Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has said he was “surprised” that the Irish Prison Service paid almost €25,000 to The 2 Johnnies to host a podcast focused on recruiting people to be prison officers.

The sponsored podcast featured prison staff speaking about life working in an Irish jail and the advantages of a job in the penal system.

The Irish Prison Service confirmed that a fee of €20,000, plus €4,600 in VAT, was agreed with the two Tipperary entertainers for the show.

Mr O’Callaghan said was “a lot of money to spend on a podcast”, adding that it did not appear to him to be “a necessary expenditure”.

He added that public money had to be spent “efficiently and carefully”.

Watch: O’Callghan ‘surprised’ the Irish Prison Service paid 2 Johnnies almost 25k for podcast

Speaking at the Garda Superintendents Conference, the minister said he launched a garda recruitment campaign at the National Ploughing Championships alongside Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly.

“We don’t get paid €25,000 for doing it, not that we should,” he added.

The commissioner said the gardaí “didn’t pay anything” for a podcast it participated in with The 2 Johnnies that was focused recruitment.

“It was really useful for us there last year,” Mr Kelly said.

He said: “We had two young guards. We had a male and female on it and they did really well.

“It was a really good audience for us.”

The IPS said its participation in a 2 Johnnies podcast allowed the service “to reach a broad national and international audience, highlighting the career opportunities available and the diverse roles the service can offer potential applicants”.

It said “editorial adjustments” were made after the podcast was recorded to ensure none of the content “could prejudice or impair the security of any prison, its staff, or prisoners”.

Internal emails describe how The 2 Johnnies were “very interested” in working with the prison service and offered a bespoke deal to promote careers in the service.

A message said the package would be a feature interview on the show involving one male and one female officer being asked about their roles – one of which would be a newly recruited officer and the other 10-15 years’ service.

The 2 Johnnies said the price for the podcast would be €20,000, before VAT, and it would reach an enormous audience.

Israeli forces have pushed towards the heart of Gaza City, placing at risk the lives of Palestinians who had stayed put in hopes that growing pressure on Israel for a ceasefire would mean they would not lose their homes.

US President Donald Trump met leaders of Muslim countries at the United Nations in New York yesterday for talks that the Emirati state news agency said had focused on a permanent ceasefire in the war as well as the release of Israeli hostages and ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Mr Trump, who also condemned moves by several Western allies to put pressure on Israel by recognising a Palestinian state, said a meeting with Israel would be next.

Israel has pressed on with its military campaign on Gaza City despite repeated calls for it to pull back, urging the population to move south.

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Hundreds of thousands have left the city in northern Gaza but many have hesitated because of security risks and widespread hunger.

“We moved to the western area near the beach, but many families didn’t have the time, tanks took them by surprise,” said Thaer, a 35-year-old father-of-one from Tel Al-Hawa.

Israeli forces began closing in on the city of more than a million in August, with Israel saying it aimed to destroy the last stronghold of Hamas militants who attacked Israel and seized hostages nearly two years ago.

Medics said at least 50 people were killed across Gaza, mostly in Gaza City, where Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter housing displaced families near a market in the middle of the city. Two others were killed in a house nearby, they said.

The Israeli military said the strike had targeted two Hamas militants and that its forces tried to reduce harm to civilians. Footage obtained by Reuters showed people sifting through the rubble.

“We were sleeping in God’s care, there was nothing – they did not inform us, or not even give us a sign – it was a surprise,” said Sami Hajjaj. “There are children and women, around 200 people maybe, six to seven families – this square is full of families.”

In the city’s Tel Al-Hawa suburb, tanks entered populated areas trapping people in their homes, while more tanks were seen stationed close to Al-Quds Hospital, witnesses said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an oxygen station had been damaged.

Tanks have also advanced closer to Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, witnesses and Hamas media said. The Israeli military said the group’s militants had opened fire from within the hospital compound, which Hamas denied.

“We fear these lies may be a prelude to another raid on the hospital,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, in reference to several previous raids by Israeli forces.

Israel’s military released grainy aerial footage, which appeared to show gunfire coming from two windows. The military did not immediately respond to Reuters queries about how it established it was Hamas militants who had opened fire and at whom.

A Hamas security official said “criminal gangs” had opened fire at the hospital from outside the complex.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the conflicting accounts.

Separately, two Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours, one during a raid by Israeli troops in Anza village outside Jenin, and another was shot in al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, by an Israeli settler, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Violence in the West Bank has become more intense during the Gaza war, as Israel has stepped up raids across the territory. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incidents.

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In southern Gaza, at least 13 people were killed in Nuseirat and near Rafah, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says its attacks are aimed at ending Hamas rule of the enclave.

Israel has drawn widespread condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities, and famine has spread.

International frustration over the war prompted some Israeli and US allies to recognise a Palestinian state this week.

Support for the war in Israel has also wavered, with 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, still held by Hamas in Gaza and 465 soldiers killed in combat.

Hamas has acknowledged the death of some of its military leaders but has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed.

An American man who groped inside and outside a young man’s shorts in the sauna at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin has avoided jail.

Bryan McNeill, aged 55, of K Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, was handed a six-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay €10,000 to the 19-year-old college student.

The businessman had been allowed to return to the United States in March, days after the incident in the luxury hotel.

He pleaded guilty to a sexual assault charge when he came from the US for his hearing in Dublin District Court on Monday, and his case was adjourned until today for sentencing.

In a mitigation plea, defence counsel Oisín Clarke, instructed by solicitor Brian Keenan, had urged the court to leave McNeill without a criminal conviction based on extenuating circumstances: the early plea, remorse, being a sole carer for his mother, a compensation offer to include paying for therapy for the complainant, his lack of prior convictions and previous good character.

However, Judge Murphy refused, stressing the gravity, culpability, invasiveness and sexualised nature of the touching, and the high level of gross misjudgement and recklessness given the marked age gap between McNeill and the complainant.

Judge Murphy heard McNeill “misread the situation” until the shocked victim stood up and told him to stop.

McNeill did not address the court. His husband provided a letter confirming the accused’s health had declined due to stress, and he had suffered from vertigo since the incident.

Judge Murphy recorded a conviction and suspended the sentence, on the condition that the defendant does not reoffend within the next year and pays the compensation within six months.

The teenager did not attend the sentencing, but his mother was present to hear the outcome and the judge’s praise for his honest and measured statement. Judge Murphy also emphasised that the young man was extremely blameless.

In evidence, Detective Garda Cathal Ryan said the injured party was staying at the five-star hotel in March with a family member and used the gym, and afterwards went to the sauna.

He later reported to gardaí that an older man sexually assaulted him in the sauna.

In his statement, he outlined to the detective that McNeill was rubbing his shoulder and upper torso with his right hand, and “slid” his hands under his shorts to grope his buttocks from within his shorts and then with his left hand grabbed his penis outside the shorts.

McNeill gave gardaí an account claiming it was a consensual interaction, but the complainant stated it was not consensual.

Detective Garda Ryan said McNeill, who had been granted €30,000 bail, had no prior convictions in Ireland or any other jurisdiction.

Judge Murphy ranked the offence as mid-range, if not higher, for the jurisdiction of the District Court.

‘I did not initiate what happened’

On Monday, the student had told the judge: “I was just enjoying the luxury of being in the hotel and having a general conversation; I did not initiate what happened.”

He revealed that he was in shock afterwards, and it took weeks to process what happened. He could not talk about it when his parents asked how he was.

He said that his family thought he was happier before and is more irritable now. He also stated that he was not ready to face what happened, but wanted it to disappear.

“I do wonder why this was done to me. I am friendly and social, but definitely more worried than I used to be,” the young man had said.

He became withdrawn and believed the assault was partly a reason for failing a college exam during the summer.

The defence said McNeill came from humble beginnings, was the first in his family to achieve a third-level education and “dragged himself up by his bootstraps” from a young age, eventually becoming a real estate agent.

Counsel submitted that a conviction could have “catastrophic consequences” for McNeill in the United States in terms of his livelihood and other features of his life.