LAST UPDATE | 7 Apr 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Russia threatens Ukraine’s east

1. The US and the UK announced new sanctions against Russia yesterday after Ukraine said hundreds of civilians were found dead around its capital, as Kyiv warned residents in the east to get out “now” ahead of a feared assault.

The White House unveiled measures targeting Russia’s top banks and two daughters of President Vladimir Putin, while the UK sanctioned two banks – and vowed to eliminate all Russian oil and gas imports by year-end.

Cost of living 

2. A package of measures to help with the cost of living will be brought to Cabinet next week.

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and his officials are finalising measures that will help tackle the rising costs of fuel, energy and food.

Peat extraction

3. The Journal‘s investigative platform Noteworthy reports that a system of largely unregulated peat extraction continues in Ireland. 

In an investigation into large-scale unregulated peat extraction, Niall Sargent reports that neither the EPA nor any local or national authority maintain a register of peat companies or the amount of peat extracted for commercial purposes.

Carbon budgets

4. The Dáil has approved the carbon budgets that set out the maximum amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted in Ireland during a five-year period. The first budget covers 2021-2025. 

Death of Ukrainian man who lives in Ireland

5. A Ukrainian man who lived in Ireland for over 20 years, has died after travelling back to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country.

Oleksandr Zavhorodniy, who worked for an Aldi in Ireland for 8 years, is reported to have died on 30 March in the Donbas region of Ukraine. 

Urantsetseg Tserendorj

6. A jury at the Central Criminal Court failed to reach a verdict yesterday in the trial of a 16-year-old boy accused of murdering Urantsetseg Tserendorj during a winter lockdown in 2021.

The teenager had accepted that he stabbed Ms Tserendorj in the neck causing her death but his lawyers argued that he was trying to rob her and did not intend to kill or cause her serious harm. They asked the jury to find him not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.

HAP rentals

7. There were just 80 properties available for people receiving the Housing Assistance Payment to rent across 16 areas of the country, a new report shows.

A new report from the Simon Communities of Ireland for the first quarter of 2021 shows that there was a 92% drop in the number of affordable houses since June 2021, when there were 906 properties available.

Airport delays

8. Dublin Airport plans to redeploy staff from Cork Airport and has stopped selling Fasttrack tickets in an attempt to deal with security check delays that have caused some passengers to miss their flights recently.

Dublin Airport said this five-point plan has been “successful” over the past 10 days with “none of the estimated 300,000 passengers that have departed out of Dublin Airport since 27 March” missing a flight due to security queues. 

Marathon FG meeting

9. A heated four-hour Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last night saw a number of TDs speaking up against the carbon tax increase and the rising cost of living. 

A Fine Gael source said the meeting was unlikely any other parliamentary meeting they had attended.