LAST UPDATE | 3 Jan
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our lead story this morning, Alice Chambers reports for Noteworthy that a long-awaited parking charge cap for hospitals has been further delayed, with the HSE set to return to the drawing board despite completing its work on the issue five years ago.
In 2018, the HSE undertook a national review of car parking charges, eventually recommending that hospitals should cap the maximum daily rate for parking at €10 and introduce concessions for regular patients.
Reducing hospital parking costs became a key promise in the 2020 Programme for Government but no further progress was made, a Noteworthy investigation revealed last January, despite the HSE having submitted an implementation plan to the government in 2019.
2. The deputy head of Hamas has been killed in a strike in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Saleh al-Aruri was one of the founders of Hamas’s military wing and had headed the group’s presence in the West Bank. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on 7 October.
His death has increased fears that the war, currently focused on Gaza, may spread into a wider regional conflict.
3. A woman has died and two children seriously injured following a road crash in Co Kildare yesterday evening.
Gardaí said the fatal road traffic collision, involving a car and a van, occurred at approximately 6:15pm yesterday on the R148 at Cloncurry in Enfield.
The driver of the car, a woman aged in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two young children who were also travelling in this vehicle have been taken to Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin where their conditions are currently described as serious but stable.
4. Shipping giant Maersk has said it will not resume a passage through a key Red Sea strait “until further notice,” after Yemeni rebels attacked one of its merchant ships.
The UN Security Council is set to hold a meeting today on maintaining international peace and security, which French diplomats said would address the issue of Yemini Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
The Houthis say the strikes are in solidarity with Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, which Israel has bombarded relentlessly for three months, in what it says is a campaign to destroy militant group Hamas.
Yesterday, the Iran-backed rebels fired two missiles toward merchant ships travelling in the Red Sea near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the US military said following a report by the British maritime security agency UKMTO.
5. The HSE is to investigate the clinical and corporate governance of University Hospital Limerick in a report on the circumstances surrounding the death of Aoife Johnston.
Aoife, 16, died of bacterial meningitis, after a 12-hour wait in the hospital’s emergency department, which was overcrowded at the time, on 19 December 2022.
A report into the circumstances surrounding Aoife’s death has already been carried out, and its findings were recently shared with her family.
An independent investigation, to be carried out by retired Chief Justice Frank Clarke, is now set to look at the circumstances around Aoife’s death and the governance within the Limerick hospital.
6. Donald Trump has filed an appeal against a ruling by the top election official in Maine that would keep him off the presidential primary ballot in the northeastern state.
Maine last week joined Colorado in barring Trump from appearing on the primary ballot because of his role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Trump’s lawyers urged the Maine Superior Court to throw out the ruling by Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, calling her a “biased decision-maker” who “acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner.”
7. Glyphosate accounted for almost a third of pesticides placed on the Irish market in the decade to 2021, according to an internal Department of Agriculture memo.
The herbicide – which has been associated with adverse effects on biodiversity and on human health – was also detected in 3% of 1,176 samples of food and animal feed tested by the Department of Agriculture between January 2018 and September 2023.
Glyphosate was predominantly found in cereals, but at levels that did not pose a risk to health, officials briefed Minister Charlie McConalogue and the Department’s secretary general in records released under Freedom of Information.
The files also reveal that in July, before the 10-year proposal was finalised, the Department of Agriculture was prepared to support a 15-year renewal.
8. Naloxone services will be extended this year after a successful rollout in 2023, the Drugs Minister has confirmed.
Naloxone is a prescription-only medication that is used as an antidote to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid drugs like heroin, morphine, methadone and synthetic opioids like nitazene if someone overdoses.
The availability of naloxone was vital in saving lives during recent overdose clusters in Dublin and Cork.
As part of the continued implementation of harm reduction measures under the National Drugs Strategy, Minister Hildegarde Naughton said she is committed to supporting further development of naloxone services in 2024.
Darts star
9. Teenage star Luke Littler is one win away from completing his sensational World Championship dream as he cruised into the final, with new world number one Luke Humphries standing in his way.
The 16-year-old has set the Alexandra Palace alight over the last fortnight and is the youngest-ever player to reach the decider of the premier darts tournament.
He is now on the cusp of producing one of the greatest sporting stories of all time, which would rival Emma Raducanu’s US Open win in 2021.
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