LAST UPDATE | 7 Jul 2021

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

Homelessness

1. In our main story today, Cónal Thomas writes that an official asked for hoardings to be erected over a doorway in Dublin where a homeless man was known to sleep to prevent another rough sleeper “moving in” before exams were held in the building, internal emails show.

The individual, who worked for the City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB), wrote the email before the doorway at Rathmines College of Further Education on Leinster Road was covered with wooden hoardings in late May.

Vaccine portal

2. The HSE’s Covid-19 vaccine registration portal is now open for people aged 30-34.

This is a registration for mRNA vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. Registration for this cohort had initially been planned for Friday, but the date was moved up to today.

So far, 16.9% of the adult population have received one dose and over 50% are fully vaccinated.

Covid travel cert

3. Sticking with coronavirus news, people who are fully vaccinated will begin to receive their EU Covid-19 digital passes from next Monday 12 July. 

People will either receive their certs via email or in the post with Revenue assisting in sending out the certs via post. 

The Digital Covid Cert will allow people to travel within the EU. 

Contactless payments

4. In business news, new figures reveal consumers made more than two million contactless payments per day in May worth more than €1 billion.

The statistics, released today by the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), show that Irish users broke the highest daily level since monitoring began in 2016.

Brian Hayes, Chief Executive of the BPFI, suggested the increased spend across the economy could be due to an easing of Covid-19 restrictions. 

Teenager dies in crash

5. A 14-year-old boy has died and another teenager has been seriously injured following a crash in Co Kerry. 

The single vehicle collision happened on the Ross Road in Killarney at approximately 1.10am. 

A passenger in the car, another male teenager, was taken to Kerry University Hospital to receive treatment for his injuries. 

Motorcyclist collision

6. Elsewhere in Co Kerry, a motorcyclist is in “serious” condition in hospital after a collision with a car yesterday evening.

Gardaí and emergency services attended the scene of a collision between the two vehicles at Listry Bridge on the R563 between Killarney and Milltown around 8pm.

Gardaí are asking witnesses or anyone with video or dash cam footage to come forward.

Sydney lockdown

7. Internationally, more than five million Sydney residents will spend at least another week in coronavirus lockdown, Australian authorities have said, after detecting another 27 new cases.

Stay-at-home orders have already been in place in the country’s biggest city for two weeks.

The Sydney outbreak has so far seen just 357 cases, underscoring the strictness of the strategy.

Hurricane Elsa

8. A storm that has lashed the Caribbean and the Florida Keys with pounding rain and gusty winds has strengthened into a hurricane.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Elsa was carrying winds as high as 75mph as it hurtled toward Florida’s northern Gulf Coast.

The Category 1 storm is expected to make landfall between 8-9am today, somewhere between the Tampa Bay area and the Big Bend region.

Crime reporter shot

9. Back in Europe, a Dutch crime reporter has been shot as he left a television studio.

Peter R de Vries was shot in the centre of the city after making one of his regular appearances on a current affairs television show.

Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in Parliament he was “deeply shocked” by the attack.