Every afternoon, TheJournal.ie brings you 5 things you really need to know by 5pm.
1. #MARY HARNEY: Just 11 days after being squirted with red paint by a disapproving Dublin City Councillor, health minister Mary Harney’s car was pelted with eggs and cheese as she arrived at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital today.
Harney was opening a new endoscopy unit at the Tipperary hospital when people threw the food at her car, RTÉ reported. Demonstrators said the new unit was irrelevant because of “ongoing downgrading at the hospital” in Nenagh.
2. #MCNAMARA: One of the country’s biggest construction firms has entered into receivership. Michael McNamara & Co, better known as ‘McNamara Construction’, was formerly led and still owned by embattled developer Barnard McNamara, but reportedly invited Farrell Grant Sparks – a firm specialising in corporate insolvency – to take over the running of the firm last night.
3. #BOND MARKETS: We’re not out of the woods yet, but it’s been a much better day on the bond markets for the Irish government. With 10-year bond yields last night standing at just over 8.9%, this morning’s clarification by European leaders that Ireland would not be asked to default on its bonds has driven the price down to 8.128% – a significant 0.77% drop in a single day.
To offer context, the amount is still 5.6% higher than the amount that Germany pays to borrow cash – but it’s a move in the right direction.
4. #BURMA: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not be released today, as was first anticipated. It is understood that the leader – who has been under house arrest for 13 of the last 20 years – has demanded that her release be unconditional, causing further negotiations with the military junta which had earlier signed a warrant allowing her to be freed under certain conditions.
5. #BANK OF IRELAND: Ireland’s biggest lender has warned that its operating profits for the 2010 year are likely to be about 40% lower than they were last year – meaning that the bank could be on course for massive losses this year once its impairment charges are taken on board.
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