LAST UPDATE | 15 Feb 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Housing

1. A report into the private rental sector in Ireland has recommended an improvement in the tax treatment for landlords, with a case made to link such tax breaks to providing more secure tenancies. 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar brought the report from the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) to Cabinet yesterday. 

It is understood the report will now feed into future reviews of Government housing policy.

Drug arrests

2. Eight people have been arrested following a raid on a premises by gardaí in Dublin. 

Forty kilos of cocaine with a street value of around €2.8 million were seized by gardaí yesterday. 

It is understood the drugs and arrests relate to the Kinahan Organised Crime Gang’s Dublin distribution network.  

Cyclone Gabrielle

3. A storm in New Zealand has killed four people and displaced 10,500 more.

Cyclone Gabrielle formed off the northeastern coast of Australia in the Coral Sea on 8 February before barrelling across the South Pacific and bearing down on New Zealand’s northern coast on Sunday, bringing gusts of 140 kilometres an hour.

The storm is now fading into the South Pacific, allowing rescue teams to finally reach regions cut off for days by torrential rain and gale-force winds.

Flying objects

4. The three unidentified aerial objects shot down by the US in the past week likely had merely a “benign purpose”, the White House has said.

“The intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” said White House national security spokesman John Kirby.

Officials disclosed that a missile fired at one of the three objects missed its intended target and landed in the water before a second one successfully hit.

The unidentified objects are believed to be different to the alleged Chinese spy balloon that was also shot down.

Wages

5. Research compiled by the Mandate Trade Union has found that nearly two-thirds of Irish retail staff are earning less than €451 per week.

The report found that while hourly wages were increasing, the majority of workers weren’t working enough hours to earn more than the weekly living wage, which stands at just over €500 per week. 

Mandate said that legislative change is needed to enable staff to work more than their ‘banded-hours’ contracts where extra working hours are available.

Earthquake

6. A caravan of 11 United Nations trucks have entered Syria through the re-opened Bab al-Salama border point, after Damascus agreed to let the world body use the crossing for aid.

Before the earthquake struck, almost all the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas of northwest Syria was being delivered through just one crossing.

The trucks were loaded with essential humanitarian assistance, including shelter materials, mattresses, blankets and carpets, Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), told AFP.

Laoise Ní Scolaí

7. The parents of a newborn baby who died after her heart was accidentally pierced by a doctor have accused medical staff of lying to them following their daughter’s death.

The family said they had to grapple with a “long and arduous legal battle to uncover the truth” of what exactly happened to two-day old Laoise Ní Scolaí. 

Ukraine

8. Ukraine’s western supporters pledged at a meeting yesterday to keep the huge amounts of ammunition and arms flowing to the frontline.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has doubled down on his plea for Western aircraft after securing commitments for tanks, air defence and precision missiles.

But allies meeting at Nato headquarters in Brussels remained focused on ensuring the forces have the ammunition, armoured vehicles and air defences they need on the ground to push back renewed Russian offensives.

Nicola Bulley

9. Two people were arrested yesterday on suspicion of sending malicious communications over the disappearance of Nicola Bulley in England. 

Lancashire Police said it received reports over the weekend of messages being sent to Wyre Council members.

A 49-year-old man from Manchester and a 20-year-old woman from Oldham were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences.