Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
GOOD EVENING
The 5 at 5 5 minutes, 5 stories, 5 o’clock…
EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you the five stories you need to know before you head out the door.
1. #BUS STRIKE: The Labour Relations Commission has invited representatives from Bus Éireann and the National Bus and Rail Union to talks this evening, hoping to end the union’s strike that has brought national bus services to a halt for two days. Bus Éireann said it would attend the talks at 8pm; the NBRU has yet to comment.
2. #PUBLIC PAY: It’ll be a busy day for the Labour Relations Commission. Representatives of the health unions are also on site, to participate in talks about negotiating a possible successor to the failed Croke Park 2 pay deal. Negotiations were continuing throughout the weekend – while Brendan Howlin has said it is in workers’ own interests to take pay cuts, if it means the government gets spending in shape.
3. #HEALTH INSURANCE: The cost of health insurance could rise by up to 25 per cent by 2015, it has been claimed, if the government ploughs ahead with plans to change how private insurers are charged to use public beds. A report from Aviva, written by economist Colm McCarthy, says declining numbers of young customers – who are needed to help subsidise the cost of covering older people – could send premiums up across the board.
4. #TIA SHARP: A British man has changed his plea and admitted murdering 12-year-old Tia Sharp in London last year. Stuart Hazell, who was dating the girl’s grandmother at the time, changed his plea on the fifth day of his murder trial. Sharp’s body was stored in her grandmother’s loft for eight days, and only found when the smell of decomposition began to escape the bag she was stored in.
5. #5G: Electronics manufacturer Samsung says it has successfully trialled the next next generation of mobile internet – at speeds that could download an entire movie in a second. The 5G connection is said to work at 1 Gigabit a second – but could even be stretched up to 10 Gigabits a second. Ireland is only getting its first 4G networks later this year.
