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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #BUDGET 2013: Protests are due outside Leinster House today from carers and recipients of domestic care, in a fresh protest at Budget plans to cut the annual respite care grant. The protests come as the Dáil is due to begin debating the Social Welfare Bill which would bring the cut into law, though no votes on the issue are due until tomorrow.
2. #NORTHERN IRELAND: The leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party has described a firebomb attack on an unmarked police car as “an attempt to kill police officers”. A gang of around 15 masked loyalists threw a petrol bomb at the car in East Belfast last night, outside the office of Alliance MP Naomi Long, in what the PSNI is treating as an “attempted murder”.
3. #FIRE: Five units of Dublin Fire Brigade were called to put out a fire at a pub in the city centre last night. The fire at the Karma Stone bar on Wexford Street was spotted in the early hours of the morning. People were inside the pub when the fire broke out, but no injuries were reported.
4. #ABORTION: The Council of Europe’s conference of ministers has called on Ireland to ‘expedite’ its moves to address the legal vacuum at the centre of the A, B and C ruling. Ministers yesterday debated Ireland’s response to the ECHR ruling in Strasbourg. The Pro-Life Campaign said the ministers’ statement suggested “a lack of understanding” as to the court’s actual ruling.
5. #GRANTS: Only one of every nine first-year college students who applied for a third-level maintenance grant at the start of the year has actually been paid, new figures show. Data published by Ruairi Quinn shows that almost 67,000 grant applications were sent in by new students – but only 7,570 payments had been made as of the middle of last week. The body in charge, SUSI, has pledged to process all applications by Christmas.
6. #EGYPT: Rival protests are due in Cairo today, with separate demonstrations both in support of, and opposition to, Mohammed Morsi. Morsi’s opponents fear his new self-imposed powers are bringing the country back to the Mubarak era, while supporters believe the president’s decision to hold a referendum on a new constitution will bring the country into a new age of democracy.
7. #NORTH KOREA: North Korea has delayed a planned rocket launch, putting it back by a week citing “technical issues”. The planned missile launch has drawn wide condemnation, with many seeing it as an experimental launch of a long-range missile, but Pyongyang says the purpose of the mission is to put a scientific satellite into orbit.
8. #ZEITGEIST: Many of us may claim to dislike Craig Doyle, but he’s certainly popular among the Googling classes. Doyle, Katie Taylor and Euro 2012 are all prominent features in Google’s ‘Zeitgeist’ charts for popular search terms in 2012.
9. #LUCKY: A 54-year-old man has thanked his 15-stone friend for falling on him – and saving his life. Kevin Brockbank suffered a heart attack at work, prompting pal Martin Amriding to try and catch him as he fell to the ground. Amriding failed to catch him, and instead landed on him – but the impact kickstarted Brockbank’s heart. Thankfully, Brockbank is making a full recovery.
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The health service in this country is in meltdown and the Minister for Health has time to concern himself with this trivial issue? His priorities would appear to be somewhat confused.
It’s related to some extent – passive smoking is just as bad (so the experts say) and clamping down on smoking in public means less passive smokers, which means less people in hospital due to the effects.
But I still think it’s a tactic employed by politicians in this country where they try and do something small to keep the people off their backs while they continue to do nothing about the bigger issues.
Minister for Health what a tool, I’d be more worried about the amount of carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals released by motor vehicles than someone somking
@Damian, what experts say passive smoking is bad. I would be very interested as there have been no studies done on the effects of passive smoking.
@Doc – Google is handy, if you punch in a few words and hit enter, results will pop up, you should try it some time: http://www.tobacco.org/news/96539.html
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/howdoweknow/tobacco-smoking-and-cancer-the-evidence
@ Damian. I have read these papers and none of them are studies taken specifically on the effects of passive smoke. They are however extrapolations taken from statistical data and from study reviews. Perhaps instead of just googling something you could read and research some facts before patronising someone with nothing more than your own glib opinion.
@Doc – My own glib opinion is that cancer kills, directly related to smoking in a lot of cases. My own glib opinion is that I don’t want to inhale the poison from other people’s cigarettes. My own glib opinion is that the Cancer Research UK might just know a little bit more about this stuff than you. My own glib opinion is that you should have more sense than to be trawling the Journal looking to impart your wonderful knowledge in the hopes of starting a keyboard fight. Wise up.
Yes Damian, they are all your glib opinions. Smoking can cause cancer, so don’t smoke it’s your choice. If you don’t want to breathe in a smokers exhalations, leave the room it’s your choice. As for the articles you quoted, they concluded in the article you quoted that there was NO statistical risk in childhood cancers due to exposure from second hand smoke. Apparently cancer research uk know more about it than you too. As for trying to start a keyboard row, I’ve only been asking questions regarding facts and not my own glib opinion. Why don’t you wise up and get your facts right instead of quoting reports that you haven’t read or understood.
Re: the smoking ban…
When they do the same with alcohol in this country I will see the sense of it!!
I am pretty sure you can’t drink in public parks, also you can’t drink while driving. So the laws are in place already. So you fully behind this now .
I think it is already illegal to drink in public places, I know people still do it but I think it is illegal. I have seen Gardai confiscate alcohol from a group of men in the Phoenix Park. But like everything else in this country, there won’t be the necessary resources to enforce it.
James Reilly,,, I think we have more important things to be getting on with !!!!!
Andrea, it is not illegal to drink in public places, a garda will remove your drink only if you are drunk and deemed to be a danger to yourself or others. It is up to each authority to pass their own by laws regarding drinking in public (ever see a sign in a park saying no drinking) but it is not illegal.
Someone needs to tell Shatter that the whole Island is an open prison.
What a ridiculous suggestion…banning smoking in public places won’t stop it. As a country we are in crisis and this is just smoke and mirrors bullshit! pardon the pun. concentrate on real problems like more ambulance stations, more facilities for sick children, better and cheaper healthcare for all instead of doubling OUR money up against a wall on petty distractive nonsense such as this!
I actually think it would be a good idea, I have brought my children to parks and parades and had people light up directly beside us. Or light up in a queue. It is very unpleasant. Most responsible adults don’t do it but there are those who just don’t care. It is a difficult one and I remember someone posting a comment on a similar story where he mentioned a country (I can’t remember where), where one side of a street was for smokers and one for non smokers. That sounded like a good compromise….
All indoors are no smoking if u don’t like it move yourself.I don’t smoke near kids or parks but I’m sick of people like you moneing all the time. The government have not banned smoking yet so give people who do the right thing a brake
If they’re outside I believe they can smoke where they please (with an obvious exception of queues and such when kids are around), if you don’t like it move on. And this is from an ex-smoker.
@Tommy. I wasn’t “moaning”, I was simply expressing an opinion. All I said was that it is unpleasant when irresponsible people light up in a confined space (like a queue or squashed in a parade) when you have your children with you. It is much easier for that person to move away from the children than to have to move 4 children. You yourself said you don’t light up around children and if you read my comment carefully, you will notice that was my very point…
Why should a person smoking in any outdoor environment move away from children?
Dr. James Reilly can’t even enforce a no smoking policy in our Hospitals.
And where does he propose to raise the lost revenue obtained from tobacco sales?
Waffle waffle waffle.
(Check out the photo of Dr. Reilly on here and tell me: Is this an accurate image of Dr. Reilly as we know him? http://www.dohc.ie/about_us/ministers/ )
It’s a long time since he looked like that.
the minister seems to have lost track of his priorities he would be better employed in making the HSE more
efficient he has more important issues to be concerned with or are these too much to handle
Let people smoke but charge €20 for a pack of 20 and cream in the taxes.
Everyone’s a winner.
is there a smoking area in the Dail James?…….lead by example!!
This has to be another of those things the politicians do so they can point at it and say ‘what a clever little minister I am, look at what I did’ (usually banging on about their ‘achievement’ when people are asking about the many many serious things they have botched or ignored)
Its just P.R. and nothing more
Gotta love the IMF, they take billions off emerging economies and give it to rich economies to squander, genius
The widening of the ban would be good if only to lessen the amounts of filthy disgusting cigarette butts being flicked all over the ground everywhere. When you go to stephens geeen its hard to find a place to sit on the grass in summer without being next to a fag end. Next chewing gum!
Did Dr Reilly get this latest bright idea from his 164 thousand (dollar) man?
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