LAST UPDATE | 10 Sep 2021
GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.
1. In our lead story this morning, investigative journalist with Noteworthy Maria Delaney reports that there are “no plans” to reinstate a HSE drug rehab unit closed 18 months ago.
The Keltoi Rehab Unit in Dublin is now operating as a Covid isolation facility.
A HSE response to a parliamentary question (PQ) shows that Tom O’Brien, Head of Service Primary Care said it “continues to be required as a Social Inclusion Covid Isolation facility” with no plans “at present to revert to its use as a residential addiction unit”.
Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould who tabled the PQ told Noteworthy that “the failure to reopen Keltoi is extremely disappointing and the loss of this facility has been a huge blow to those in addiction”.
2. Ireland’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out has hit another major milestone as 90% of adults, aged 18 or older, are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The chair of Ireland’s taskforce on Covid-19 vaccinations announced the news this morning.
Professor Brian MacCraith said that seven million vaccines will have been administered by the end of today.
3. Sinn Féin will table a motion of no-confidence in Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney in the Dáil next week.
The motion comes as the controversy surrounding the planned appointment of Katherine Zappone as a special envoy to the United Nations rumbles on.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, the Taoiseach described the motion as “old-style naked opposition politics”.
4. Ireland has generated more than one million tonnes of packaging waste for at least three years in a row, with 1.1 million tonnes of waste in 2019, the EPA has found.
New figures from the Environmental Protection Agency show that an 11% increase from 2018 saw 1,124,000 tonnes of packaging waste created in Ireland in 2019 – around 229kg of waste packaging per person.
Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Sustainability Sharon Finegan said that businesses need to put less packaging on the market.
5. The processing of short stay entry visa applications will resume next week.
The move will come into effect from Monday, 13 September and applications for short stay visas will open again from that date for the first time since March 2020.
This will benefit travellers from all countries which require a visa to enter Ireland, such as China, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
6. Criticism was levelled at Taoiseach Micheál Martin at his parliamentary party yesterday, with the discussion described as “honest and tense” at times.
The two-day party think-in got underway yesterday afternoon at the Slieve Russell Hotel in Cavan.
7. Denmark has ditched the requirement for vaccine passports in nightclubs, ending its last domestic Covid curb.
The vaccine passports were introduced in March 2021 when Copenhagen slowly started easing restrictions.
They were abolished at all venues on 1 September, except in nightclubs, where they will be no longer necessary from today.
8. US President Joe Biden said a “distinct minority of Americans” are to blame for preventing the United States from overcoming the pandemic.
Biden has spoke about sweeping new vaccine requirements to mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans.
The roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid will also have to be fully vaccinated.
9. The Minister for Foreign Affairs chaired a United Nations Security Council meeting on Afghanistan in New York yesterday evening.
Under Simon Coveney’s chairship, the Council voted to approve a resolution on peacekeeping brought forward by Ireland.
The resolution focuses on transitioning from UN peace missions to a UN civilian presence that supports peacebuilding in post-conflict environments.
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