LAST UPDATE | 15 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

Welfare system

1. In our main story today, Ian Curran reports the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has told politicians the government must bring forward plans to link unemployment benefits to previous pay levels and scrap the old flat-rate Jobseeker’s Benefits system.

In a letter to ministers and TDs, seen by The Journal, ICTU general secretary Patricia King has urged politicians from all parties to get behind a new trade union-led campaign to strengthen Ireland’s “threadbare social safety net”.

Climate poll

2. Three in every four young car-owning adults plan to change how they use their car – or already have – following the release of the Climate Action Plan, new polling has found.

74% of 18 to 24-year-olds plan to reduce the number of short car journeys they take or switch to a hybrid or electric car.

Bodies found

3. News broke yesterday evening that the bodies of an elderly man and woman have been discovered at a house in Kerry.

The man and woman, who are aged in their 80s, were both pronounced dead at the scene and have since been removed to the University Hospital Kerry for post-mortem examinations.

Astroworld deaths

4. Over to international news, a nine-year-old boy has become the youngest person to die from injuries sustained during a crowd surge at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.

Ezra Blount of Dallas died yesterday at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, family lawyer Ben Crump said.

Liverpool blast

5. In England, police cordons remain in place in areas of Liverpool as investigations continue into the car explosion which killed one person and injured another outside a hospital.

Three men have been arrested under the Terrorism Act after the blast involving a taxi at Liverpool Women’s Hospital at 10.59am yesterday.

Qatar searches

6. A group of women subjected to invasive gynaecological searches at Doha airport will sue Qatari authorities, seeking redress for an ordeal that sparked global condemnation.

Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights from Doha, including 13 Australians, were subjected to the examinations late last year as authorities searched for the mother of a newborn found abandoned in an airport bathroom.

Covid figures

7. Back in Ireland, public health officials yesterday confirmed 3,805 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

As of 8am yesterday, there were 582 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of whom 106 are in ICU.

Concern over Covid

8. The Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 is set to meet later this evening amid increasing concern about the rapid spread of Covid-19 infections.

Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that he was “extremely concerned” about rising cases and the impact it was having on admissions to hospital and ICU. 

Iraq-Belarus repatriations

9. And back to international news, the Iraqi government has said it is organising a repatriation flight for its citizens stuck on the Poland-Belarus border on a “voluntary” basis.

“Iraq will carry out a first flight for those who wish to return voluntarily on the 18th” of November from Belarus, Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf told Iraqi television overnight.