The Week that was

Tuesday

■ THE bodies of two young men were recovered last night after their car entered a river in the early hours of Christmas morning.

The two men were named locally as Declan Davitt (26) and Martin Needham (27, pictured above), who were from the nearby parish of Louisburgh, near Westport in Co Mayo.

Wednesday

■ AN ESTIMATED 50,000 new homes are needed every year to meet existing and future demand – twice the number projected by the Government.

It will be up to a decade before housing supply is brought in line with demand. There is also an urgent need to build apartments to cater for smaller household sizes. Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is pictured above.

Thursday

■ AT LEAST a dozen Airbnb hosts are earning more than €100,000 a year renting out homes on short-term contracts while the housing crisis deepens.

As many as 4,840 properties are being let in their entirety for as much as €800 a night, well in excess of what they would fetch if let to private or council tenants.

Friday

■ OLDER people have been hardest hit by health insurance hikes, with thousands now paying too much for their cover.

Recent price cuts have only been on selected plans, it has emerged – with no reductions on many of the schemes favoured by the over-50s. Many older people are also on dated schemes which are among the most expensive.

The warning comes as one million people are due to renew their cover at the start of the year.