GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. Micheál Martin has said he does not think new gambling laws will affect the horse racing industry, amid concerns raised by the sector.
Minister of State for Law Reform James Browne has brought forward a bill which provides for the establishment of a gambling regulatory authority and is intended to protect children and those vulnerable to problem gambling.
2. At least nine people have died as bad weather hit the Australian eastern states of Queensland and Victoria.
Three men were killed after a boat with 11 people aboard capsized in rough weather in Moreton Bay off the south Queensland coast yesterday, police said.
3. The Government considered making the age of consent for gay people 21 years when it was planning to decriminalise homosexuality in 1993.
The age of consent for heterosexual intercourse at the time was, and still is, 17 years old.
4. Irish officials were discussing the existence and activities of the IRA mole codenamed ‘Stakeknife’ years before the double agent was publicly unmasked, and were assessing intelligence of British collusion in the killing of a man who had been wrongly identified as the agent.
5. Plans to free up an additional 12,000 rental properties from the short-term let market are back on track with government aiming to have the new regulatory system up and running by next summer.
6. John F Kennedy’s then wife Jackie Kennedy, rang the Irish Embassy in Washington DC from the White House just hours after her husband’s assassination in Texas to ask if the Defence Forces’ Cadets could play a role in his funeral.
7. Lee Sun-Kyun, a popular South Korean actor best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite, has been found dead in a car in Seoul, authorities said, after weeks of an intense police investigation into his alleged drug use.
8. Wind and rain warnings remain in place today as Storm Gerrit continues to sweep across the country.
A status orange rainfall warning is in effect in Kerry and West Cork where Met Eireann has said localised flooding is possible.
An orange wind warning is also in place in Clare and Galway, with the forecaster saying that coastal flooding is likely due to a spring tide.
9. Gerry Adams acknowledged in June 2001 that Sinn Féin needed to move away from “any association of violence” to stop attracting “head bangers” to the party, newly released documents show.
At the time, efforts were ongoing to get the IRA and other groups to decommission their weapons.
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