LAST UPDATE | 13 Jun 2022

GOOD MORNING. 

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

Dentist exodus

1. In our Morning Lead reporter Michelle Hennessy reports on how dentists are continuing to drop out of the State’s medical card scheme, leaving older people and those in low-income households without access to basic oral healthcare.

Speaking to The Journal, Fintan Hourihan, CEO of the Irish Dental Association, said in the last number of years there has been “an exodus of significant proportions” from the scheme due to the low level of fees paid by the State and frustrations with how the scheme is operated. 

French elections

2. French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance is expected to keep its parliamentary majority after the first round of voting, according to projections last night.

Projections based on partial election results showed that at the national level, Macron’s party Ensemble and its allies received about 25-26% of the vote.

This put them neck-and-neck with a new leftist coalition composed of hard-left, socialists and green party supporters.

Cocaine 

3. Cocaine has overtaken heroin as the main problem drug among new reported cases in Ireland, a report has found.

The latest figures from the Health Research Board (HRB) show continued growth in the number of cases of people seeking treatment for problem cocaine use, with the figure tripling between 2015 and 2021.

Figures in the new HRB report National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) 2015-2021 Drug Treatment Data show a total of 10,769 cases were treated for problem drug use in 2021.

Amazon search

4. Brazil’s search for British journalist Dom Phillips and an Indigenous expert who disappeared in the Amazon a week ago has advanced with the discovery of a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings of the men submerged in a river.

The items were found yesterday afternoon, and were carried by federal police officers by boat to Atalaia do Norte, the closest city to the search.

In a statement last night, police said they had identified the items as the belongings of both missing men, including a health card and clothes of Bruno Pereira, the Brazilian Indigenous expert.

War wounded

5. Five injured Ukrainian soldiers have been airlifted to Ireland this weekend.

Three soldiers arrived this afternoon via private air ambulance jet and were transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and University Hospital Galway.

Two had arrived on Friday and were taken to Cork University Hospital. The transfers were arranged by the EU, Ireland’s National Ambulance Service and the HSE.

Brexit protocol bill

6. Legislation which attempts to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol will be published by the UK government today amid controversy over whether it breaks international law.

The Bill will see Boris Johnson’s government move without the consent of the European Union to change the terms of the protocol in a bid to reduce the checks on the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and Britain.

This could include allowing ministers to remove all customs processes for goods moving within the United Kingdom and enable the frictionless movement of agri-food goods staying within the UK.

Baby bundle

7. Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has announced a pilot scheme for “little baby bundles” – a welcome gift from the State for new parents.

The bundles will be distributed to 500 newborns and their parents, in collaboration with the Rotunda hospital in Dublin and University Hospital Waterford.

The gift bundle will include essential items for newborns such as a babygrow, vest and socks, as well as key items for the baby’s development, such as a teething ring, children’s books and a soft ball.

McIlroy victory

8. Rory McIlroy fired 10 birdies in an eight-under-par 62 on Sunday to win the US PGA Tour Canadian Open by two strokes, defending the title he won in 2019.

The Holywood, Co. Down native survived some tense moments on the back nine, closing with birdies at the 17th and 18th to seal the victory with a 19-under-par total of 261.

Ukraine

9. Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, saying attacks on Kharkiv, many using banned cluster bombs, had killed hundreds of civilians.

“The repeated bombardments of residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians, and as such constitute war crimes,” the rights group said in a report on Ukraine’s second biggest city.