Every morning, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you start your (slightly curtailed) day.
1. #STRESS TESTS: The papers aren’t in agreement about how much funding our banks will need after next week’s stress tests, but suffice it to say: it’s a lot. The Sunday Business Post leads with the news that the banks will need between €18bn and €23bn under the new tests, to be published this week; the Mail on Sunday puts that figure at between €25bn and €27bn.
2. #MORIARTY: Naturally enough, this morning’s papers give quite comprehensive analysis of the Moriarty Tribunal’s findings. A Sunday Independent poll shows that 81 per cent of the public agreed with Justice Moriarty’s findings, while 87 per cent reject Denis O’Brien’s evidence and a massive 94 per cent of people reject that of Michael Lowry.
The Sunday Business Post, meanwhile, discusses how then-Taoiseach John Bruton refused to launch a probe into the doubts over how Esat Digifone was awarded the mobile phone licence; elsewhere the Mail on Sunday discusses the ‘disquiet’ within Fine Gael about how Lowry’s special advisor of the time, Mark Kennelly, is now Enda Kenny’s most senior aide.
3. #PEAVOY: Dublin City Council had planned to have the heating issues in Rachel Peavoy’s Ballymun flat fixed by January 27 of last year – but that was 16 days too late for Peavoy, 30, died of hypothermia. Documents in today’s Mail on Sunday show how the city council was aware of the heating issues and dampness in her flat, but ultimately the heating was not repaired until June of last year.
4. #LONDON: Over 200 people have now been arrested following yesterday’s anti-capitalist demonstrations in London turned violent. Thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against a hard-hitting series of spending cuts as part of the UK’s budget, announced on Wednesday.
5. #FUKUSHIMA: Workers have been evacuated from reactor 2 at the stricken nuclear power plant at Fukushima this morning, after operators recorded a radiation level up to 10 million times higher than the regular presence.
6. #SWANS: Up to 18 swans that died in mysterious circumstances in Dublin’s Grand Canal last year have been shown to have died from septicaemia – or blood poisoning, it has emerged. Both the Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday report that the ‘dredging’, or cleaning out, of the canal did not result in chemicals being fatally dislodged.
7. #EURO 2012: Ireland’s quest to qualify for a European soccer championships for the first time since 1988 received a boost last night – as the Boys in Green defeated Macedonia 2-1, while Russia failed to score in Armenia. The results, combined with Slovakia’s expected win over Andorra, now mean that we’re tied with Russia and Slovakia at the top of the group; all have 10 points after 5 games. The top team goes through automatically; the second will likely face a playoff.
8. #FORMULA 1: The new grand prix season is underway – and it’s business as usual for reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, who stormed to victory in Melbourne this morning, claiming Red Bull’s first victory in Australia. He led McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Vitaly Petrov in the Renault, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber; Jenson Button was sixth.
9: #CLOCKS: And no, TheJournal.ie hasn’t changed its timing – in case you hadn’t realised, the clocks went forward an hour last night, so you had an hour less in bed. At 1am, it became 2am – and we’ll stay an hour ahead until the end of October. The question is, though: should we stay there forever?
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