EVERY WEEKDAY evening, TheJournal.ie brings you the five things you need to know by 5pm.
1. #WOMEN-ONLY: The first all-female Oireachtas meeting will be held this evening to discuss how to increase the number of women in the Dáil and Senate. However, the idea has sparked controversy with one TD – Labour’s Joanna Tuffy – refusing to attend.
2. #MORTGAGES: AIB is to sign up to the government’s pilot mortgage-to-rent scheme which aims to ensure families can stay in their homes despite falling behind on mortgage repayments. The programme will see customers in distress hand over the ownership of their homes in exchange for guaranteed tenancy.
The bank also announced today that it will not be passing on the recent interest rate cut by the European Central Bank to its customers.
3. #EUROZONE: As the eurozone continues to teeter on the brink, Greece is still waiting on its new government with outgoing prime minister George Papandreou remaining tight-lipped about coalition talks during a live televised speech today. Meanwhile, the cost of borrowing for the Italian government reached a record high of 7.4 per cent this morning.
4. #LOVE AND MARRIAGE: Ireland’s laws on civil marriage are to change in order to allow members of the humanist community to carry out civil weddings. Previously, only HSE registrars or groups who observe religious worship could apply for such licenses.
5. #TITANIC TV: A good news story about the Titanic? It seems unlikely but Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan said today that the filming of a new TV series about the ill-fated ship will bring about €12 million into the economy and create up to 200 new temporary jobs in Dublin.
Some of the images from today’s photocall with the Blood and Steel cast (including Neve Campbell and Chris Noth aka Mr Big) were so good, we may just have to post a caption competition later today.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say