EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #SPECIAL CASE: Opposition parties are not impressed by the joint statement from Taoiseach Enda Kenny and German chancellor Angela Merkel last night in which Ireland’s bailout was described as “a special case”. Both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have said that the statement offered no clarification on the progress in addressing Ireland’s legacy debt.
2. #GAY PAREE: Meanwhile the Taoiseach, buoyed by last night’s joint statement, is in Paris today to meet with French president Francois Hollande. The outcome of last week’s European Council summit and the campaign for a deal on Ireland’s legacy debt are expected to be raised.
3. #COST OF LIVING: The number of people left with just €100 or less per month after they have paid off essential bills has increased according to the latest ‘What’s Left?’ survey by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ICLU). The survey finds that 1.9 million people are now in that category, an increase of 35,000 since June.
4. #GALWAY: More details of the tragic death of two young girls near Tuam in Galway yesterday are emerging this morning. The girls have been named locally as two-year-old Kate Gilmore and her two-month old sister Grace who were both killed when they were hit by a car on the hard shoulder of the N17.
5. #ROADS: There have been two further road tragedies in the last 24 hours with a man in his 50s dying after his tractor overturned on a road in Cavan yesterday evening. Meanwhile a 21-year-old died after the car he was travelling in hit a tree in Hartstown in Dublin in the early hours of this morning.
6. #HEALTH INSURANCE: The cost of VHI healthcare will increase by up to three per cent next month, the Irish Times reports. Paul Cullen writes that the increase will add around €100 a year to the average family’s healthcare costs.
7. #SAVILE: A Panorama programme to be broadcast on the BBC tonight will shed new light on the revelations that Newsnight uncovered about the corporation’s deceased star Jimmy Savile who is the subject of an investigation over alleged sexual abuse of hundreds of children. The programme will detail how staff feared the BBC would be accused of a cover-up if it did not air the eventually dropped Newsnight programme.
8. #USA 2012: US president Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney will go head-to-head in the final presidential debate in Florida later tonight. The candidates will spar over foreign policy issues as a new poll indicates that the pair are now level on 47 per cent each with the election just over a fortnight away.
9. #ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING: A nine-year-old girl dressed in a black costume with a white tassel was shot by a relative during a Halloween party in Pennsylvania over the weekend. AP reports that the relative thought the girl was a skunk and fired a shotgun at her, hitting her in the shoulder, arm, back and neck.
NEW! The Dredge: Who’s been talking about Brian McFadden’s winky? – The day’s best celebrity dirt over on The Daily Edge>
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say