GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. Órla Ryan reports that nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU) at St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) in Dublin are at “breaking point” due to chronic staff shortages in recent months.
The experienced nurses, who have all worked in intensive care units for a number of years, say staff shortages are worse than ever and they have been forced to use a baby monitor to watch patients in two particular beds as there are not enough staff to cover every ICU bed.
They say attempts by them and their line managers to highlight concerns about staff shortages with senior management at the hospital have not been satisfactorily resolved so they have gone public as “a last resort”.
2. Cabinet will meet later today to examine the revised proposal of the international agreement on a minimum global tax for multinational companies.
The revised proposals from the organisation charged with reforming the global corporate tax regime – the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) – would introduce a global tax of at least 15% on the profits of the largest international firms.
They were approved by the G20 in July and have so far been signed by 134 countries, but not by Ireland, whose economic model relies on its favourable 12.5% tax rate.
3. From our colleagues at Noteworthy this morning:
“What role does the multi-billion euro subsidy model – funded by the public – play in the current situation? Over the past two months, as part of its CASH COW investigation, Noteworthy examined the current make-up of CAP and if it offers a financial incentive for business as usual while also penalising farmers practising a nature-friendly approach.
The team spoke with farmers, agri-researchers, and ecology experts to piece together the roadblocks in the way of farmers creating more nature and climate-friendly farms and what direction CAP needs to go to put the natural world front and centre of the subsidy model.”
Read this investigation into how carbon emissions-heavy and livestock farming are rewarded over environmental efforts.
4. A further 25 Irish citizens and dependents have been successfully evacuated from Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has announced.
The 15 citizens and 10 dependents travelled from Kabul to Doha late on Wednesday on a specially organised flight with the support of Qatar.
Coveney said: “This is a huge relief and testament to the ability of our consular team in Dublin and the region who have worked tirelessly through diplomatic channels to access last night’s flight.”
5. Ireland’s better than expected economic performance should ease the burden of the pandemic on the public finances but “significant investments” will be required to tackle long-standing issues around housing, climate change and healthcare.
That’s according to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in its latest Quarterly Commentary this morning.
The Government is currently forecast to run an overall budget deficit of €15.5 billion this year, according to recent estimates by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.
6. A US judge has agreed for Prince Andrew’s lawyers to receive a copy of a 2009 settlement they believe will nullify the civil sexual assault case against the royal.
Andrew B Brettler, who represents the queen’s son, had argued at a previous hearing Virginia Giuffre – who is suing the senior royal for alleged sexual assault – had entered into a “settlement agreement” that would end her current lawsuit.
Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies was granted permission by Judge Loretta Preska to supply the British aristocrat’s legal team with the previously sealed document, but the attorney believes it is “irrelevant to the case against Prince Andrew”.
7. A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the US, which since September has banned most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state.
The order by US District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges.
In the weeks since the restrictions took effect, Texas abortion providers say the impact has been “exactly what we feared”.
8. Ireland’s record Lotto jackpot remains unclaimed again as there was no winner of the €19,060,800 prize in last night’s draw.
The jackpot rolled over from June until last week, when it was capped less than €1 million shy of the €20 million milestone.
It reached the record breaking figure last Wednesday when it wasn’t won. The jackpot went unclaimed again last Saturday.
9. A 100-year-old former concentration camp guard will today become the oldest person yet to be tried for Nazi-era crimes in Germany when he goes before court charged with complicity in mass murder.
The suspect, identified only as Josef S., stands accused of “knowingly and willingly” assisting in the murder of 3,518 prisoners at the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, between 1942 and 1945.
Allegations against him include aiding and abetting the “execution by firing squad of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942″ and the murder of prisoners “using the poisonous gas Zyklon B”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say