LAST UPDATE | 3 Sep 2024

GOOD MORNING.

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

No ‘one ship service’

1. The officer in charge of the Naval Service’s operations has hit out at suggestions that the force is failing to meet its responsibilities and strongly criticised suggestions that it is a “one ship” service.

The Naval Service has had a difficult number of years, with extensive reports both in the media and in speeches in the Dáil that staffing numbers have plummeted, that the service was only able to put one ship out on patrol at a time and detailing an ongoing crisis in retaining highly trained specialists.

Electricity usage

2. Irish demand for electricity increased last year driven largely by new grid connections for data centres, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has said.

Back in action

3. Cabinet will meet for the first time since the summer break this morning ahead of the Dáil returning in mid-September.

The meeting comes after coalition leaders met last night where the focus was on budgetary discussions. Budget day will take place on 1 October.

Bike shelter

4. The minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) has ordered a full review of the cost of a bike shelter in Leinster House, which set the State back €335,000.

School bus crash

5. A school bus ploughed into a crowd of people outside a middle school in eastern China on Tuesday, killing 11 parents and students, state media reported.

State broadcaster CCTV said the driver “lost control” of the vehicle as it approached the school in Shandong province’s Tai’an city at 7:27am (11:27pm GMT 0n Monday).

Horse-drawn carriages 

6. Dublin City councillors have unanimously agreed to a motion calling for legal gaps around horse drawn carriages to be “dealt with immediately”.

Top dog? Top cat.

7. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has let his children get a new kitten while they live at Downing Street, after “a long summer of negotiations” about a dog.

A “Siberian kitten” will be the Starmer family’s new pet, he revealed in a BBC 5 Live interview with Matt Chorley.

Homelessness

8. Focus Ireland launched its Annual Report today, showing a 12.5% rise in the number of people it supported in 2023 (18,000 people) compared to 2022 (16,000).

The report also showed Focus Ireland helped 1,757 households to either keep their home (657 households) or support their exit from homelessness (1,100 households), an increase of nearly 10% on the previous year (1,598).  

Online Safety

9. A quarter of children aged between 8 and 12 have been upset by harmful content online, according to new figures published by CyberSafeKids.