GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our lead story this morning, David MacRedmond speaks to Accenture employees after the company announced nearly 900 layoffs from its Dublin office.
Staff said there was a lack of clear information about the job cuts, and there was anger at speculation that the jobs cut from Dublin would be replaced with identical roles in countries with lower labour costs.
2. Westminster’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton Harris has said he is “deeply concerned” after the personal and employment data of thousands of serving PSNI officers and civilian staff was compromised in a “significant” data breach.
The incident happened when the PSNI responded to a Freedom of Information request seeking the number of officers and staff at all ranks and grades across the organisation.
3. A High Court judge has described comments made by Enoch Burke in his attempt to halt the hearing of his appeal against dismissal from his job as “utterly without foundation” and being borderline “contempt”.
Mr Justice Conor Dignam made the remarks after the Co Mayo teacher raised concerns about events at the end of a hearing where Burke challenged the presence of a member of a Disciplinary Appeals Panel for his employer Wilson’s Hospital School.
The panel was due to hear his bid to overturn last January’s decision by the school to terminate his employment.
4. The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has secured a temporary High Court stay on a decision it claims will force it to significantly reduce the number of night-time flights going to and from the airport.
The DAA claims that the enforcement notice is flawed, unreasoned, vague, is of no legal effect and should be set aside by the court.
5. Nigeria’s president has not ruled out military intervention in neighbouring Niger after its president was ousted in a coup but believes diplomacy is the “best way forward” to resolve the crisis.
Bola Tinubu, also head of the West African bloc ECOWAS, weighed in for the first time since the soldiers behind the coup in Niger defied the bloc’s Sunday deadline to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum or face the possible use of force.
Meanwhile efforts by ECOWAS and the United States to parlay with Niger’s new rulers have made no headway ahead of a crisis summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja tomorrow.
6. Donald Trump has blasted the multiple prosecutions threatening his re-election bid, complaining that court appearances would keep him off the campaign trail for much of 2024.
The 77-year-old billionaire, the comfortable frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary, baselessly accused President Joe Biden of ordering the investigations, which he said were brought because of his stellar polling numbers.
7. Thirty-three people have been confirmed dead and 18 are still missing after Beijing’s heaviest rains on record.
China’s capital has been hit by record downpours in recent weeks, damaging infrastructure and deluging swathes of the city’s suburbs and surrounding areas.
8. The summer holiday season has seen several reports of “unavailable” and “really expensive” car parking spaces at Dublin Airport.
DAA is attempting to purchase QuickPark, a privately owned car park near the airport which closed during the pandemic.
The restoration of QuickPark would immediately add over 6,000 additional spaces for cars, but there are concerns about the consequences of the DAA, which operates Dublin Airport, having an effective monopoly on car parks.
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