GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. The vast majority of people in Ireland – 84% – say they either distrust or strongly distrust the Chinese government, according to the latest Ireland Thinks opinion poll carried out on behalf of The Journal.
This month’s Good Information Project is discussing China and how Ireland relates to one of the biggest economies in the world this month. We teamed up with Ireland Thinks to explore this issue with a representative panel of the public.
In today’s lead story, Kevin Cunningham and Adam Daly write that nearly 60% of those surveyed also believe the People’s Republic will be the most powerful country in 20 years time.
2. The Department of Public Health Mid-West has expressed “serious concerns over a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in Limerick” linked to a number of social gatherings.
Director Dr Mai Mannix said: “We have not seen this level of infection in the community since early March, which is a very worrying trend.
“If daily cases continue at this rate, coupled with the health service’s coping with the sinister cyber attack, we will find ourselves in a very troubling position.”
3. Staying with Covid-19, the government will next week give a detailed and “comprehensive” statement on plans for travel, aviation, entertainment, sport and mandatory hotel quarantine as part of the next phase of reopening for June and July.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told his parliamentary party meeting this week that there is a necessity to restore travel and aviation, adding that substantive work on the evaluation of the mandatory hotel quarantine system is underway. A motion will come before the Oireachtas shortly on the mandatory hotel quarantine system – whether to extend it and for how long.
4. Gardaí have urged people who think they may have been impacted by the recent cyber attack on the HSE to contact their local garda station.
Gardaí have said it is not yet certain whether the reports about people’s personal records and data being circulated online are genuine. However, they have said that it is probable and a feature of these kinds of attacks.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said yesterday that some patient data from the HSE had leaked online on the “dark net”.
5. Meanwhile, child protection work by Tusla has been hugely hampered by the HSE cyber-attack as a database used to manage cases has been hit. The National Childcare Information System looks after child protection and welfare cases across the country.
Multiple sources have told The Journal that the hack has caused a halt to work as social workers, administrative staff and management cannot access critical data files.
Sources say the files – which include records of children in care, court outcomes, social work files dealing with children and child abuse cases – have all been encrypted and cannot be accessed.
6. As clashes erupt despite a ceasefire in Gaza, broadcaster Mike Murphy writes that many Irish people are “outraged” by the bombardment and killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank by Israeli forces.
“The deaths, now numbering over 200, including more than 60 children, lie on the conscience of the international community. The inaction of our leaders has given Israel the green light to continue the massacre of these trapped and besieged people. I find this inaction infuriating, and heartbreaking.”
7. The trial of four men accused of abducting and assaulting Quinn Industrial Holdings director Kevin Lunney will proceed at the end of this month after almost five months of delays, the Special Criminal Court has heard.
The case, which was in for mention today before the Special Criminal Court, had originally been fixed for trial on 11 January at the non-jury court.
8. Three former Debenhams workers have spoken to The Journal about picketing during a pandemic.
Former employees of the store spent 406 days picketing outside, rain or shine, occupying stores and sometimes facing arrest as they fought, not just for their own rights and entitlements, but for other retail workers who face a similar fate in the future.
It has been, as former Waterford shop steward Michelle Gavin describes it, “an epic journey”, that ended this week when workers voted to lift their picket and accept proposals for a €3 million government training, upskilling and business start-up fund for the company’s former workers.
9. And finally, the weather. Many areas are getting *some* respite from the rain roday. Scattered showers in parts of the north and west during the morning will extend to other parts of the country through the afternoon and evening, but there will be sunny spells in between. It will be another cool day with highest temperatures of 10 to 13 degrees.
Comments are closed as legal proceedings are ongoing in one or more of the above cases.
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