LAST UPDATE | 9 Dec 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

Rise in RSV

1. In our lead story this morning, a leading GP tells reporter Diarmuid Pepper that parents ought to be more concerned about RSV than Group Strep A.

Dr Illona Duffy says it is understandable that parents are concerned about Strep A, but she added that RSV is the “big reason for admissions to hospital” at the moment.

RSV usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms but can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.

Snow in the capital

2. It’s a snowy start to the morning in some parts of the country as temperatures dropped to as low as -5 degrees overnight.

A Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning remains in place nationwide until midday, with Met Éireann warning of hazardous conditions and icy surfaces.

Macroom bottleneck becomes history

3. Micheál Martin is to open the newly built Macroom Bypass section of the N22 dual carriageway after almost three years of construction.

Motorists travelling from Cork to Killarney or Tralee will no longer need to pass through the town.

The Mayor of Macroom said that locals will benefit massively from the bypass and the reduced traffic in their town.

Cervical Check

4. The Taoiseach has apologised to to cervical cancer campaigner Stephen Teap.

It comes after campaigner Teap yesterday settled his High Court action with two laboratories that examined his wife Irene’s cervical smear tests.

Irene Teap died of cervical cancer aged 35 in 2017, less than a year before the CervicalCheck scandal was revealed by campaigner Vicky Phelan

MICA sit in protest called off

5. A planned sit in protest at the Public Services Centre in Carndonagh has been called off today as 100% Redress No Less protestors say some of their key demands have been met.

Affected Donegal homeowners called off the protest as Donegal County Council announced the offices wouldn’t be open, and as they received an email last night confirming that those with homes damaged by defective blocks will finally receive accommodation grants.

Grants of €15,000 and an additional €5,000 for storage costs will be made available for up to 20 families.

Calls for LDA to have more powers

6. The ESRI has called for the Land Development Agency to have the power to acquire public and private lands in order to reduce the cost of building homes.

New research from the ESRI into constraints on the supply of new housing shows that there are ongoing constraints within the construction industry, including inflationary pressures and a shortage of labour.

Drug use stigma a barrier to treatment

7. The CEO of the Ana Liffey Drug Project has said that stigma surrounding drug use is preventing people from coming forward and accessing key supports.

Tony Duffin said that stigma against drug users is ‘very serious’ at that there needs to be a health-led approach, rather than a criminal approach.

Redacted Lives

8. The fifth episode of Redacted Lives, a six-part documentary series by The Journal about mother and baby homes, is out now.
So far in the series we’ve heard from three mothers who passed through the system: Terri, Maria and Monica. We also met Mary, who was born into the system and ended up in an industrial school.

In the penultimate episode, I Hear You’ve Been Looking For Me, they tell us if they have found who they’ve been looking for.

The Champions Cup

9. The 42′s rugby writers separate the contenders from the pretenders as European rugby’s showpiece event returns for another year.

Gary Doyle writes: “The Champions cup returns this weekend almost as an afterthought. Maybe if Eddie Jones and Wayne Pivac not been sacked then we’d probably have spent more of the week looking ahead than back, figuring out where things will go right rather than analysing how it all went wrong.”