EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.

1. #FIRE Little explosions have been heard by locals as a fire blazes at the Ballymount Industrial Estate in Dublin. The fire broke out at the Oxigen Environmental plant, which offers recycling and waste management services. There are no reports of injuries.

2. #CONFERENCE The Reform Alliance meets today for its first conference at the RDS. It has been dubbed a ‘monster meeting’ that will give an insight into what the RA stands for. Thousands are expected to attend the event.

3. #SYRIA A first day of peace talks begins today in Geneva, with Syria’s government and opposition delegations set to meet face-to-face. After meeting with both sides, UN-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said they had agreed to “meet in the same room”.

4. #ADRIAN DONOHOE Today marks one year since the death of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe, who was shot while on cash escort duty outside Lordship Credit Union in Dundalk. The anniversary will be marked by a candlelit vigil this evening.

5. #DRUGS A blind man has turned himself into the gardaí as a cannabis user in order to begin a campaign to legalise the medicinal use of cannabis. The Examiner reports that Mark Fitzsimons will use the time he spends in court to highlight the issue.

6. #JOBS There are 300 jobs expected to be affected by plans for RBS to put £9 billion worth of assets from Ulster bank into its new ‘internal bad bank’, the Irish Times reports. The paper says that it is expected that some of the employees will be redeployed but most will have to leave.

7. #RELIGION Education Minister Ruairí Quinn has said that discretionary religion teaching time could be switched to core subjects if teachers are under pressure to address the school curriculum. The Daily Mail says that teachers union leader Brendan McCabe welcomed the development, but Fr Kevin Doran has said the move would suggest religious education is irrelevant.

8. #HSE The HSE has proposed a higher pay rate for experienced consultants, the Irish Times reports. It says that a letter by HSE director general Tony O’Brien suggests that a revised salary scale for consultants should be put into place.

9. #EGYPT An Al-Qaeda-inspired group, called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, has claimed responsibility for four bombings targeting police in Cairo yesterday in which six people were killed. The group also called for Muslims to stay away from police buildings.