What the papers say: Saturday's front pages

Eva Osborne

Here are the stories making headlines this Saturday.

Dozens of big flood protection works deemed critical to protect thousands of homes and properties eight years ago have yet to progress to planning, The Irish Times reports.

The Irish Examiner leads with the German chancellor warning the opening of the Munich security conference that the US acting alone has reached the limits of its power and may already have lost its role as global leader.

Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ have clashed over the former Late Late Show host’s request to see files related to the scan­dals at the broad­caster, according to the Irish Independent.

Prince William demanded his disgraced uncle Andrew be immediately banished from the royal fold "before the rot set in", following revelations of the former Duke of York's close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the Irish Daily Mirror reports.

French cops have seized eight tonnes of Irish cigarettes hidden in a potato shipment, according to the Irish Daily Star.

The Irish Daily Mail leads with RTÉ dir­ector gen­eral Kevin Bakhurst issuing a robust defence of his ten­ure as head of the State broad­caster to his staff as they began bal­lot­ing on his future this week.

Trade union Siptu is bal­lot­ing its mem­bers in RTÉ on whether they have con­fid­ence in the broad­caster’s senior lead­er­ship team and its imple­ment­a­tion of the organ­isa­tion’s fiveyear cost-cut­ting strategy.

Res­id­ents of The Mayne apart­ments in Bel­mayne, north Dub­lin, yes­ter­day found that their under­ground car park had been “com­pletely flooded”, The Herald reports.

Videos and images showed how the base­ment car park of the apart­ments had become sub­merged in a deluge of water.

The Belfast Telegraph leads with a DUP coun­cil­lor in east Bel­fast slamming bon­fire build­ers for col­lect­ing mater­ial for an Elev­enth Night pyre months in advance, with the dis­pute now divid­ing the local com­munity.