Rebecca Caffrey, aged 8, rides the 'gravy train' outside Leinster House. She was participating in a protest at government plans to withdraw the One-Parent Family Payment to parents of children aged 7 and over.

Image: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

EVERY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of all the day’s main news, as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed along the way.

• The government has confirmed that the new body established to oversee the delivery – and charging – of water services will be an independent subsidiary of Bord Gais which won’t ever be sold off. Phil Hogan confirmed that it will be up to the Commission for Energy Regulation, however, to decide how much consumers are charged. Here, we’ve put together a Q&A on the rollout of new water charges. The national plumbers’ body has asked the government to break up the 1.3 million installations into small contracts so that independent contractors can get some of the business.
• The Troika are back in town for their sixth quarterly review of Ireland’s progress under the bailout programme – but there’s some controversy over their refusal not to meet with opposition political parties. The ECB said this was of the Troika’s own choosing – because they don’t want to have any influence in the outcome of the Fiscal Compact referendum.
• Ireland’s trade surplus was down slightly in February, as both exports and imports fell in the second month of the year.
• An independent TD has launched a legal challenge against the government’s plan to ratify the treaty on a new permanent European bailout fund without a referendum. Thomas Pringle says the European Stability Mechanism could result in an infinite demand of Irish funding without any notice or accountability.
• Earlier, Eamon Gilmore had said the government would publish the legislation for the ESM treaty – and the proposed ‘debt brake’ legislation – before the referendum is held, but that the government wouldn’t start trying to have it approved until the referendum was done with. He was speaking during a lengthy day of hearings at the Oireachtas committee on the fiscal compact referendum, which we liveblogged in full.
• Justice minister Alan Shatter has attacked the Garda Representative Association over yesterday’s comments that closing rural stations will mean higher crime, calling the claims “alarmist and irresponsible”.
• One wonders what Gardaí would think if Michael O’Leary was the Minister for Justice. This evening the Ryanair chief said five years of a serious right-wing dictatorship would sort us right out.
• Anders Behring Breivik has told a court in Norway that he would repeat his “spectacular” attacks in Oslo and Utoya if he could – but admitted he had intended to die in his attacks of last July. Breivik’s trial has brought attention to the criminal justice system in Norway: Sinead O’Carroll has been getting to grips with how the Norwegian courts operate.

They’re like old pals at this stage. Officials from the EU, ECB and the IMF – led by the latter’s Ajai Chopra – arrive at the Department of Finance to begin their sixth quarterly inspection of Ireland’s bailout progress. (Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

• George Hook says if Denis O’Brien is ever convicted of “malfeasance”, he’ll quit all of the media outlets owned by the Newstalk proprietor.
• NASA’s oldest and most-travelled Space Shuttle made its final journey today – as Discovery was brought from Florida to Washington where it will be on display in the Smithsonian Institute. Here’s our tribute gallery of its missions from 1984 to 2011.
• The new president of the World Bank, aside from being a noted Will.I.Am-a-like, is a pretty illustrious fellow. Here’s six things to know about Jim Yong Kim.
• Mixed messages on the Spanish economic front: a new bond auction this morning attracted more interest than expected, but still saw interest rates surge when compared with the last such auction.
• An Australian girl, 2, was left alone at home after her mother died in the house – apparently surviving on nothing but chocolate Easter eggs until the mother was found.
• Are you more likely to trust content you find on an Irish website? 61 per cent of Irish internet users say content on Irish sites is “trustworthy”.
• “Whoa, whoa! BLEEP!” Any video from American TV that has to start with that opening has to be a winner.
• Eight politicians who enjoy a gargle or two. Enough said.
• The Premier League is marking its 20th anniversary this year, and has launched a public poll to pick the fans’ favourite goal from those seasons. In more ways that one, pick that one out.
• Speaking of all things round-ball, Real Madrid are taking on Bayern Munich in the first of the Champions League semi-finals tonight – here’s TheScore.ie’s liveblog, and an explainer of one of the many reasons why Bayern and Real had each other quite so much.
• We miss Animaniacs. This is one of the many, many reasons why.

(YouTube credit: purplegirl8485)

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