EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #KILLER: A convicted killer who had been on the run for 12 years has voluntarily handed himself into authorities. John Gallagher was convicted of killing Ann and Annie Gillespie in 1988, but was declared insane and had been housed at the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, from where he had escaped in 2000.
2. #EUROPE: The 27 heads of government of the EU are heading for Brussels this evening for a summit on economic growth, which is expected to be a prelude to a full accord later in the summer. Angela Merkel will come under fire at the summit, as she faces growing opposition to Germany’s preference for austerity as a method for fiscal correction.
3. #NAMA: The National Asset Management Agency has confirmed plans to invest €2 billion in the construction industry, to be used to complete unfinished developments around the country. Some greenfield sites will also be developed, in moves which could create up to 25,000 construction jobs.
4. #JOBSWATCH: Gift voucher company Smartbox is to create up to 70 jobs in Dublin. The IDA-backed firm is to set up a new international centre in Dublin, while also expanding its financial shared services centre in the capital.
5. #REFERENDUM: Enda Kenny is to make a live televised address to the public on Sunday night, four days ahead of polling in the Fiscal Compact. RTÉ invited Kenny to make the address in order to balance out the coverage to the No side that will be given by Gerry Adams’ speech at the Sinn Féin Árd-Fheis on Saturday.
With just eight days to polling, today we’re opening the floor to you to ask the questions you want answered about the Fiscal Compact. Leave your questions here, and we’ll be getting authoritative and independent answers to as many as we can.
6. #EGYPT: Voters in Egypt go to the polls today to pick the country’s first president in the post-Mubarak era. Thirteen candidates, who include Islamists, liberals and Mubarak regime figures, are contesting the election which is likely to head to a run-off next month.
7. #MOODY: Employees in Ireland have identified laziness, moodiness and loudness as three of the habits in co-workers that they dislike the most, according to a study published today. Asked what they felt their own worst habits were, employees identified moodiness, volume and that most irritable of office traits: feeling like they are perfect.
8. #ADOPTION: The topic of gay adoption is always a thorny one – but apparently not so for staff at a nature park in Spain, where two gay penguins have been given an egg to care for. The Telegraph says staff at Faunia Park gave an egg to Inca and Rayas after they built a nest every year for six years, apparently not realising that they were both male and couldn’t produce an egg of their own.
9. #BAKU FOR MORE: Phase one of the Jedification of Europe is complete. Jedward made it through to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan last night, as the last of 10 acts to qualify for Saturday. If you missed the lads’ performance, here it is again, in all of its watery glory.
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