LAST UPDATE | 8 Jun 2021

GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Misinformation

1. Over the past 15 months, Ireland has been battling a surge of misinformation about Covid-19 and the effects of pandemic-related social restrictions on people.

Often, this misinformation takes the form of patently untrue claims about the virus, lockdowns or the contents of Covid-19 vaccines.

But occasionally, false claims can go viral on social media because they are more subtly misleading, Lauren Boland writes in today’s lead story.

Pubs reopening

2. Some have had stops and starts, while others remained closed since the first lockdown, but the sun was shining for publicans as they finally welcomed customers for outdoor service yesterday.

“Mother nature got the memo,” joked Paul Flannery, owner of Flannery’s bar in Limerick City. “People are buzzing, the weather is obviously a big plus and people are just happy and smiling, meeting friends they haven’t seen in a long time.”

Flannery said there have been many “emotional moments” along the way, like having to close up the bar on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, just 20 days after pubs had been allowed to reopen again.

Leaving cert

3. Education Minister Norma Foley has praised the “remarkable resilience and goodwill” of the almost 60,000 students due to sit Leaving Certificate exams tomorrow.

Norma Foley acknowledged the challenging year students have faced, saying they have done so with good humour. The written exams start tomorrow and will run until 29 June.

Students had a choice of sitting the exams or receiving accredited grades, with more than 90% opting to do both. Candidates will be credited with the better of the two results.

Housing

4. When news broke that an investment fund had snapped up 135 newly-built homes at a development in Maynooth, Co Kildare last month, the government was panicked into action by an Irish public emerging from a global pandemic, Cónal Thomas writes.

Suddenly the housing crisis, for so long the key social issue for people living in this country, become the key political issue once more, providing the coalition parties with a wake-up call and forcing a series of on-the-hoof policy decisions in response.

Waterford

5. A post-mortem will be carried out this morning on the body of a baby girl who died when she was attacked by a dog in her home in Waterford.

The three-month-old was fatally injured by the dog in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Sources have said that the infant was set upon by the dog in her bedroom in the early hours of the morning – the dog was owned by the family.

Mother and Baby Homes

6. The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) wrote repeatedly to the Mother and Baby Home Commission raising concerns about the handling of sensitive survivor testimony and delays in responding to queries.

The DPC also said they were “disappointed” that the Commission had not quickly responded to one of their letters and warned that failure to respond to their concerns could be a breach of their duty of cooperation under data regulations.

Ransom recovered

7. The US Justice Department has announced it recovered more than half of the $4.4 million (€3.6 million) paid by Colonial Pipeline to Russia-based ransomware extortionists Darkside, who had forced the shutdown of a major fuel network.

“We turned the tables on Darkside by going after the entire ecosystem that fuels ransomware and digital extortion attacks, including criminal proceeds in the form of digital currency,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

STWS

8. Many workers could be left without supplementary income as their short-term job seekers benefit comes to a close due and government inaction is to blame, according to a Sinn Féin TD.

Claire Kerrane TD says that many workers are at risk of losing their Short-Term Work Support (STWS) if the government does not extend it.

STWS is a type of job-seekers benefit that gives workers supplementary income if their working hours have been reduced temporarily by their employer to three days or less a week.

Weather

9. Today will be mostly cloudy to start with patchy light rain, drizzle and mist along southern coasts.

Met Éireann says hazy spells of sunshine will break through as the days goes on, but it will remain largely cloudy in western and southern coastal counties with outbreaks of rain at times. Highest temperatures will range from 15 to 20 degrees, coolest in southern coastal areas.