LAST UPDATE | 24 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

Booster no-shows

1. In our main story today, Céimin Burke reports how there have been calls for clarity around what is causing Covid-19 vaccine booster appointments to have “no-show” rates of up to 50% after numerous people reported difficulties cancelling unneeded appointments.

The issue of people not turning up to booster appointments was raised at last week’s HSE operational update, with CEO Paul Reid noting that a “sense of security” may be contributing to people not availing of the additional jab.

For peat’s sake

2. It has been claimed that thousands of tonnes of peat were imported into Ireland from Latvia earlier this year.

Our resident fact-checker Brianna Parkins puts this claim to the test here. 

Facelift for Cork’s docklands

3. Elsewhere, a developer has confirmed its intention to seek planning permission for a €350 million development in the Cork Docklands in the coming weeks.

The proposed development includes apartments, office buildings, and a 130-bed rehabilitation hospital.

Fuel protest

4.  Truckers are currently driving to Dublin this morning to demand that the government lowers the cost of fuel after increases that came into effect last month.

A new group under the name Irish Truckers and Haulage Association Against Fuel Prices has mobilised commercial vehicles to travel to Kildare Street in the city centre this morning.

Black Friday

5. Sticking with domestic news, a junior minister has warned shoppers to be alert when availing of sales this coming Friday and Monday – warning that if people shop outside of the EU, they may not have the same consumer protections.

‘Black Friday’ takes place this week, a retail event that originated in the US on the Friday after Thanksgiving, where retailers offer what they claim are discounts to products.

Wisconsin Christmas Parade

6. Over in the United States now and an eight-year-old boy has become the sixth person to die as a result of a man driving his SUV into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin.

Darrell Brooks Junior has been charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide, a charge that carries a mandatory life sentence if convicted.

Wait – I’ve seen this film before 

7. A NASA mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid — a test run should humanity ever need to stop a giant space rock from wiping out life on Earth — blasted off from California this morning.

Drugs crisis 

8. A US jury has decided that pharmacies owned by Walmart, Walgreens and CVS bear responsibility for the opioid crisis in two counties in the US state.

The three companies acted illegally in filling significant opioid prescriptions in Lake and Trumbell counties, creating an “oversupply” of the drugs and a “public nuisance,” a jury in a federal court in Cleveland found.

Staying shut 

9. New Zealand has said it will not reopen to foreign travellers for at least another five months, as it slowly relaxes some of the world’s toughest pandemic border restrictions.

The Pacific nation’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealanders stranded in Australia could return home from mid-January and Kiwis travelling from elsewhere would be allowed in a month later.