GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
The Budget
1. Budget negotiations will come down to the wire this weekend, as the final few Government departments work to agree their spending levels for the year ahead.
As of Wednesday, only five departments had agreed their budgets, with more getting sign-off in the run up to the weekend.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has said it will be Monday before his department budget is agreed. It is understood that Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys is working to ensure the roll out of the new pay-related-benefit scheme forms part of next week’s budget announcement.
Flight paths
2. A disagreement has emerged between Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, Dublin Airport and Ryanair as the minister expressed his view that planes coming and going from Dublin Airport have been flying outside of agreed flight paths.
Both Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Ryanair have said this is not the case.
Since the opening of Dublin Airport’s North Runway last year, residents who unexpectedly found themselves under the flight path have been calling on the government to intervene and force the routes to be changed.
Limerick
3. Gardaí are investigating “all the circumstances” surrounding the discovery of a man’s body in a Limerick car park.
The body of the man, aged in his 40s, was discovered in Steamboat Quay Car Park, Limerick.
It is understood that he may have suffered head injuries.
Deforestation
4. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 59% in September compared to the same month last year, official data showed, confirming a positive trend that began after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power this year.
However, it hit new highs in the tropical savannah region known as the Cerrado, south of the Amazon, which has been hit by incursions from farming companies.
Some 590 square kilometres were deforested last month in the Brazilian part of the world’s largest tropical forest, compared to around 1,454 square kilometers in September 2022, according to satellite data collected by the National Institute for Space Research.
Garda dispute
5. “Substantial” progress was made in talks between garda representative bodies and Commissioner Drew Harris yesterday in the ongoing roster dispute.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has deferred their days of industrial action, including on Budget Day, which has been welcomed by Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
Sources said that tensions have been eased and talks are continuing but that a possible agreement, if finally accepted by GRA officials, would see the Commissioner’s proposed roster be altered.
State secrets
6. Former US President Donald Trump denied reports in US media yesterday that he had shared US nuclear submarine secrets with an Australian businessman in a meeting at his Florida mansion shortly after leaving office.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, identified the entrepreneur as billionaire Anthony Pratt, who heads one of the world’s largest packaging companies.
ABC News, which first revealed the story, said Pratt later shared sensitive details about the US submarines with “scores of others, including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists.”
Sources told the Times that Trump’s disclosures “potentially endangered the US nuclear fleet.”
Surplus
7. With days to go until Budget 2024, new figures have shown that the surplus in public finances this year will be €9.62 billion.
The Department of Finance’s annual White Paper, published ahead of the budget every year, shows that Ireland’s finances remain in good health, despite being below projections made earlier this year.
Looking ahead to next year, the surplus is projected to reach €12.535 billion. According to the paper, corporation tax receipts are expected to come in at €23.5 billion for this year, compared to an expected €24.3 billion.
Ozempic
8. Health authorities’ guidance to pharmacists to prioritise patients with diabetes when dispensing Ozempic is causing “huge distress and anxiety” to people with obesity who have been prescribed it for weight loss, a doctor has warned.
The drug, which is effective in regulating blood sugar and insulin for diabetics and in suppresing appetite for people with diabetes, is in very short supply in Ireland and internationally.
Professor Francis Finucane, who leads the obesity clinic at Galway University Hospital, told The Journal the problem was “worse than [he] envisioned in May”, when doctors and pharmacists were first instructed by regulators that using Ozempic for weight management was placing its availability for people with diabetes at risk.
Bedbugs
9. France has been forced to shut seven schools over growing concerns over an infestation of bedbugs, Education Minister Gabriel Attal said today.
“Bedbugs were detected at various levels in… I believe 17 institutions, and currently as I speak to you, seven institutions are closed for this reason,” Attal told France 5 television.
The French government has held a series of meetings this week to examine surging numbers of reported bedbug cases at a time when France is hosting the Rugby World Cup and preparing to host the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“We have almost 60,000 institutions and we’re only talking about a few dozen here, but it’s true that cases are piling up,” Attal said. “An immediate response is needed, so that we can have institutions treated within 24 hours.”
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