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

Debunked

1. An election leaflet by Dolores Cahill ahead of the Dublin Bay South by-election made a number of misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines. 

In our lead story today, Orla Dwyer has put those claims to the test. 

Cost of construction

2. Just as building sites reopened, a wave of price inflation has hit construction materials, heaping costs onto beleaguered builders struggling to make up for lost time after a year of intense disruption.

It’s no secret that prices are rising across the board at the moment as demand recovers from the experiences of the past year.

The Good Information Project looks at what’s next for our housing crisis.

Surrogacy

3. Surrogacy advocates Irish Families Through Surrogacy (IFTS) are concerned that new legislation in its current format does not address international surrogacy or retrospectively recognise the rights of children who have already been born through surrogacy. 

Our colleagues at Noteworthy investigate what is happening with Ireland’s surrogacy laws.

Street dealers

4. Youth worker Eoin Lynagh is part of a group calling for an end to the prohibition of drugs.

In his opinion piece. he writes how these dealers are “some of our most vulnerable citizens”.

“They are early school leavers, often from broken homes where addiction was prevalent and with few positive role models,” he says.

Trouble brewing

5. Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen has called for a special meeting of the party following its “alarming” performance in the Dublin Bay South by-election.

Deirdre Conroy secured less than 5% of the vote in Thursday’s election, prompting questions to be raised about Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s leadership of the party.

RIP

6. A woman (34) has died following a hit-and-run in Donegal. 

Gardaí have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.

Seizure

Gardaí in Cork seized €160k worth of cannabis.

A man and woman were arrested over the find.

Bangladesh

8. Police in Bangladesh arrested eight people on murder charges in connection with a factory fire that killed at least 52 people, many of whom were trapped inside by an illegally locked door.

Bangladesh has a tragic history of industrial disasters, including factories catching fire with the workers locked inside.

Weather

9. Met Éireann says it will be a rather wet day with outbreaks of showery rain, some heavy and possibly thundery with the risk of spot flooding.

Forecasters predict there will be drier spells over Ulster and some bright spells will develop later, mainly in the south and west. Highest temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees in a light to moderate southeasterly or variable breeze.