GOOD MORNING.

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

Water treatment

1. In our main story this morning, Eoghan Dalton reports that Ireland’s largest drinking water treatment plant was found to have breached regulations for discharges into the River Liffey on several occasions this past year.

Monitoring reports by Kildare County Council, the regulator of the Uisce Éireann facility in Ballymore Eustace, found there to be non-compliant concentrations of chemicals including aluminum across a number of months in 2023.

Strikes on Ukraine

2. Russia has launched fresh strikes against Ukraine, a day after vowing to retaliate for what it called a “terrorist attack” on the city of Belgorod.

Several Iranian-made “Shahed” drones targeted Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, according to local authorities, as the two sides have taken turns accusing each other of pummelling civilian areas of their shared frontier over the weekend.

The strike follows the deadliest attack on civilians in Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022.

Gaza

3. Numerous people have been killed in overnight strikes on central Gaza as the year draws to a close with no end in sight to Israel’s deadliest military offensive the territory.

Gaza’s health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children – by far the heaviest death toll of any Israeli operation.

Today, the ministry reported numerous deaths in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Zawayda and the nearby Al-Mughazi refugee camp.

EU Commissioner

4. Tánaiste Micheál Martin has categorically ruled himself out of the running for the EU Commissioner job when Ireland next nominates one in 2024.

However, the Fianna Fáil leader has insisted that the country’s next commissioner must be nominated by his party.

Mairead McGuinness, the Fine Gael nominee who is currently the EU Commissioner for financial services, financial stability and capital markets union, has previously said she is prepared to serve a second term, with her current term expiring after the European elections in June.

Cardiac care reveiw

5. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the review into Ireland’s cardiac care will not be “null and void” despite being commissioned six years ago. 

Speaking to The Journal in a wide-ranging interview before Christmas, the minister said he plans to publish the report in the first quarter of the new year. 

The Oireachtas Health Committee heard in December that pending the reviews’ implementation, cardiac care will remain “in a state of limbo”.

Warning to DUP

6. Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill has used her New Year message to warn the DUP it is decision time.

The party vice president, who stands to become Stormont First Minister if powersharing is restored in Northern Ireland, accused the region’s main unionist party of rolling back on a deal to revive devolution prior to Christmas.

The Stormont institutions have been suspended for almost two years due to a DUP boycott in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Penalty points

7. More than half a million people had penalty points on their driving licences this year. 

Data released by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) shows that a total of 551,245 people had points on their licences on 30 September 2023. 

This represents an increase of 8,156 from last year, when a total of 543,089 people had points on their licences on 30 September 2022.

North Korea

8. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country will launch three additional military spy satellites, build more nuclear weapons and introduce modern unmanned combat equipment in 2024.

State media reported his call for “overwhelming” war readiness.

Kim’s comments were made during a ruling Workers’ Party meeting to set state goals for next year.

Tom Wilkinson

9. The Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson has died aged 75, his family has announced.

The British actor, well known for his role in The Full Monty as former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper, died “suddenly” yesterday.