LAST UPDATE | 3 Oct 2022

GOOD MORNING.

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

The Morning Lead

1. In our Morning Lead our reporter Gareth MacNamee takes a look at the Regency Murder Trial of Gerard “The Monk” Hutch due to begin in the Special Criminal Court today. 

Hutch (58), who was extradited from Spain, is charged with the murder of David Byrne (33) at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin, on 5 February 2016.

Byrne’s murder sparked the bloody Kinahan/Hutch feud which claimed at least 18 lives since 2016. 

Tory trickle down u-tur

2. British Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has announced an abrupt U-turn over the abolition of the top rate of income tax for the highest earners.

Kwarteng had been planning to insist at the Conservative conference in Birmingham that his party “stay the course” and back his plan for tax cuts but he issued this statement on Twitter ahead of his appearance on the broadcast round.

Kwarteng said: “It is clear that the abolition of the 45p tax rate has become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country.

Winter vaccine roll out

3. The HSE is rolling out the free flu vaccine to certain groups from today, as well as inviting over 65s and medically vulnerable people to get their next Covid-19 booster.

The free flu vaccine is available to people over 65, healthcare workers, children aged two to 17, pregnant women and people with certain long-term medical conditions which put them at higher risk of complications from the flu.

Today also marks the rollout of the adapted bivalent vaccines, which include a component of the original virus strain a component of the Omicron variant.

The ‘Disappeared’ search

4. A sixth search of a Co Monaghan site thought to contain the remains of one of the ‘Disappeared’ will begin today.

The Disappeared is the name given to the group of 17 people who went missing and were presumed to have been killed during The Troubles.

Columba McVeigh, who was murdered and secretly buried in 1975, is one of four people, alongside Joe Lynskey, Robert Nairac and Seamus Maguire, whose bodies have not yet been discovered.

Brazilian election

5. Brazil’s top two presidential candidates will face each other in a run-off vote after neither got enough support to win outright on Sunday.

The election will decide if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office.

With 98.8% of the votes tallied in Sunday’s election, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had 48.1% support and incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro had 43.5% support.

Historic adoption move

6. People who were adopted, boarded out or subject to an illegal birth registration can access birth certificates and birth and early life information from today.

The Information and Tracing Act, which was signed into law earlier this year, provides a full and clear right of access to information for people who have questions about their origins.

It also allows enables people to access this information where their parent has died, and for access by the next of kin of a child who died in an institution.

High price bubble

7. Housing prices have risen by almost 8% compared to last year, despite a small drop in the last three months according to the latest property price report from MyHome.ie

The report, published this morning, says that while the inflation of prices has increased by 7.8% in the last 12 months, the increase has slowed in the last quarter.

According to MyHome.ie, the median asking price for a home in the third quarter was €320,000, which is a reduction of 1.3% compared to the second quarter of 2022.

Belfast murder

8. The PSNI has launched a murder investigation after a man was shot dead in a busy football clubhouse in Belfast.

Two masked men entered the premises, where people were watching football on TV, and shot the man several times.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. PSNI Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell said that both gunmen are believed to have made their escape on foot along Suffolk Road.

Cherry Orchard arrests

9. Four male juveniles have been arrested in relation to the endangerment of gardaí in the Cherry Orchard area of Dublin.

The incident occurred on 19 September when two gardaí had their garda car rammed.

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