GOOD MORNING. Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has suggested that it could be possible for Ireland to bend EU rules on government spending in order to put more money into building homes.
In an interview with The Journal last month, O’Brien was asked about whether there could be some sort of emergency opt-out from the EU rules in the future.
He responded: ”Yeah, there’s certainly an argument for that and we’re dealing with European colleagues on a regular basis on that specific point…”.
In our main story this morning, legal affairs journalist CJ McKinney factchecks O’Brien’s claim.
2. In the US, former policeman Derek Chauvin has been jailed for 22-and-a-half years for the murder of African American man George Floyd.
The sentence will be reduced to 22 years and three months, discounting 90 days he has already spent in prison.
Judge Peter Cahil said this sentence is not based on “emotion or sympathy”, but he acknowledged the “deep and tremendous pain that all the families are feeling”, particularly the Floyd family.
3. Staying in the US, a highly awaited intelligence report on dozens of mysterious unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings said most could not be explained, but did not rule out that some could be alien spacecraft.
The sightings “probably lack a single explanation,” said the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
4. Back in Ireland, a protest is planned on Kildare Street outside Leinster House today over the ownership of the relocation of the National Maternity Hospital.
The proposal currently is to move the National Maternity Hospital from Holles Street in Dublin City Centre to the Elm Park campus of St Vincent’s Healthcare Group (SVHG).
It emerged in 2017 in a report by the Times of Ireland, that the religious order that runs SVHG, the Sisters of Charity, would retain ownership of the hospital.
In the four years since, the debate has flared over whether a religious order that still owes millions of euros in compensation to the State should retain ownership of Ireland’s national maternity hospital, where procedures including abortions would be offered.
5. A man has been arrested following the seizure of €740,000 worth of cannabis at Rosslare Europort.
The drugs were seized after a truck arriving to Ireland from mainland Europe was intercepted and searched.
37kg of cannabis with an estimated street value of €740,000 was seized.
6. Nine further countries will be added to the list covered by mandatory hotel quarantine requirements for incoming travellers.
The countries to be added are Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Russia, Tunisia.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced yesterday evening that they would be added to the list of designated countries from 4am, Tuesday, 29 June.
7. Disciplinary proceedings were taken against a garda after an intruder gained access to Áras an Uachtaráin and spoke to President Michael D Higgins in “an aggressive manner”.
Details of the case have been outlined in the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) annual report for 2020, which includes case studies of the complaints it investigated last year.
8. Back to international news, Colombian president Ivan Duque has said a helicopter carrying him and several senior officials came under fire in the southern Catatumbo region bordering Venezuela, in a rare instance of a direct attack on a presidential aircraft.
A video released by the presidency showed several bullet holes in the Colombian air force helicopter.
Duque did not provide the time of the attack or say who he believed carried it out, but several armed groups are known to operate in the area.
9. And finally, EU Member States and the European Parliament have agreed on a major reform of farming subsidies, drawing concerns from NGOs that said it was not “green” enough.
The deal came after several rounds of the crunch negotiations failed largely on environmental concerns. It should be signed off by EU farming ministers on Monday.
The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, Tim Cullinan, said the agreement is a “bad deal for Irish farmers”.
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