EVERY WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you up to speed with the five things you should know as you head out the door.
1. #ABORTION: The Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children is currently sitting for day two of three days of public hearings on the government’s proposed new legislation on abortion, following its publication of the heads of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013. Today’s proceedings has been hearing from a number of psychiatrists and perinatal psychiatrists throughout the day – follow TheJournal.ie‘s liveblog until 7.45pm to keep up to date with the proceedings.
2. #PENALTY POINTS: Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has made his first public comments today in the ongoing row over Deputy Mick Wallace and penalty points. Shatter said he was told at a garda briefing on road traffic offences that Wallace benefited from garda discretion after being found driving while using a mobile phone – and said that while he did not suggest Wallace had done something improper, he did take issue with Wallace making “the case that the gardaí are acting unlawfully” by using discretion.
3. #SUICIDE: A newly released report on suicide has revealed that up to 50 per cent of under-18 suicide deaths may be part of couplets or clusters. The report, ‘Suicide in Modern Ireland’, launched at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland today, looked at the experiences of 104 families affected by suicide – and that 66 per cent of families reported a negative experience when dealing with health services in relation to the problem.
4. #WELFARE: A record number of new complaints were dealt with by the Data Protection Commissioner last year, with 1,349 new complaints being processed. Amongst the investigations was a probe of the public sector’s information system (INFOSYS) during which “serious abuse” was detected in terms of inappropriate employee access. Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes said there had been “a worrying degree of inappropriate access to INFOSYS by state employees”, revealing that one HSE employee had even searched the social welfare records of their son’s girlfriend.
5. #MURDER: Gardaí have issued an appeal for public assistance as they begin attempts to trace the killers of Alan Desmond. The body of the 37-year-old was found by children in a field near Killinarden Hill in Tallaght last Saturday night. Gardaí are now seeking anyone who may have seen, spoken or engaged with Desmond between the last time he was seen and last Saturday.
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