle intensifies, it is those seeking access to justice who may be paying the highest price.


On today’s Indo Daily, Tessa Fleming is joined by two of the Irish Independent’s political team, Mary Regan and John Downing, to unpack the growing dispute, the political stakes and what it could mean for the future of the man at its centre.
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Word on the street is that Daniel Kinahan is suddenly being prepped for extradition from Dubai.
The 49-year-old could be back in Ireland in a number of weeks, likely prompting one of the biggest security operations in the recent history of the State.
So, what awaits Kinahan when he finally arrives home?
On this Extra episode of The Indo Daily, host Fionnán Sheahan is joined by Eimear Rabbitt, news editor with Crime World, who breaks down the latest developments on this fast-moving story.
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Five activists. One defence company. €1 million in alleged damage. An Irish man now faces up to five years in prison in a German trial that's raising difficult questions about protest, civil disobedience and the limits of the law. Kevin Doyle examines the Ulm Five case with BBC journalist Bethany Bell and Daniel Tatlow-Devally's father, Conor Devally.
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Academy Award-winning artist and leader of The Frames, Glen Hansard, has died at the age of 56.
The renowned singer-songwriter was killed in a motorcycle crash in Dublin in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Once the news broke, tributes quickly followed – Hansard was a hugely popular figure, not just in the Irish music scene, but also on the international stage.
On this Extra episode of The Indo Daily, host Fionnán Sheahan is joined by senior features writer and music critic at the Irish independent John Meagher to look back on the life of Glen Hansard.
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A “significant” bomb built for “catastrophic” damage, and a suspected plot to bring violence to the streets of Derry.
It was the stuff of Ireland’s past, but events last week clearly illustrated that it is also Ireland’s present. The foiling of an alleged New IRA plot to detonate a bomb was a stark reminder of the dissident republican activity that quietly continues on both sides of the border.
At the heart of the case are two suspects: Simon O’Donovan (44), an employee at the National Museum in Collins Barracks, and Isobella Perrie Sullivan (25), a law student.
On this episode of The Indo Daily, host Fionnán Sheahan is joined by Ken Foy, crime correspondent at the Irish Independent, to look at how the plot was uncovered – and what comes next.
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