LAST UPDATE | 8 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Birth registrations

1. In our main story today, Michelle Hennessy reports parents are still facing delays of up to two months to register their children’s births, blocking them from accessing welfare payments and services such as free GP care for their babies.

As previously reported by The Journal, the HSE has said the cyber-attack in mid-May caused the significant delays and while waiting times have been reduced, there have been repeated calls for additional resources to be deployed to ensure parents get the supports they need. 

Policing legislation

2. The group representing middle ranking members of An Garda Síochána are set to launch a “stinging attack” on proposed new policing legislation. 

The annual delegate conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors begins today in Killarney.

Kevin Lunney

3. The Special Criminal Court will deliver its verdict in the Kevin Lunney abduction trial later today. 

It is expected that the three judge panel, sitting in the Criminal Courts of Justice, will begin delivering their judgement after 10.30am. 

Crack cocaine

4. There is a “tsunami” of crack cocaine addiction in the Tallaght-Whitechurch area of Dublin, with women making up one-third of those seeking help for the drug, according to a new report. 

The report by Tallaght’s Drugs and Alcohol Task Force has said that the number of people being treated for addiction issues by task force projects has doubled in the last ten years. 

Bus hijacked

5. In Northern Ireland, a bus has been hijacked and set on fire at a loyalist estate on the outskirts of Belfast.

Four masked men boarded the double decker in Church Road at an entrance to the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, at about 7.45pm and ordered the driver and passengers off. The bus was then set alight across the road.

Northern Ireland Protocol

6. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has warned a UK move to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol could see the EU doing likewise with the Brexit trade deal.

Coveney said it appeared the UK was set to follow through with its threat to trigger the Article 16 suspension mechanism within the post-Brexit arrangements for Irish Sea trade.

Covid figures

7. Public health officials yesterday confirmed 3,428 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

As of 8am yesterday, there were 478 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 75 were receiving intensive care.

US travel

8. It’s a big day for many who have been wishing to visit family and friends in the States, as the US reopens its land and air borders to foreign visitors today, ending the more than 19-month ban on non-essential travel.

Travellers heading stateside are required to be fully vaccinated and must also have a negative Covid-19 test, taken at least 72 hours before boarding the flight.

Tory sleaze allegations

9. And lastly, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to face calls for a public inquiry into allegations of Tory sleaze as MPs consider how to clean up Westminster following the Owen Paterson row.