LAST UPDATE | 18 Sep 2023

GOOD MORNING. HERE are the top stories as the week gets underway.

1. Private hospital talks

The General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Association (INMO) will ask Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to initiate early talks with private hospitals on contracting additional bed capacity for the winter at a high-level meeting set for today.

Speaking to The Journal ahead of the multi-stakeholder meeting, Phil Ni Sheaghdha said that if the Government waits until December to start negotiations with private hospitals, as it did last year, it will be “too late – with disastrous consequences for patient outcomes”.

2. Development goals

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is set to tell a New York summit that world leaders need to make up for lost time and strive to meet 2030 targets for sustainable development.

Varadkar will address the summit on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) today.

The goals cover 17 interlinked areas for action agreed by world leaders in 2015. They are designed to increase global prosperity, tackle inequalities and protect the environment.

3. Headford Road

Three people have been charged in relation to a public order and endangerment incident in Galway city last week.

The incident occurred on the Headford Road in the city and involved a large group of people. A man and woman were seriously injured after they were run over by a car, and two other men were assaulted. In total, four people were hospitalised.

Gardaí said last night that they had arrested four more people in connection with the ongoing investigation, bringing the total number of arrests to 19.

4. Russel Brand

Channel 4 and production company Banijay UK have launched separate internal investigations into allegations of serious misconduct against Russell Brand, while the BBC said it is “urgently looking into the issues raised”.

The comedian has been accused of pursuing audience members for sex while presenting TV and radio shows for the broadcasters.

The claims were made in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, in which four women make separate allegations of sexual assault.

Brand has denied the allegations.

5. Brexit renegotiation

UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will be seeking a closer trading relationship with the EU if his party wins the next election.

Starmer spent the weekend meeting fellow centre-left leaders in Montreal, Canada, including the country’s prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Speaking to The Financial Times, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister said he would be seeking a rewritten Brexit deal.

6. Troubles legacy bill

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said he will meet with Irish American political leaders while on a visit to the US to discuss the UK’s Troubles Legacy Bill, which would exempt people from prosecution for crimes committed during The Troubles. 

Speaking in New York yesterday ahead of the UN Sustainable Development Goals summit, Martin said that he has sought legal advice on the situation regarding the bill, adding that he would make use of the opportunity provided by the summit to communicate with US politicians.

7. Firearms charges

Gardaí in Ennis have charged a man aged in his 30s who was arrested on Friday following the seizure of a firearm and ammunition in Shannon, County Clare.

The man appeared before a special sitting of Ennis District Court yesterday evening.

The search in a wooded area in Shannon produced a Colt M16 rifle, magazine and over 170 rounds of ammunition.

8. Monday’s weather

According to Met Éireann, it will be dry in many areas this morning with well scattered showers and sunny spells.

More frequent showers will spread from the west through the morning and afternoon, with some turning heavy. It will be breezy and cool with highest temperatures of 13 to 16 degrees in moderate to fresh westerly winds, strong on Atlantic coasts. 

9. Libya

Experts have warned about the structural integrity of the twin dams in Derna for years, a Libyan state prosecutor revealed. Concerns have been raised since 1986 when the dams suffered major damage in the wake of a wild storm.

After decades of neglect and heavy rains caused by Storm Daniel, the two dams in Derna were overwhelmed on 12 September. A wall of water razed the city, killing at least 11,000 people and destroying entire neighbourhoods in the process.