GOOD MORNING. 

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

Perinatal mental health

1. In our main story this morning, Conor O’Carroll reports on how pregnant women and new mothers are facing restricted access to crisis mental health support at six specialist hubs.

The Journal Investigates spoke with almost 40 women across the country who had experienced mental health challenges related to their pregnancy, some of whom have to travel for hours to be seen at these units.

Slow down

2. Emergency department presentations linked to e-scooters and e-bikes have risen sharply at the Mater Hospital, according to unpublished data from the emergency department due to be presented to the Oireachtas justice committee later today.

Dr Shane Broderick, a consultant at the Mater, will tell the committee that emergency department presentations relating to these vehicles have roughly doubled in recent years.

Solicitors’ strike

3. Meanwhile, the justice committee will also hear that the number of legal aid certificates granted in July “collapsed” from over 10,000 in July 2025 to just 702 in July this year. 

The Law Society, which represents solicitors, and the Bar of Ireland, which represents barristers, will both appear before the committee to discuss the new criminal legal aid scheme introduced by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan on 1 July.

Coombe Hospital

4. The Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against Coombe Hospital that it directed women with perinatal mental health challenges to a €200-a-visit private consultant rather than offering them free services they were entitled to.

The complainant argued that the maternity hospital was not informing private and semi-private patients of their right to access publicly funded services.

Minimum wage

5. A new report has found most of the recent increases in Ireland’s minimum wage had no impact on inflation.

The report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), funded by the Low Pay Commission, found no significant increases in prices in seven out of eight minimum wage increases since 2016.

Silenced

6. The top five US television broadcasters have staged an extraordinary revolt by effectively boycotting coverage of US president Donald Trump in protest at his decision to ban three news outlets from the White House.

As a result, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the giant granite helipad on the South Lawn was only streamed on the White House’s website – and Trump’s comments were completely inaudible.

UN

7. Meanwhile, Andy Burnham and Donald Trump will both give speeches to the United Nations Assembly in New York today after the pair meet face-to-face for the first time since the British prime minister took office.

Burnham’s previous criticism of the US president, Trump’s recent comments about Irish unification, hostility to UK immigration and clean energy policies could make it diplomatically awkward.

Heimir Hallgrímsson

8. The official X account of the Israel Football Association launched a scathing attack on Heimir Hallgrímsson Monday evening.

It comes after the Ireland manager last week told reporters: “We’re not playing with genocide; we’re playing against genocide,” in reference to the upcoming Nations League matches with Israel.

The Traitors

9. It took a while to get going, but The Traitors Ireland has found its form.

After a relatively slow start to its second season, the last two episodes delivered the sort of chaos we had been waiting for. Here’s our review of last night’s episode.