LAST UPDATE | 9 Jul 2021

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

Mother and Baby Homes

1. In our main story today, Orla Ryan reports that a data expert has warned that the Department of Children may be at odds with EU regulations if it does not directly give survivors of Mother and Baby Homes copies of their medical records.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman wants new data protection regulations to be implemented so survivors can be granted access to their health records without the involvement of a GP. 

Dublin Bay South

2. Counting in the hotly contested Dublin Bay South by-election will begin at 9am this morning.

Ivana Bacik is now the bookies’ favourite to take the seat but a late surge for Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan will see her in contention along with Fine Gael’s James Geoghegan. 

Extra jab

3. Pfizer has called for people to receive a third dose of its Covid vaccine to improve efficacy and protect against variants.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect that a third dose will perform well against the Delta strain, and that they will be seeking authorisation in the United States, Europe and other regions in the coming weeks.

Indoor dining

4. The Taoiseach will face some “kick back” within his own party on the proposed emergency legislation to reopen indoor dining, announced yesterday evening.

Micheál Martin would not confirm yesterday what date indoor dining might resume, but government sources have indicated that it is hoped this will happen on 26 July, subject to Cabinet approval on Tuesday. 

Driving delays

5. New stats have shown that 225,000 are currently on waiting lists for theory and driving tests.

Figures released by the Road Safety Authority, show 105,216 people are now waiting for a driving test, while a further 119,253 people are on the theory test list.

European final 

6. Boris Johnson is poised to call an extra bank holiday if England win Sunday’s football final at Wembley, as the UK government is being urged to publish safety data about previous Euro 2020 matches. [The Guardian]

Haiti president assassination

7.  Two men, believed to be Haitian Americans – one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy – have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti’s president.

James Solages and Joseph Vincent were among 17 suspects detained in the brazen killing of president Jovenel Moise by gunmen at his home before dawn on Wednesday. 

US in Afghanistan

8. Joe Biden has said the US military mission in Afghanistan will end on 31 August.

He said that “speed is safety” as the United States seeks to end a war that has lasted nearly 20 years.

Biden said he did not trust the Taliban, but trusted the capacity of the Afghan military to defend the government.

Hot air balloon deaths

9. All 11 people on board a hot air balloon have been injured after it crashed while landing on New Zealand’s South Island.

Two of the people involved suffered serious injuries and were airlifted to hospital after the incident near Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu, authorities said.