LAST UPDATE | 13 Feb 2024

GOOD MORNING.

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

Fast-track?

1. In our lead story today, Muiris O’Cearbhaill reports that the majority of the Irish public are in favour of Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union but do not support measures to see its membership application fast-tracked.

The Journal/Ireland Thinks poll found 72% of Irish citizens support measures being taken to introduce Ukraine as the 28th member state of the EU.

Interpretations

2. New staff introduced to increase efficiency at the International Protection Office are not trained to be interpreters but are acting as such, an investigation by Noteworthy has found.

Pressure mounting

3. Israel has faced international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepared for an incursion into the southern Gaza city Rafah where more than a million Palestinians are trapped.

Child benefit expansion

4. Plans to extend child benefit to over 18s who are still in education is to be brought forward to May.

Nagorno-Karabakh

5. Arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of opening fire on their volatile border as Yerevan said two soldiers were killed by Azeri forces in the southern region of Siunik.

Yerevan and Baku have fought two wars – in 2020 and in the 1990s – over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured in a lightning offensive last year.

UK Labour

6. The Labour Party in the UK has withdrawn its support for a by-election candidate following outcry over remarks he made that were critical of Israel.

Azhar Ali is running in a by-election in Rochdale, a town near Manchester, on 29 February.

Stepping down

7. Wexford Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe has said he does not intend to run for re-election in the next general election.

Addressing Fine Gael supporters in Wexford this evening, Kehoe said “this has been a very difficult decision to make but I feel that now is the right time for me and my family”.

Diversions

8. Dublin City Councillors have debated a plan that will divert through traffic away from Dublin city centre.

The Council was divided in its views on the plan at last night’s meeting. A number of councillors criticised the public consultation process, arguing that it had only been done online and should have been more transparent, while others said that it was too late to complain about the process now. 

TV Licence

9. Sinn Féin would replace the TV licence fee with Exchequer funding and waive penalties for anyone who has been recently caught not paying the fee.

A Sinn Féin TD has said that it is unfair to prosecute members of the public for not paying the fee in the wake of the RTÉ scandal that unfurled last year.