LAST UPDATE | 21 Jul 2023
GOOD MORNING, AND happy Friday.
Here’s everything you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our main story this morning, Eoghan Dalton reports that a landlord has won an appeal against a decision which would have seen him liable for “hundreds of thousands” of euro in compensation to households in a Cork city suburb over claims that he failed to address anti-social behaviour by his tenants.
The landmark case was taken on behalf of 188 households in the Wilton estate over a raft of complaints that the estate was being impacted by the behaviour of people living in a house owned by Kevin O’Donovan, including drug-related activity and violent incidents.
2. State-funded home carers will be paid for the time it takes to travel between patients for the first time and will be guaranteed the national living wage under measures confirmed today by the Department of Health.
Introduced by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minister for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler, the move comes as a bid to address recruitment and retention problems in the sector.
3. The White House has said that Ukrainian forces are using United States-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield, as Kyiv seeks momentum in its grinding counteroffensive.
Washington provided the weapons to Ukraine for the first time earlier this month as Kyiv attempts to dislodge entrenched Russian forces and retake land lost in the early months of Moscow’s invasion last year.
4. As Ireland’s Women’s National Football Team are participating in the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023, the opportunity was taken to also choose an Australian site for the international venue for the annual National Famine Commemoration Day.
A memorial, including the names of thousands of so-called Orphan Girls who came to Australia as part of the Earl Grey scheme between 1848 and 1850, was built at the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney in 1999.
5. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has suffered a double by-election defeat in what were safe seats for his Conservative Party, with the British Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats both overturning majorities of about 20,000.
The Tories lost out on two stronghold consistencies, Selby and Ainsty, won by Labour, and Somerton and Frome, won by the Lib Dems, by a sizable swing. But Labour failed to secure victory in Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
6. A top Nasa climatologist has said that July 2023 will probably be the world’s hottest month in “hundreds, if not thousands, of years”.
“We are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world — the heat waves that we’re seeing in the US in Europe and in China are demolishing records, left, right and center,” Gavin Schmidt said.
7. Gardaí are continuing to conduct searches up and down the Donegal coast after packages containing suspected cocaine were found on two beaches on Wednesday morning.
Gardaí have said that the estimated street value of the recovered bundles, which weigh roughly 60 kilos, amounts to more than €4 million but that this estimate is yet to be confirmed by Forensic Science Ireland.
8. New RTÉ Director-General Kevin Bakhurst met with Ryan Tubridy in person this week.
In a statement yesterday, RTÉ said that the pair had “a good, open, and constructive conversation and will meet again in a few weeks”. The broadcaster said it has no further comment to make.
9. The Land Development Agency (LDA) has expressed interest in purchasing privately owned land, with existing planning permission, to increase the output of affordable homes.
The expression of interest follows the LDA’s land acquisition programme, which will support its objective of increasing the annual output.
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