GOOD MORNING.

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

Waterford meat plant

1. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled that a controversial meat plant in Waterford can expand its capacity to process beef carcasses, despite complaints of a smell of “rotten” meat over Waterford city.

However, Eoghan Dalton reports that the plant itself has appealed the new restrictions imposed on its license by the environmental watchdog as a condition of its permission.

Anglo Beef Processors Proteins, which is owned by businessman Larry Goodman, had sought to boost the capacity of its plant to allow it to process 600 tonnes of meat per day – an increase of 60% on the 375 tonnes it currently processes.

Some of the new strict conditions include the length of time carcasses can be held at the plant, which the plant’s environmental manager John Durkan has alleged could mean it may face fines or even the loss of its license in future. 

Niall Collins

2. Minister of State Niall Collins has said he “acted correctly” in a planning application he made in Limerick in 2001.

It comes after news website The Ditch made a number of claims about a planning application submitted by the junior minister.

In a statement, the Limerick TD said he applied to Limerick County Council for planning permission in 2001 in his own name, on lands owned by his father in Patrickswell, Co Limerick.

“At that time, I met the requirements for planning permission in the area – known as the ‘pressure area’. Separately the property I owned on the Fr Russell Road in Dooradoyle Limerick was not in the ‘pressure area’,” he said.  

Kilkenny stabbing

3. A man aged in his 60s has been arrested on suspicion of murder after another man was fatally injured in a suspected stabbing in Kilkenny.

The wounded man was found at a residence at Meadow Way, Castlecomer Road at around 6pm yesterday evening and pronounced dead at the scene.   

The man who was arrested is currently being detained at Kilkenny Garda Station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

Northern Ireland Protocol

4. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signed off on a “breakthrough” post-Brexit deal yesterday called the new “Windsor Framework”. 

Sunak described it as a “decisive breakthrough” on post-Brexit trading arrangements, but what does the deal contain?

It is set to make trade between Northern Ireland and Britain easier for businesses, with key measures also included on how EU law will still apply to the North.

War in Ukraine

5. The chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence has brushed aside claims that China is considering furnishing arms to Russia, telling US media that he saw no “signs that such things are even being discussed”.

Senior US officials have said as recently as Sunday that they were “confident” China was considering providing lethal equipment to Moscow, CIA director William Burns among those voicing their concern.

But when asked about the possibility in an interview, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov disagreed.

“I do not see any signs that such things are even being discussed.” 

Leaving Cert

6. Plans for Leaving Cert students to sit Paper 1 in both English and Irish at the end of fifth year are set to be deferred. 

Minister for Education Norma Foley is to bring a memo to Cabinet today setting out the changes. 

Last March, the minister announced that as an “interim measure” students entering fifth year this coming September would sit Paper One in both Irish and English a year earlier at the end of fifth year, instead of sixth year. 

At the time, the minister said the idea was that students will no longer have to face 100% of their exam on one single day in the month of June and aimed to ease pressure on exam candidates.

But the plan sparked controversy with teachers’ unions and students criticising the move. 

Missing aristocrat

7. A missing aristocrat and her partner have been taken into police custody after being found in Brighton amid a huge search to find their baby.

Officers continue to scour a large area between around Brighton to try to find the infant, who has not had any medical attention since birth in early January.

The Metropolitan Police said Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were located and arrested by officers from Sussex Police in Stanmer Villas, Brighton on Monday night after a member of the public reported seeing them shortly before 9.30pm.

They have been travelling around the UK by taxi since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton last month, and had avoided being traced by the police by moving around frequently and keeping their faces covered in CCTV images. 

Palestine

8. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have counted the cost of deadly violence and arson by Israeli settlers targeting a town where two Israeli brothers were killed.

Dozens of Israeli settlers set homes and cars ablaze in the northern town of Huwara overnight, after a day of Israeli-Palestinian talks in neighbouring Jordan aimed at quelling escalating unrest in the Palestinian territory.

More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. 

Shipwreck deaths

9. The death toll rose to at least 64 in the latest migrant tragedy off Italy’s southern coast, after rescue crews recovered several more bodies yesterday.

Dozens more are believed to be missing.

At least eight of the dead were children who perished after a wooden boat broke up in stormy seas on the shoals off the Calabrian coast yesterday. 80 people survived.