LAST UPDATE | 30 Mar 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

NCT waiting times

1. In our lead story this morning, Michelle Hennessy reports that the average waiting time for a National Car Test (NCT) appointment is still almost double the pre-pandemic level.

In January and February alone this year there were 36,000 test appointment cancellations, of which 11,400 were cancelled by the NCTS.

The service said levels of Covid-19 among staff have presented challenges.

Ukraine latest

2. Ukraine and Western allies are today waiting for signs Moscow is “radically” reducing military activity around Kyiv, as promised in peace talks, with scepticism high after Washington warned Russian troops were being repositioned and not withdrawn.

Both sides called talks in Istanbul “meaningful” and “positive”, in sharp contrast to previous rounds of discussions, raising hopes after more than a month of war.

Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin said the country would “radically, by several times reduce the military activity” around Kyiv and Chernigiv.

Sick pay

3. The Cabinet has approved a bill giving Irish workers the right to paid sick leave for the first time.

Once the laws are enacted it will allow three days paid sick leave per year, rising to five days in 2024, seven days in 2025 and 10 days in 2026. 

Covid at Cabinet

4. There was no Covid-19 discussion at Cabinet yesterday despite some healthcare professionals stating that the health service is under “huge pressure”. 

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that while the number of infections is amounting to hundreds of thousands a week, the advice he has received is not to consider bringing in any new public health measures. 

Electricity credit for rising costs

5. The government’s €200 electricity credit is set to be granted to households across the country, starting in early April.

However, some accounts may not be granted the credit until May or June depending on billing dates of particular households.

Pregnancy

6. A major report has found that almost half of all pregnancies worldwide are unintended.

The report by the United Nations Population Fund hosted by the Irish Family Planning Association, found that between 2015 and 2019, there were roughly 121 million unintended pregnancies each year.

Anglo-Irish relations

7. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney yesterday met with the mayors of Manchester and Liverpool in Dublin as part of an initiative to strengthen trade and innovation links, as Anglo-Irish relations shift north of London.

Israel

8. Five people were killed in gun attacks near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv yesterday in the third fatal gun or knife spree in the space of a week.

North Korea missile 

9. South Korea says the North faked the launch of what analysts have dubbed its “monster missile” last week, adding that the test was likely the same intercontinental ballistic missile Pyongyang fired in 2017.

On Friday, North Korea claimed to have successfully test-fired a Hwasong-17 missile which it first unveiled at a military parade in 2020.

But South Korea’s defence ministry told AFP that Seoul and Washington have now concluded that the launch was actually of a Hwasong-15, an ICBM that Pyongyang test-fired in 2017.