LAST UPDATE | 22 Feb 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Nursing homes

1. Staff in some Irish nursing homes are having to rely on large, private nutrition firms to provide specialist care to residents and there are concerns that the practice is “not ethically sound”, a new Nursing Homes Ireland report has revealed. 

Having carried out a focus group in 2022 with directors of nursing from 10 different nursing homes across the country, NHI has stated the Fair Deal Scheme is no longer “fit for purpose”, as staff have serious concerns about residents under the scheme accessing essential primary care, and the effect this is having on their quality of life. 

Under the scheme, residents are not covered for social activities, newspapers, therapies, incontinence wear, dry eye and dental services, or transport, including care assistant costs, specialised wheelchairs, hairdressing or similar services. 

Four-day working week

2. A four-day working week is more productive for most staff and companies than the traditional five days, one of the biggest trials of its kind conducted in the UK has reported.

Over 60 firms in Britain took part in the six-month experiment allowing almost 3,000 employees to work one day less per week while retaining the same salary.

Company revenue rose 1.4% on average over the trial and 35% on average compared to similar periods; hiring increased; absenteeism and resignations dropped; and staff health and wellbeing improved physically and mentally.

Wicklow burglary

3. A man has been sentenced to prison for the burglary of singer Mary Coughlan’s home in Kilmacanogue in 2021.

Darren Carton (42) of Carraigoona Close, Kilmacanogoue, Co Wicklow was found guilty of the burglary following a seven-day jury trial at Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court in December.

The accused was also convicted of criminal damage to a sliding door at Coughlan’s house on the same date. 

Russia

4. Writing for The Journal, DCU Professor of Politics Donnacha Ó Beacháin has analysed the state of the nation address that Vladimir Putin delivered yesterday.

“Rather than presenting a new vision for the future, the Russian president repeated a collection well aired distortions, historical myths, imagined grievances, illusory bogeys, and well-nursed grievances,” he writes.

“Revealingly, Putin left his audience none the wiser whether Russia is closer to achieving its goals in Ukraine.”

Read his full commentary here.

Flooding

5. Rescuers in southeastern Brazil are scrambling to find survivors among dozens of people still missing after record rainfalls caused flooding and mudslides, killing at least 46 people over the weekend.

680mm of rain, more than double the expected monthly amount, fell in 24 hours alone around the popular beach city of Sao Sebastiao, 200km southeast of Sao Paulo.

The downpour was a record for the area, according to the state government, and the Inmet weather service said rains would continue falling in the region this week.

Stormont

6. A bill extending the deadline for holding a fresh Assembly election in Northern Ireland and introducing regulations for a new organ donation law is set to pass through the House of Commons.

The UK Government has moved to progress the stalled legislation on the opt-out donation system because the political impasse at Stormont means local Assembly members have been unable to convene to pass the regulations.

The law is named after six-year-old Belfast boy Daithi MacGabhann, who is waiting for a heart transplant. 

RTÉ archives

7. A bill to allow public access to RTÉ’s audiovisual archives has been proposed by the Green Party’s Patrick Costello.

The private member’s bill, which proposes amending the Broadcasting Act 2009, was launched today.

The Dublin South-Central TD said accessing the national broadcaster’s archival footage is “deeply and perhaps deliberately prohibitive” and that there is an obligation on the station to “be more responsive to the citizens who fund it”. 

Education

8. A new study suggests there is no significant difference in academic performance between children attending single sex or mixed schools in Ireland.

The research from the University of Limerick showed there is no significant variation in performance for girls or boys who attend single-sex schools compared to their mixed-schooling peers in science, maths or reading.

It revealed, on average, that there is no difference in maths, science or reading performance for 15-year-olds after adjusting for the background of the student and other school-level factors and the result was found for both boys and girls.

Afghanistan

9. The families of victims of the 9/11 attacks cannot seize $3.5 billion in funds belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank, a New York federal judge has ruled.

The assets, held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were frozen on 15 August 2021, the day the Taliban entered Kabul and toppled the US-backed Afghan government. 

US President Joe Biden later said the money could be made available to the families of 9/11 victims but Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York said yesterday that the federal courts lack the jurisdiction to seize the funds from Afghanistan’s central bank.