EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you all the news you need to know as you start the day.

1. #CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL New documents show that concerns about potential overspends were raised by the board of the National Children’s Hospital as early as the summer of 2017.

2. #CERVICALCHECK The HSE will tell an Oireachtas Committee today that 78,000 slides are still left in the backlog for CervicalCheck smear tests.

3. #DIRECT PROVISION The Government has paid more than €1.6 million to a private contractor in just four months, as it seeks to secure accommodation for asylum seekers.

4. #PAY CLAIM The Teachers Union of Ireland will examine the Labour Court’s recommendation on nurses’ pay as it considers launching its own claim for a pay rise.

5. #HIGH COURT An Assistant Garda Commissioner who has been suspended from duty has initiated High Court proceedings against The Irish Times and The Irish Daily Star.

6. #CANCELLED A number of flights from Dublin to Brussels have been cancelled this morning, with a 24-hour strike leading to the closure of Belgian airspace today.

7. #EXPATS Dublin has been named one of the top 10 cities for Europeans to live in, according to an annual survey of cities across the world.

8. #NARCOS Mexican mobster Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman will be sent to the “prison of all prisons”, following his conviction for smuggling tonnes drugs into the United States.

9. #WEATHER It’ll be a mild day across the country today, with a few patches of rain or drizzle in western counties, with top temperatures between 11 and 13 degrees Celsius.

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