EACH MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the stories you need to know as you kick off your day.

1. #FLYING THE SWAG: The government has spent more than €700,000 on ministerial trips abroad for St Patrick’s Day between 2011 and 2014.

2. #TRAGEDY: New research suggests almost 500 additional suicides in Ireland are linked to the recession, The Irish Times reports.

3. #ARREST: Peter McVerry has called for an investigation into a video which claims to show a garda pepper-spraying a homeless man.

4. #TRUANCY: There were more official warnings than ever sent to parents in Ireland about their children’s absence from school last year, the Irish Examiner reports.

5. #ADDICTION: More than 3,300 heroin users in the country have been taking methadone for more than a decade, figures in the Herald reveal.

6. #FERGUSON: Police have charged a 20-year-old man in connection with the shooting of two officers at a protest last week.

7. #NO ROOM: There is just one burial plot for every 32 people in Northern Ireland, with some areas already facing acute shortages, The Irish News reports.

8. #RIP: Mike Porcaro, bass player in US rock band Toto – famous for songs like Africa and Rosanna - has died after a long battle with Motor Neurone Disease.

9. #BOYCOTT: Elton John is calling for a boycott of Dolce and Gabbana after one of the designers behind the fashion label said IVF babies were “synthetic”.