LAST UPDATE | 16 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

GPs under pressure

1. In our main story today, Michelle Hennessy reports that GPs have called for urgent action to address the shortage of doctors in general practice as they deal with an ‘overwhelming’ workload.

Doctors have said they are forced to turn away new patients because they are already struggling to maintain their services alongside the additional pandemic demands such as administering Covid booster shots to the over 70s.

Government discussing Covid

2. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has warned that the number of people in hospital and intensive care units with Covid-19 will continue to rise in the coming weeks.

Donnelly spoke to reporters yesterday evening, ahead of a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19.

The sub-committee met amid growing concern about the situation in hospitals around the country and the rapid spread of the coronavirus in communities.

Mother and Baby redress scheme 

3. Órla Ryan reports this morning that the Cabinet is due to sign off on a long-awaited redress plan for survivors of mother and baby homes and county homes today.

Survivors are eagerly awaiting the details of the scheme after numerous delays. The plan was originally due to be finalised by the end of April.

US-China virtual summit

4. Over to international news, US President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping traded strong warnings on the future of Taiwan at a virtual summit meant to establish “guardrails” against conflict between their rival superpowers.

The video-link summit, which took place last night in Washington and early this morning in Beijing, lasted a “longer than expected” three and a half hours, a senior US official told reporters.

Liverpool explosion

5. Four people arrested under terrorism laws following the explosion outside a hospital for women and babies in Liverpool have been released without charge. 

A 32-year-old suspect died after the homemade device exploded in a taxi outside the Women’s Hospital in Liverpool shortly before 11am on Sunday.

Northern Ireland Protocol

6. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted he wants to negotiate a solution to the post-Brexit issues affecting Northern Ireland, but said overriding parts of his deal with the EU would be “perfectly legitimate”.

Johnson insisted solving the problems with Brussels “still seems possible”, but said the UK could trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol “reasonably and appropriately”.

Covid in schools

7. Back to Irish news, the HSE has said that schools can share information of when there is a positive Covid-19 case in a class, if they have the parents’ consent and are GDPR compliant. 

There has been growing criticism of the lack of contact tracing in schools, with teachers, principals and TDs saying that schools have been “left in the dark” about how Covid-19 is spreading, and expressing concern that this is disrupting children’s education.

Earthquake in Scotland

8. An earthquake was felt in parts of Northern Ireland overnight. 

The 3.1 magnitude tremor was recorded in western Scotland at 2am, with over 20 people logging details with the United States Geological Survey group (USGS).

They included Ballycastle in Co Antrim, a town at the northeastern tip of the island, and the Isle of Man. 

Motor insurance

9. And lastly, the frequency of motor insurance claims dropped by 26% last year as people travelled far less due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This decrease was also reflected in claims costs which fell by 20% last year, according to statistics contained in the Central Bank’s third annual Private Motor Insurance Report.