GOOD MORNING. 

Here’s all the news you need to know as you start the day.

Child abuse

1. In our main story this morning, Eoghan Dalton reports that a man with decades of service as a garda has been sentenced to two years in prison for sexually assaulting his former partner’s two young daughters.

The crimes happened when he went into the bedrooms of the children at night and assaulted them as they were sleeping.

US election

2. Kamala Harris told Americans to write the “next chapter” for their country and reject Donald Trump’s chaos and division as she delivered a powerful closing argument to voters against the glowing backdrop of the White House.

But the speech risked overshadowed by a clumsy comment made by US President Joe Biden, where he appeared to refer to supporters of the Republican nominee as “garbage”.

UK

3. The British public will today hear the first budget by the Labour government where tax increases and spending squeezes are likely to damage it’s standings with the electorate.

In August, Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that a “painful” budget was lying in wait for the British public after the Labour party discovered that the previously Conservative Government had borrowed and spent billions more than it had disclosed.

Presidential pardon

4. President Michael D Higgins will today sign a Presidential pardon for two men who were executed in Tralee Gaol over 140 years ago.

Sylvester Poff and James Barrett were convicted of the murder of Thomas Browne in October 1882 and were both executed in January 1883.

Infrastructure

5. The Government has been warned that there are significant shortfalls in four key areas of Ireland’s infrastructure.

Almost 80,000 additional workers may be needed to address Ireland’s infrastructure deficits according to the report by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

Kerrykeel

6. A man has died following a single-vehicle crash in Kerrykeel, Co Donegal.

The incident took place at approximately 3.30pm yesterday afternoon on the Shore Road in Kerrykeel.

Marie Collins

7. An Irish woman who resigned from a Vatican Commission on protecting minors due to lack of cooperation from Church officials has questioned the methodology of its pilot annual report.

Marie Collins was a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors but resigned in 2017 over what she described as a “shameful” lack of cooperation.

Diarmuid Phelan

8. Law professor Diarmuid Phelan, who denies murdering an unarmed trespasser in a fatal shooting at his farm in Tallaght, told the first garda at the scene that he had shot a man before pulling the weapon from his jacket pocket, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

The leading barrister also told a sergeant that the three spent rounds in the Smith & Wesson revolver which had been fired at father-of-four Keith Conlon were “possibly crow-shot” for shooting crows and rats.

Euro 2025

9. Ireland moved another step closer to their first European Championships after defeating Georgia 3-0 in front of a record crowd at Tallaght Stadium last night.