What the papers say: Thursday's front pages

Here are the stories making headlines this Thursday.

The punishing heatwave that has swept across Europe, during which temperatures have climbed to unprecedented highs, is set to continue on Thursday, The Irish Times reports.

Ireland is bracing for the hottest day of 2026, possibly smashing a 150-year record.

The Irish Examiner leads with an Oireachtas committee saying Ireland needs to take its head “out of the sand” about the drugs crisis and decriminalise the personal possession of drugs.

With cross-party support, the Oireachtas drugs committee called for the offence of possession — for all drugs — to be removed from the statute book.

More than 500 Ukrainian residents living in the former Trabolgan holiday village have been told they will soon have to leave the East Cork facility they have been calling home, according to The Echo.

The residents of Trabolgan, now one of the largest accommodation locations for Ukrainians in the State, include 167 children, 74 pensioners, and 10 disabled people.

Food prices are likely to con­tinue rising in the com­ing months due to the delayed effects of the Iran war, ESRI has warned.

While there has been an infla­tion shock from the clos­ure of the Strait of Hor­muz, it was mostly lim­ited to oil and gas, the Irish Independent reports.

ESRI pre­dicts the cost of food is likely to increase towards winter. “The impact of the war in the Middle East on food prices in Ire­land is yet to be felt,” says its sum­mer eco­nomic com­ment­ary.

Nikita Hand has thanked singer Pink after she criticised Conor McGregor's appearance on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show in the US, according to the Irish Daily Mirror.

McGregor, who was found by a civil jury to be liable for the rape of Hand, was on the talk show last week.

The Irish Daily Star leads with doctors warning the public to stay out of the sun dur­ing the heat­wave, and not even think about getting a tan.

A recommendation by TDs and sen­at­ors to decrim­in­al­ise all drugs has sparked out­rage and been branded by doc­tors as ‘very dan­ger­ous’ as it will lead to ‘more broken lives’, the Irish Daily Mail reports.

Mem­bers of the cross-party Joint Com­mit­tee on Drugs Use have called for the pos­ses­sion of drugs for per­sonal use – includ­ing cocaine and heroin – to be allowed.

Riad Bouchaker “went for the smal­lest chil­dren he could find” when he is alleged to have attemp­ted to murder two five-year-olds and a six-year-old in Dub­lin, according to The Herald.

Det Gda Gary Moran sug­ges­ted that Bouchaker demon­strated “restraint and patience” as he waited in the Par­nell Square area for 37 minutes.

He also searched for a spe­cific school on his mobile phone and asked a num­ber of people for dir­ec­tions and inquired as to what time classes would fin­ish.