LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep 2023

GOOD MORNING. Here’s everything you need to know as you start your day.

Cargo ship

1. Elite army ranger wing soldiers have boarded and taken control of a cargo ship off the Cork/Waterford coast as part of an investigation linked to the stricken fishing boat off Wexford. 

“A significant quantity of suspected controlled drugs were located onboard,” a garda statement read, adding that three men have been arrested. 

“Three males aged 60, 50 and 31 have been arrested on suspicion of organised crime offences and are currently detained at Garda stations in Wexford,” the statement read.  

Rent tax credit

2. Just under 50,000 individuals or couples have claimed the Rent Tax Credit this year out of the 400,000 individuals who are eligible to apply, new figures show.

The figures come as the government contemplates doubling the amount available for renters to claim back in next month’s Budget.

The Rent Tax Credit was introduced in Budget 2023 and is worth €500 per year per claim. Renters who are paying tax on their earnings can claim the money back from Revenue as long as their landlord is registered with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).

Storm Agnes

3. Weather warnings come into effect in many parts of the country this morning as Storm Agnes makes landfall.

Cork, Kerry and Waterford have been issued Status Orange rain warnings for today, while Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow and Tipperary have all been issued with a Status Orange wind warning.

There are Yellow warnings for rain in counties Carlow, Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow and Yellow wind warnings in place for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry.

Climate case

4. Six young people ranging from ages 11 to 24 are taking more than two dozen governments to a European court to argue that states’ inaction on the climate crisis are causing damage to individual lives.

A hearing will open today in Strasbourg at the European Court of Human Rights in a case that could have major legal implications for the expectations placed on governments to take climate action.

Dr Gearóid Ó Cuinn, one of two Irish lawyers representing the young people and the founding director of the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), described it as a “David and Goliath case” for the climate.

Car workers’ strike

5. US President Joe Biden has joined the United Auto Workers on the 12th day of their strike against major car makers, a demonstration of support apparently unparalleled in American history.

Biden’s embrace of the union began as soon as he arrived in Michigan on Air Force One.

UAW president Shawn Fain was the first to greet Biden on the tarmac and he joined him in the presidential limousine for a ride to the picket line.

Garda dispute

6. A garda rank and file representative said a meeting his group held yesterday with the Garda Commissioner was a “complete waste of time” as they failed to reach agreement on the ongoing rosters dispute.

The GRA met with Commissioner Drew Harris yesterday to discuss potential solutions to the dispute ahead of a special delegate conference today in Kilkenny.

Spinal surgeries

7. The Minister for Health has said he will meet with patient advocacy groups and families of children impacted by the crisis in paediatric orthopaedic surgery at Temple Street Children’s hospital.

Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil yesterdat evening that the meeting will be held this week alongside Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The HSE has commissioned an external review into elements of paediatric care at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Temple Street following revelations that one child died and others suffered serious complications following spinal surgery there.

Stardust inquest

8. Former Stardust manager Eamon Butterly has denied telling a security warden that exit doors in the nightclub were locked during a concert over two years before the fatal fire, an inquest has heard.

The jury at the Dublin District Coroner’s Court also heard evidence yesterdy that the security warden discarded a cigarette butt into an outdoors pile of what he believed to be the same materials as used in the ceiling and walls of the Stardust “and within seconds the materials were completely ablaze”.

Butterly was continuing his evidence in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital at the inquest into the blaze that killed 48 people when it swept through the Stardust nightclub in the early hours of 14 February 1981.

Fire at wedding

9. More than 100 people have been killed in northern Iraq after a fire raced through a wedding hall.

Dozens more were injured, some of whom have been transferred to regional hospitals.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has ordered an investigation into the fire.