Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you really, really need to know by 9am.
1. #GERRY RYAN: The late 2fm DJ Gerry Ryan regularly took cocaine while at work in RTÉ, it is reported. The Irish Mail on Sunday quotes an RTÉ source as saying many in Montrose were aware of his drug use, and that the star would often take the drug to help him through his three-hour show after a late night. Similar stories are carried in almost all of today’s papers.
2. #BAILOUT: Ahead of this week’s Dáil vote on approving the bailout deal struck with the EU and IMF, Fine Gael are divided on whether to support the move, the Sunday Times suggests.
Leo Varadkar and Richard Bruton had offered varying signals on whether the party would support the measures; the vote was called by Fianna Fáil on Wednesday, apparently to underline the varying policies of the main opposition parties on the matter.
3. #RING RING: Cabinet ministers were hit with a deluge of abusive phone calls after their mobile phone numbers were posted online, various papers claim. SIPTU apparently compiled the list of mobile numbers for TDs and MEPs which was circulated in its magazine Liberty, and far-left members of the union then circulated the numbers online. Some ministers changed their mobile numbers afterward, it is reported.
4. #BUDGET11: Backbench government TDs from both Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have demanded a meeting with Brian Lenihan to ensure that high-earning self-employed people will not stand to benefit from the measures introduced in the Budget.
TheJournal.ie revealed on Wednesday night how self-employed people earning over €206,000 a year are better off after this year’s Budget, due to the generous reform of the PRSI system by means of a new Universal Social Charge.
5. #ANGLO: Gardaí are nearly ready to send a major file on the activities of senior managers at Anglo Irish Bank to the Director of Public Prosecutions, various newspaper claim. The 200-page file represents a major chunk of Garda investigations into the bank, and a further batch of documents is also being prepared for the coming weeks.
6. #SWEDEN: Stockholm is reeling after two bombs went off in a crowded city shopping district yesterday evening, apparently detonated by jihadists protesting the country’s military presence in Afghanistan. At least one person has been killed.
7. #RTÉ: The national broadcaster is preparing to launch a significant defence of its online operations, the Sunday Business Post reports, after facing criticism at an Oireachtas committee from newspapers which claimed it was using its public funding to build a website against which a commercial operator could not complete.
8. #HOT MAIL: The three PWC accountants at the centre of the ‘Hot Mail’ email storm last month are to learn next month whether they will remain in employment, the Sunday Tribune says.
9. #EX FACTOR: Nearly there now. Just one more night to go – when we’ll find out which of One Direction, Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle gets to be Christmas Number One. Last night, love-her-0r-hate-her Cher Lloyd bowed 0ut, having come bottom in the final polling.
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