EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you should know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #PENALTY POINTS: A garda report on the wiping of penalty points from people’s records is due to be published today. RTÉ reports that the investigation found no evidence of garda corruption, though it did identify failings to follow procedures and guidelines.
2. #SUSPECT DEVICE: Gardaí in Finglas are investigating an explosion outside a house on Mellows Road in Finglas, Co Dublin last night. A spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that there were people in the house at the time but no one was injured in the incident.
3. #BETHANY HOME: Survivors of the Bethany Home have said that the government is “still ignoring” them, despite meeting with junior minister Kathleen Lynch to discuss their suffering while living in the home. Last night, Dublin City Council accepted a motion to support survivors and call on the government to provide redress and assistance to them in accessing their records.
4. #RAPE: Gardaí are sending a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions about an alleged rape of a woman in the 1970s by a major celebrity, the Irish Independent reports. The woman, who was a teenager at the time and gave birth after the alleged assault, came forward last October.
5. #COMMUNICATION: Most people in Ireland now own a mobile phone and a television, according to a new survey. Household access to broadband now stands at 78 per cent and there has been a fall in the use of landlines, now at just 69 per cent.
6. #FISHING: A deal, described as a “major breakthrough” by agriculture minister Simon Coveney, has been reached on the reform of the common fisheries policy after 36 hours of intense negotiations between European ministers. The purpose of the reform is to end the practice of discarding fish, that are surplus to quotas, back into the sea.
7. #SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: Brazil has become the third Latin American country to give a de facto green light to same-sex marriage. Some offices in the country had been granting licences to gay couples since 2011 following a Supreme Court ruling but others had not and this change now means marriage licences must be granted everywhere.
8. #RECESSION: France has fallen back into a recession after a drop of 0.2 per cent in its gross domestic product. French growth in the first quarter of the year has been sluggish, hit by record unemployment and falling household demand – the key driver of the economy.
9. #NICE EYES: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has revealed that she finds “nice eyes” attractive in men, AFP reports. At a recent forum, Merkel also opened up about her family history and bragged about her “camel-like” ability to store energy and stay up all night for summits.
Over on DailyEdge.ie: Oh just Jedward, Tara Reid and Corey Feldman… at the Playboy Mansion, Zooey Deschanel’s puppies, and Beyoncé preggo rumours. It’s The Dredge…
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