LAST UPDATE | 19 Jan 2023
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. A man in his 80s has died following a single-vehicle collision in Co Dublin yesterday morning.
The collision occurred at around 10:20am yesterday on the Old Bray Road in Cabinteely, Co Dublin.
Gardaí and emergency services attended the scene but the driver of the car was fatally injured when his car collided with a wall.
2. Another deadline for forming a devolved executive in Northern Ireland is set to fall by the wayside as the deadlock over post-Brexit trading arrangements continues.
If the Stormont parties do not agree to form an administration in Belfast today, the UK Government assumes a legal duty at midnight to call a snap Assembly election in the region.
An ongoing DUP block on the functioning of powersharing, in protest at Brexit’s , means it is almost certain the day will pass without an executive being convened.
3. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was on a charm offensive upon his arrival in Davos yesterday evening, with his first engagement being an IDA Ireland event attended leading foreign direct investors.
More than 50 industry leaders from IDA Ireland client companies and leading foreign direct investors in the Irish economy were in attendance.
The event took place against the backdrop of job losses at Microsoft, which employs 3,500 people in its Dublin office.
4. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a global figurehead of progressive politics, shocked the country by announcing she would resign from office in a matter of weeks.
The 42-year-old – who steered the country through natural disasters, the Covid pandemic, and its worst-ever terror attack – said she no longer had “enough in the tank”.
“I am human. We give as much as we can for as long as we can and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time,” she said at a meeting of members of her Labour Party today.
5. Non-Irish nationals working in Ireland face a significant “migrant wage gap”, according to research published today by the ESRI and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
The data from 2011-2018 showed that non-Irish workers earned 22% less than Irish nationals or 78 cents for every €1 earned by an Irish worker.
Nationals from eastern EU countries experienced the largest wage gap and migrant women, in particular, face a “double earnings penalty” for being both female and foreign.
6. Ukraine is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding a helicopter crash that killed the country’s interior minister and 13 others.
Yesterday’s crash outside Kyiv came as the head of NATO said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos that allies were set to provide “heavier weapons” to the war-battered country.
Ukraine did not claim direct Russian involvement in the helicopter crash, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the tragedy was a consequence of the war.
7. A plan for land to be sold for forestry in a deal between Coillte and a British investment fund has been roundly condemned by TDs.
The deal between Coillte and asset management company Gresham House involves the purchase of land from private landowners, including both planted and unplanted land, to increase forestry cover.
It garnered cross-party discontent in the Dáil on its first sitting after the Christmas recess, with TDs calling for the Minister for Agriculture to intervene.
8. The price of used cars in Ireland has jumped by almost 70% since before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report.
Used cars in the lower end of the market in particular are becoming less affordable, despite being lower in safety standards and higher in emissions.
In the last quarter of 2022, the prices of cars being sold on DoneDeal were 69.7% higher compared to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020.
9. Aslan frontman Christy Dignam has thanked the public for their “support, well wishes and kind words” following the announcement that he is receiving palliative care.
On Monday, Dignam’s family announced that the 62-year-old singer is receiving palliative care at home following six-months of treatment at a Dublin hospital.
In 2013, Dignam was diagnosed with Amyloidosis, an incurable blood cancer, and has undergone extensive treatment – including chemotherapy since then.
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