EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you begin your day.
1. #SHOOTING Gardaí are continuing to appeal for information after a man in his 50s was shot in Clondalkin, Dublin yesterday evening. The man is still in hospital in a critical condition, and one scene is preserved in Rowlagh Park, where the shooting occurred. Gardaí are appealing for anyone who saw a dark-coloured car leave the scene to contact them.
2. #WEATHER It might be mid-April, and the temperatures might have risen just a little, but unfortunately we can expect bad weather today. Met Éireann says that there will be heavy, thundery downpours leading to spot flooding – although we can expect “some sunny intervals”. It will be a very windy day, with highest temperatures 12 – 15 degrees and strong to gale force winds gusting to around 100 km/h.
3. #RUBBISH Dublin City Council plans to contact the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, to see if the law can be amended so that people who dump rubbish illegally can be ‘named and shamed’. The news comes after the council announced it was to temporarily halt rubbish collection in ‘blackspots’ in the north inner city area of the capital.
4. #TAX CUTS The government plans to cut income-tax rates before 2016 to benefit middle-income families, the Sunday Times reports today. It says that junior minister Brian Hayes said tax reductions should be introduced within the next three years, and it wasn’t realistic that income tax be cut in the forthcoming budget. Meanwhile, the Sunday Business Post says that Minister Joan Burton has allegedly told Labour colleagues she will not implement proposed cuts of €440 million to her budget in 2014.
5. #POLL A Sunday Independent/Millward Brown poll shows that 75 per cent of people say they are dissatisfied with the way the Government is running the country, while one in five is satisfied with the coalition’s implementation of austerity measures. The poll also found that 35 per cent say they ‘don’t know’ what party they will give their first preference to, while nearly one third have lost faith in all political leaders.
6. #STABBING A woman (22) arrested over the stabbing of another female (23) in Ennis yesterday is still in custody, gardaí said. It is believed the victim has been moved to Cork University Hospital after suffering serious wounds in the incident on the grounds of a primary school in Ennis, Co Clare.
7. #KOREA North Korea has dismissed the South’s offer for dialogue on the future of the Kaesong joint industrial zone, calling the offer an “empty” political gesture. The North announced the withdrawal of its 53,000 workers and the suspension of operations at Kaesong last week, and Seoul had called for Pyongyang to “come to the dialogue table”.
8. #CONSTITUTION The Constitutional Convention is to vote on the issue of same-sex marriage today. It comes after a day spent debating the subject yesterday, with contributions from people on both sides of the issue, and citizens taking part in the convention.
9. #CHAVEZ Venezuelans will elect Hugo Chavez’s successor today in a battle between the heir of the late leader’s socialist revolution, Nicolas Maduro, and opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Maduro has led opinion polls, promising to continue the oil-funded policies that cut poverty from 50 to 29 percent through popular health, education and food programmes.
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