GOOD MORNING.

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

Budget 2023

1. In our lead story this morning, Christina Finn reports that childcare fees will fall for the vast majority of parents under a “big movement” in September’s budget.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that increased subsidies will reduce costs considerably for parents.

He said: “Often those who pay a lot for childcare are also the ones paying the rent and the mortgages and commuting. So it’s a particular group that need particular help, I think when it comes to the cost of living.”

Wicklow

2. A large film set resembling an elaborate house, currently under construction on a headland overlooking one of Wicklow’s most popular beaches, has been investigated for not having planning permission.

Wicklow County Council undertook a planning enforcement probe after receiving written complaints from members of the public about the striking structure at Magheramore, which is being built on land owned by hospitality magnate Paddy McKillen Jr.

The building is constructed largely out of timber and bolstered with steel beams.

Ukraine

3. Russian president Vladimir Putin has agreed to allow independent inspectors to visit the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as fears grow over fighting near the site.

The apparent resolution of a dispute over whether inspectors travel via Ukraine or Russia came as a US defence official said Ukraine’s forces had brought the Russian advance to a halt.

A flare-up in fighting around the Russian-controlled nuclear power station – with both sides blaming each other for attacks – has raised the spectre of a disaster worse than in Chernobyl.

Sweden shooting

4. A man in a shooting in a shopping centre in Sweden last night has died, police said, as a woman hurt in the same attack remained in hospital.

The suspected shooter has been arrested, with local law enforcement ruling out a possible “terrorist” motive.

Missing

5. Gardaí have appealed for information on a missing teenager who was last seen on Thursday.

He is known to frequent Dublin city centre.

Mike Pence

6. Former US vice president Mike Pence has said he did not take any classified material with him when he left office last year.

It comes after FBI agents seized classified and top secret information from former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate earlier this month while investigating potential violations of three different federal laws.

Fire defects

8. Apartment owners at a Celtic-Tiger development in Dublin have said they were “stunned” when they learned that they will each be expected to pay over €68,000 under a proposal to repair fire safety defects.

It had been reported last year that costs to repair defects at the Crescent Apartment Building in Parkwest were expected to total €5 million.

Howeve,r during a Zoom meeting hosted by the board of the Owners’ Management Company, this week they were told the cost will be €15.9 million and each owner is expected to pay a levy of €68,500 over five years.

Voices

9.

In a column for The Journal, Pennsylvania native Conner Habib reflects on his upbringing as he publishes his debut novel.

The Dublin resident recalls the isolation of his hometown, and how his book Hawk Mountain grapples with how “meaning and value were decapitated or impaled before they could go anywhere.”