LAST UPDATE | 10 Aug 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Mortage repayments

1. This week, we asked readers to get in touch and let us know if they have been feeling the impact of higher mortgage interest rates.

The vast majority who did said they were under pressure and struggling as a result of higher monthly mortgage repayments, especially considering the rising costs of other essentials like food and energy bills. 

Now at 4.25%, the European Central Bank’s main rate for pricing mortgages is the highest it has been since May 2001 after nine consecutive hikes.

Rent prices

2. Market rents in the second quarter of 2023 rose by an average of 2.4% compared to the first three months of the year although Dublin lagged behind the rest of the country, according to the latest Rental Report by Daft.ie.

Compared to a year ago, rents in the open-market are now 10.7% higher, with the average market rent nationwide in the second quarter just under €1,800 per month.

PSNI data breach

3. Northern Ireland’s Chief Constable will face questions later over a significant data breach.

Some 10,000 PSNI officers and staff have been affected by the breach, which emerged on Tuesday.

The incident happened when the PSNI responded to a Freedom of Information request seeking the number of officers and staff of all ranks and grades across the organisation.

Child dies in Antrim crash

4. An eight-year-old girl has died in a road traffic collision in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.

She has been named as Scarlett Rosborough from the Larne area. 

Another child has been taken to hospital, and their injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening.

Farmers

5. Three in four farmers would vote for a new farmers’ political party should one emerge, a new survery has found. 

The Irish Farmers Journal carried out the survey amoung 1,982 readers. This was independently analysed and verified by Ifac. 

When asked if they would give their first preference vote to a farmers’ party, 72% of respondents, almost three-quarters, said they would be likely to.

Irish man attacked in Australia

6. An Irish man is in intensive care following a one punch attack outside a McDonald’s in Australia.

Frank Staples, from Co Wexford, was allegedly assaulted outside a McDonalds fast food restaurant on Beaufort St in Perth two weeks ago.

Ecuador shooting

7. Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot and killed by an unidentified gunman while at a political rally in the country’s capital of Quito, President Guillermo Lasso has said.

The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise.

Lasso suggested organised crime was behind his slaying. Villavicencio was one of eight candidates in the 20 August presidential vote, though not the frontrunner.

FBI shoot suspect

8. A Utah man accused of making threats against US president Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15am local time, the FBI said in a statement.

Wildfires in Hawaii

9. The wildfires that have devastated parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui have killed six people.