LAST UPDATE | 9 Jun 2020

EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #CHILDCARE: Parents and advocacy groups have been critical of the government’s plan to announce Ireland’s “accelerated” roadmap to reopening businesses without having any childcare provision for working parents.

2. #RENTING: The number of properties being advertised to rent in Dublin has increased by 39% in the month of May compared to last year, according to property website Daft.ie.

3. #BUSINESS Small and medium-sized businesses have been a “blindspot” for the government, who have been “fixated” on multinational companies, the Irish SME Association is expected to tell an Oireachtas committee today.

4. #HOSEPIPE BAN: For the next six weeks, people will be limited in how they can use water. Irish Water has put into force a National Water Conservation Order, or hosepipe ban, that will remain in place from today until midnight on Tuesday 21 July. 

5. #NORTH KOREA: North Korea is severing all official communication links with the South, it announced today in a move analysts said was aimed at manufacturing a crisis on the divided peninsula.

6. #BLACK LIVES MATTER: The last chance for the public to say goodbye to George Floyd drew thousands of mourners to a church in his home town of Houston.

7. #MASKS: Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has urged more people to wear face masks in public.

8. #GARDAÍ: Over 100 people were charged with domestic violence offences in the final two weeks of May, according to new figures. 

9. #HELPLINE: A national bereavement support line, the first of its kind in Ireland, has today been launched by the Irish Hospice Foundation and the HSE.