GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as your start your day.
Tubridy
1. Ryan Tubridy, his agent Noel Kelly and their solicitors are set to face a grilling from two Oireachtas committees today over RTÉ’s failure to disclose €345,000 worth of payments to the presenter.
In Tubridy’s opening statement he will outline “seven untruths” about what he called his “darkest hour both professionally and personally”.
The group will first appear before Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee at 11am, followed by a 3pm sitting of the Oireachtas Media Committee.
RTÉ canteen
2. The main staff canteen at RTÉ’s campus in Donnybrook has been closed after suspected evidence of mice or rats was discovered.
The broadcaster confirmed that the restaurant did not open yesterday due to “evidence of rodent activity”.
Notice to quit
3. Where a notice to quit is issued to a tenant, a landlord will be obliged to simultaneously invite the renter to make a bid to purchase the property within 90 days, under the government’s First Right of Refusal legislation.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien will today update Cabinet on the progression of the legislation, which was promised when the government lifted the eviction ban in March.
Inquiry into drug prescription
4. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is today expected to secure Cabinet approval for a non-statutory inquiry into the historical use of sodium valproate, prescribed as an anti-epilepsy drug to women while pregnant.
Sodium valproate is an oral medication, sold in Ireland under the brand name Epilim, which has been licensed and prescribed worldwide since the 1970s, primarily for the treatment of epilepsy.
The drug has been licensed in Ireland since 1975.
Appeal over murder
5. Gardaí are renewing their appeal for information in relation to the investigation into the murder of 27-year-old Antoinette Smith, whose remains were discovered on Glendoo Mountain on 3 April 1988.
BBC allegations
6. The teenager at the centre of the BBC controversy said nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the unnamed presenter and that the allegations are “rubbish”, their lawyer said in a letter to the broadcaster.
The BBC confirmed at the weekend that the member of staff had been suspended after allegations were published in The Sun newspaper.
NATO summit
7. Nato leaders will grapple with Ukraine’s membership ambitions at their summit today, their determination to face down Russia boosted by a breakthrough in Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to head to Vilnius for the two-day summit to make the case that Kyiv has earned the right to join when the Kremlin’s invasion ends.
Trial over volcano eruption
8. A trial has opened over New Zealand’s 2019 White Island volcanic eruption, a “massive explosion” that engulfed tourists and killed 22 people while leaving others with terrible burns.
Around 50 people, mostly tourists from Australia, were on White Island – also known as Whakaari – in December 2019 when a deadly column of burning ash and steam blasted from a volcanic vent.
Bangkok road collapse
9. At least two people have been killed after an elevated road being built in Thailand’s capital collapsed.
Another 11 people were injured in the accident yesterday evening, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say