LAST UPDATE | 4 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

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

Paramedic recruitment halted

1. In our main story today, Garreth MacNamee reports the National Ambulance Service has paused a recruitment campaign for paramedic supervisors after receiving anonymous letters raising claims about the way the competition process being run.

The NAS had been carrying out a recruitment campaign for the posts earlier this year when management received several letters claiming there were serious issues with the process. 

As a result, management issued a letter to staff regarding protected disclosures and how best to submit them. 

Climate Action Plan

2. The government’s Climate Action Plan was finalised yesterday evening before the publication of the much-awaited document today.

As well as outlining different actions being planned to help Ireland achieve its overall target to reduce emissions, the plan will also outline specific targets for individual sectors to achieve. 

Arrests in Glasgow

3. Sticking with climate news, police have made five arrests as hundreds of climate activists marched through Glasgow as part of demonstrations around the COP26 summit.

The protest was one of several in Glasgow yesterday, as the COP26 summit discussed the financial system.

Belfast arrests

4. Back in Ireland, two youths have been arrested following “disgraceful” disorder in Belfast after a rally against the Northern Ireland Protocol. 

Police came under attack with missiles and fireworks close to a peaceline yesterday evening. 

HPV vaccine

5. Cervical cancer rates are 87% lower in women who have had the Cervarix HPV vaccine between the ages of 12-13 than in previous generations, according to a new study by The Lancet. 

The study, which started in 2008 in England, also found a 62% reduction in the disease in women who got the vaccine between the ages of 14-16, and a 34% lower risk in those who got it between the ages of 16-18. 

Deer cull in Phoenix Park

6. In Dublin, 34 deer were culled in the Phoenix Park as part of a managed cull this week.

Managed culls, which are overseen by a qualified vet, take place in the park a number of times every year to keep the deer population under control.

Cliffs of Moher

7. A woman is understood to be missing off the Cliffs of Moher, after personal property was located on a cliff trail and a car was found nearby.

This is the first emergency callout to an area covered by the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coast Guard, which was taken out of service on Monday.

Cleo Smith 

8. In Australia, police are expected to charge a 36-year-old man following the disappearance four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family’s camping tent, with the child found 18 days later when officers rescued her from a locked house.

The man was arrested early yesterday around the time that police found the child alone in the house in the Western Australia town of Carnarvon, with the smiling girl telling officers “my name is Cleo”.

Fishing row

9. And lastly, Britain’s Brexit minister is due in Paris today for talks on the fishing rights crisis that has further strained already tense relations between the two countries.

The meeting comes a day after a French court released a British trawler impounded for a week as part of the deepening dispute.