
€120m Westmeath housing development seeking five year planning extension
Ukrainian war causing major supply chain uncertainty
Today at 04:32
Developers behind a €120m housing development in Athlone have applied for further time to complete one of the largest residential housing developments the midlands town has ever seen.
An Bord Pleanála rubberstamped plans for 426 new homes on a near 40 acre site at lands and bordering Buccaneers rugby club, in the townlands of Coosan, Cornamagh, and Clonbrusk in October 2020.

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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
High cost of IP housing 'not sustainable'
The Minister of State for Migration has acknowledged the high costs of providing accommodation for International Protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees, which he said was "neither sustainable nor acceptable in the long term". The State spent more than €401m on accommodation for International Protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees in the first three months of the year. That is according to new figures released by the former Department of Integration detailing its spending for the first quarter of 2025. In a statement, Minister Colm Brophy said the State had engaged in a series of actions to reduce these costs. He said this includes: "The purchase of State-owned facilities which will reduce costs and save the State 100s of millions in a relatively short period of time. "The renegotiation downwards of existing contracts with IPAS and Ukrainian accommodation providers. "The introduction of legislation this autumn will drastically shorten the length of time people stay in the system. This will reduce the overall costs of accommodation in the years ahead." The €401m figure is down on last year's quarterly spends on such accommodation, which ranged from €424m to €490m. Paying for private sector accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers made up 97% of the department's purchase order spends of €20,000 or more detailed in the Department report. While hundreds of providers are in receipt of Government payments, 91 were paid more than €1m in the first quarter of the year, and together the top five brought in €52.5m. Commenting on the figures, Nick Henderson, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, said it had always been concerned about money going straight to private providers. He said the Government's purchase of Citywest could be a step in the right direction and was likely to be better value for money for the taxpayer. The Citywest campus has been central to the Government's International Protection and Ukrainian refugee accommodation provision over the last number of years. However, Mr Henderson said this did not necessarily mean it would be a better-run facility. He said the IRC also had concerns that the border procedure, under the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, could be based in the future at Citywest. The IRC would also like to see an expansion of the remit of HIQA, which only has inspection powers for longer-term accommodation, expanded to include emergency accommodation.


Extra.ie
4 hours ago
- Extra.ie
Telegram founder to leave €20b fortune to '106' children
The billionaire founder of messaging app Telegram is set to leave his fortune to his 106 children that he has fathered. Tech tycoon Pavel Durov has allegedly fathered more than 106 children — six that he conceived naturally with three different women — and the further 100 that he's the biological father of after donating sperm en masse to couples across 12 different countries. Mr Durov, who's worth almost €20billion, recently spoke about how he felt there was no difference between the children he conceived naturally and the children who were born as part of his sperm donations — with him saying that he will leave his entire fortune to each child in 30 years. The billionaire founder of messaging app Telegram is set to leave his fortune to his 106 children that he has fathered. Pic:This means that each of his 106 children will receive approximately €188,000,000 each in the next three decades. 'They are all my children and will all have the same rights,' Mr Durov told Le Point magazine in France. 'I don't want them to tear each other apart after my death.' However, Mr Durov's children will live 'normal' lives prior to receiving the huge windfall in the next few decades, with him adding: 'I want them to live like normal people, to build their lives on their own, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create – not to be dependent on a bank account.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pavel Durov (@durov) Mr Durov revealed that he fathered a number of children via sperm donation when a Russian woman who is based in Switzerland said that he was the father of her three children. He would later confirm that he has over 100 children, including those three children, and another three which were conceived naturally, as well as the aforementioned mass sperm donation. Mr Durov has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia, after he founded social media platform VK, the Russian version of Facebook, when he was 21. He was essentially forced to give up the company in 2014 after he wouldn't give up data surrounding Ukrainian protestors, and he moved abroad. He then founded secure messaging app Telegram, which has also seen its share of controversy over the years — including the alleged trading of illegal pornography and drugs. Mr Durov, often called Russia's answer to Mark Zuckerberg, said he would give his estimated €20billion fortune to his army of children. Pic: Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images Mr Durov is currently under judicial supervision in France in connection with his app, after he was placed under investigation for alleged organised crime on the app in France. He is a dual citizen of France and the UAE, and currently resides in Dubai.


Irish Independent
6 hours ago
- Irish Independent
€120m Westmeath housing development seeking five year planning extension
Ukrainian war causing major supply chain uncertainty Today at 04:32 Developers behind a €120m housing development in Athlone have applied for further time to complete one of the largest residential housing developments the midlands town has ever seen. An Bord Pleanála rubberstamped plans for 426 new homes on a near 40 acre site at lands and bordering Buccaneers rugby club, in the townlands of Coosan, Cornamagh, and Clonbrusk in October 2020.