LAST UPDATE | 25 Jan 2022
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. Clear and reliable information can quickly affect a person’s opinion about climate action, a new Irish study has found.
The research suggests that people who are provided with information about climate change and its causes are more likely to be in favour of actions to tackle the crisis than people who have not been informed, Lauren Boland writes in today’s lead story.
Additionally, people overall tend to underestimate the benefits that high-impact actions, like eating less meat, can have for climate action, while overestimating the benefits of low-impact actions like recycling.
2. Eight people were killed and about 50 injured in a crush outside a Cameroonian football stadium yesterday ahead of an Africa Cup of Nations match.
Crowds attempted to enter through a southern entrance at Olembe stadium in the capital Yaounde to watch the host nation play Comoros.
Although the stadium’s capacity of 60,000 has been limited over Covid-19 fears, the 60% cap is raised to 80% when Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions play.
3. US President Joe Biden declared “total” unity among Western powers yesterday after crisis talks with European leaders on deterring Russia from an attack against Ukraine, while the Pentagon said 8,500 US troops were put on standby for possible deployment to boost Nato.
“I had a very, very, very good meeting – total unanimity with all the European leaders,” Biden told reporters shortly after finishing a one hour and 20 minute video conference with allied leaders from Europe and Nato.
In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office also said “the leaders agreed on the importance of international unity in the face of growing Russian hostility”.
4. The State has an important role in stepping in to “de-risk” the development of vacant properties for buyers, according to Maria Graham, Assistant Secretary Planning Division of the Department of Housing.
Appearing before an Oireachtas committee later today on the issue of vacant houses around the country, the secretary general will tell members that the costs of dereliction and vacancy in our cities, towns and villages “are very high in societal terms”.
In her opening statement today, Graham will tell the committee that choosing to refurbish a vacant or derelict house can be seen as a risk to some buyers, as it can appear more expensive to a person to develop vacant or derelict properties than greenfield development.
5. Cabinet will today discuss the approval of the development of 1,047 apartments and houses at the O’Devaney Gardens site in Dublin, with construction starting in the second quarter of this year.
As part of a deal struck between Bartra and Dublin City Council, just over half of the redevelopment scheme is to be made up of social and affordable homes.
The scheme would comprise 1,047 residential units across 10 apartment blocks made up of 1,024 apartments and 23 houses with the site located in the north west inner city, adjoining the residential area of Stoneybatter.
The breakdown of the housing is 30% social housing, 22% affordable and 48% private housing.
6. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing fresh allegations of breaking Covid-19 rules.
It has emerged that staff gathered in No 10 to wish him a happy birthday during the first national lockdown. ITV News reported that up to 30 people attended a birthday celebration.
The broadcaster said the PM’s wife, Carrie Johnson, had organised the surprise get-together on the afternoon of 19 June 2020, when social mixing indoors was banned.
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than ten minutes.”
7. A teacher who raped and sexually abused his little brother when they were children has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
Graham Daly (37) was “a big brother who should have protected his younger brother”, Ms Justice Karen O’Connor said. Instead, Daly abused his brother Thomas over a four year period from when the boy was 10 years old.
Daly, of Clonree, Newport, Co Tipperary, was found guilty by a jury of seven counts of raping and sexually abusing his brother on dates between January 1998 and December 2002 following a Central Criminal Court trial last December. Most of the abuse took place in the family home in Limerick, the trial heard.
8. There is no shortage of confusion about what last Friday’s announcement means for the vast majority of workers, managers and employers, Ian Curran writes in today’s Morning Memo.
But for the moment, the problems are mostly theoretical rather than practical, according to one employment law expert. That could change, however, if the now out-of-date Work Safely Protocol isn’t updated swiftly.
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8. And finally, the weather.
This morning any mist or fog patches will clear and other than some well scattered outbreaks of light rain or drizzle, according to Met Éireann.
Some sunny spells will break through as the day goes on. Highest temperatures will range from six to 10 degrees.
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