EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.

1. #HEEL PRICKS: The Minister for Health has ordered a halt on the plans to destroy hundreds of thousands of ‘heel prick’ tests. Reilly last night ordered the HSE not to proceed with the plans to destroy the records – which have been collected since 1984 – until an expert group can consider the issue. The tests were to be destroyed after it emerged there was a data protection risk in holding records which had been taken without parental approval, and because of possible data protection issues if the samples were used for future research.

2. #RESCUE: A rescue operation is underway this morning after a car containing a man and a woman entered the water in Arklow. The woman has been recovered but operations to find the man – who is thought to be trapped in the vehicle – are continuing.

3. #COMPENSATION: Insurance premiums could be forced to rise because of Ireland’s emerging “claims culture”. That’s according to the Injuries Board, which reported a 4.7 per cent increase in payouts last year – and a major spike in claims over five years, despite the falling number of people in work over that time.

4. #QUINN: Sean Quinn Jr was reportedly arrested over the weekend after allegedly locking himself in a toilet and being abusive to other passengers. All of this morning’s papers report that Quinn, 33, was on a train from Westport to Dublin on Sunday when he began causing a disturbance – and locked himself into a toilet when Gardaí tried to arrest him as it passed through Tullamore.

5. #UNITED STATES: The US Supreme Court will today hear arguments in the first of two landmark cases – both of which involve same-sex marriage. Today, the court will consider whether California’s ‘Proposition 8′ ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional – and tomorrow will deliberate on the Defence of Marriage Act, which legally defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.

6. #ITALY: The marathon legal saga over the murder of Meredith Kercher while studying in Italy could come to an end today. Italy’s highest court will rule on a challenge by prosecutors who want a retrial for Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. The two were convicted in 2008 but won an appeal in 2012.

7. #CYPRUS: The banks of Cyprus remain shut again this morning – and will stay shut until at least Thursday, as authorities try to push forward banking reforms as part of the EU-IMF bailout. There have been two bank holidays and two weekends in between, but today is the eleventh consecutive day in which banks have not opened. Business on the island has ground to a halt as retailers demand cash for payment, but the government enforces a limit on withdrawals.

8. #WINTER-Y OLYMPICS: Authorities in the Russian city of Sochi have begun stockpiling snow – hoping to ensure that they have enough stocks to run the Winter Olympics next year. The city has seen high snowfall this month and authorities are eager to avoid a repeat of the problems in Vancouver, when the last games were threatened by a lack of snow.

9. #OMNOMNOM: Finally, if you’re struggling to stay off sweets in this last week of Lent, you might want to stop reading now. Belgium is marking Easter week by issuing a limited edition range of chocolate-flavoured stamps. They have designs of Belgian chocolate on the front but include the essence of cocoa oil to offer a chocolate flavour when you lick the back.