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GOOD MORNING

The 9 at 9 Alleged excessive data gathering, EU prepares Russian oil sanctions and decision on National Maternity Hospital delayed.

LAST UPDATE | May 4th 2022, 8:50 AM

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Data protection

1. In our lead story this morning, Maria Delaney of Noteworthy reports that a database that stored information on when and where free travel passes were used was in place at the Department of Social Protection up to 2020 — when it was then deleted in its entirety.

This deletion occurred just three months after the then chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Minister of State Seán Fleming, requested a report from the Department on the free travel card, and two months after the Department sent this report back to PAC.

Noteworthy has learned that the Department has informed the Data Protection Commission of the deletion of this database as part of answers to queries following a complaint by Martin McMahon, co-founder of the Tortoise Shack podcast platform and employment status expert.

This complaint against the DSP – made by McMahon in 2019 – is now proceeding.

Ukraine

2. Russian forces have launched a major assault on the holdout Azovstal steel plant in the devastated port city of Mariupol while pounding sites across eastern Ukraine, as the European Union moves to punish Moscow with oil sanctions.

Three months into the war, Moscow has focused its fresh offensive on Ukraine’s east and south, while Western allies continue to provide Kyiv with cash and weapons in a bid to force Russian leader Vladimir Putin to pull back.

In one of a series of assaults yesterday, 21 civilians were killed and another 28 wounded in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, local authorities said.

Healthcare

3. The Minister for Health has sought to reassure the public that all lawfully permitted procedures, including abortion and tubal ligation, will be allowed at the new National Maternity Hospital when it is completed.

Minister Stephen Donnelly said last night that there “have been multiple layers of legal governance protections and structures put in place to address a very reasonable question that people of Ireland have been asking”.

Knocknacarra

4. Gardaí have arrested a man following the seizure of €30,000 worth of cannabis in Galway.

Gardaí attached to the Galway Divisional Drugs Unit searched a house in the Knocknacarra area of Galway on foot of a search warrant yesterday as part of Operation Tara.

Stormont

5. The leaders of the five largest parties in Northern Ireland took part in a televised debate yesterday evening ahead of tomorrow’s election.

The five were Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Féin), Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP), Colum Eastwood (SDLP), Naomi Long (Alliance) and Doug Beattie (UUP).

These were the main takeaways from last night’s hour-long BBC debate.

Abandoned secondment

6. Robert Watt is set to tell TDs and Senators of his “regret” that Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan will not be taking up a proposed professor role at Trinity College Dublin.

The Secretary General of the Department of Health is set to attend the Oireachtas Health Committee today and will be joined by Holohan.

Santina Cawley

7. A witness in the trial of a woman accused of murdering a two-year-old girl has said that he heard the sound of a crying baby next door with the infant becoming increasingly distressed as a female sarcastically taunted her.

Karen Harrington, of Lakelands Crescent in Mahon, Co Cork is on trial at a Central Criminal Court sitting charged with the murder of Santina Cawley at 26 Elderwood Park in Boreenmanna Road in Cork on 5 July 2019.

Fossil fuels

8. Several climate protesters who blockaded an oil terminal in Scotland have been arrested, according to police.

Just Stop Oil said its supporters blocked access to the Nustar Clydebank facility in West Dunbartonshire by climbing on top of tankers and locking on to the entrance at about 4am today.

Pyongyang

9. North Korea fired a ballistic missile today, South Korea’s military said, just a week after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to boost Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal at the “fastest possible speed”.

The launch was the latest in a string of sanctions-busting North Korean weapons tests so far this year, and came after US and South Korean officials warned Pyongyang was preparing to resume nuclear testing.

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