EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.
1. #ECONOMIC REVIEW The government will set out the scale of the pain to come over the next four budgets when it publishes its medium term economic review today. Attention will focus on the December budget where €3.8 billion of cuts are expected and growth estimates for the next year are likely to be revised downwards.
2. #GREECE George Papandreou faces a crucial confidence vote in the Greek parliament today following yesterday’s upheaval where at one point it was thought he would resign before he announced he would not. Nonetheless embattled Papandreou could be out of the job by the end of the day and an election imminent. The country’s proposed referendum on its second EU/IMF bailout has now definitely been scrapped it would seem.
3. #FUEL LAUNDERING Petrol stations in Dublin, Galway, Louth were raided yesterday as part of a joint operation by Customs, Revenue and Gardaí with 158,000 litres of fuel seized as well as €39,000 in cash from three premises.
4. #VATICAN EMBASSY The Irish Catholic editor Garry O’Sullivan has described yesterday’s decision by the Tánaiste to close the Irish embassy in the Vatican as ”ill judged”. Eamon Gilmore has insisted in media interviews this morning that the closure was a cost-cutting effort but O’Sullivan told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland it was part of an ”attack” on Catholic schools and culture.
5. #MORTGAGES Mortgage lenders are under pressure to pass on the ECB’s interest rate cut announced yesterday to homeowners in this country. Already Permanent TSB and KBC bank have said they will pass on the 0.25 per cent cut in the standard interest rate. The Irish Times says that the Central Bank will pressure all lenders to pass on the cut on all mortgages.
6. #MAX KEISER Former stock trader Max Keiser, who predicted elements of the economic crash, reckons NAMA is a terrorist organisation and RTÉ is a tool of the bankers. Ahead of his appearance at an economics festival in Kilkenny today, Keiser tells TheJournal.ie: “Ireland has been victimised by financial terrorism”.
7. #TRAGIC A three-year-old girl ate leftovers from her fridge and comforted herself with her teddy bear named ‘Possum’ for two days after her mother unexpectedly died at their home in New Zealand. When Shylah Silbery was discovered by police she told them: “Mummy won’t wake up”.
8. #J BIEBZ Police could now investigate the alleged sexual tryst between pop superstar Justin Bieber and a woman who claims he is the father of her child because Bieber was just 16 at the time, AP reports. Under California law the encounter, which Bieber’s representatives strenuously deny, would be illegal and classified as statutory rape.
9. #WINNING We don’t like to blow our own trumpet too much but we just thought you should know that the already award-winning TheJournal.ie collected another gong at the Appys Awards last night, winning the prize for Best Media/Publishing App. Adverts.ie also took the Best Business and Best iOS app awards. Now, where were we…
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say