EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #STIMULUS: The government is to announce a €2 billion stimulus package this week, both the Sunday Independent and Sunday Business Post reports. Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin intends to announce a series of capital expenditure projects this week in the wake of the preliminary agreement reached on bank debt at a recent EU summit. Projects include the National Children’s Hospital and a number of primary healthcare centres.
2. #ARMED ROBBERY: An armed robbery was carried out on a pub in north Dublin last night with three men making off with an amount of money. Gardaí say the men entered a pub on St Assam’s Avenue in Raheny at around 3am last night, forced staff to open the safe in the pub and handover the undisclosed amount. The men then used a car belonging to a member of staff to make their getaway.
3. #NAMA: Two frontpages are dominated by the National Asset Management Agency today with the Sunday Independent reporting that 66 developers in the State’s bad bank are being paid salaries of €100,000 while there are three builders who are being paid the maximum amount of €200,000. Meanwhile, the Sunday Business Post reports that some developers are taking advantage of Britain’s more favourable bankruptcy laws with some 20 NAMA debtors having being declared bankrupt across the water.
4. #NORTH: A man is being held in Northern Ireland in connection with the attempted murder of police officers in the Ardoyne area of Belfast last Thursday. Police in Belfast say the man is being questioned at Antrim police station. There were scenes of violence with at least 20 police officers sustaining injuries during Orange Order parade through the area.
5. #AFGHANISTAN: A government minster in Afghanistan has survived a bomb attack on his motorcade, a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up killing the high-profile MP, Ahmad Khan Samangani. Higher Education Minister Obaidullah Obaid was travelling from Baghlan to Kunduz province when one of the cars in his convoy hit a roadside bomb, but he survived the incident, AFP reports.
6. #PENNY DINNERS: Around a thousand people a week are now being fed by Cork Penny Dinners. The charity is seeking food donations so that it can keep up its service of providing food to the homeless for 5c. The initiative announced a 300 per cent increase in people using it last year.
7. #LIGHT BULBS: The well-known light bulb manufacturer Solus is to cease production of the traditional incandescent light bulb next month replacing them with more energy efficient bulbs. But will this mean that the end is finally here for the traditional bulb found in the black, white and yellow box? We’ve been finding out.
8. #CIGARETTES: Health Minister James Reilly wants to put the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes up from €9 to €15, the Sunday Times reports. The Minister made the proposal to his counterpart in Finance, Michael Noonan, in the run-up to the last budget, Sarah McInerney writes but the plan was opposed because it was believed that it would increase cigarette smuggling.
9. #PIPE DOWN: Rock legend Bruce Springsteen may have done well in bringing an even bigger legend in ex-Beatle Paul McCartney on stage at his Hyde Park concert in London last night but that didn’t stop their microphones being turned off before they could thank the crowd after the concert over ran, BBC News reports. Springsteen plays Dublin this week.
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