LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2023

GOOD MORNING.

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

Fuel costs

1. Motorists will face a hike in the cost of refuelling their vehicle, as diesel and petrol prices are set to rise from tomorrow.

Petrol prices will go up by 5c per litre, and diesel will rise by 7c, as the government rows back some of the cuts to excise duty it implemented last year.

Back to school costs

2. Over 250 parents contacted The Society of St Vincent de Paul every day last week about back to school costs, the charity has said. 

It urged the Government to make school books for secondary school children free in the upcoming budget. 

Home births 

3. A Noteworthy investigation into the obstacles women are facing in choosing maternity care has found that women are being treated differently across the country due to local policies. 

The report shows how a key care choice – alongside birthing centres – promised under the National Maternity Strategy is being delivered by the HSE in a diminished form. Just two of these units are in place – the same number as before the strategy was developed.

Clonmel tragedy

4. One of the victims of a road crash that claimed four lives in Clonmel, Co Tipperary is to be laid to rest today. 

The funeral for Nicole Murphy, 18, will take place at St John the Baptist Church in Kilcash. 

CAMHS

5. A child who who was “depressed anxious and suicidal” had to wait a year for a mental health appointment, according to their mother who was interviewed for a report into mental health services in the west and north of the country.

The claim forms part of a report into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan areas.

Electoral Commission

6. Yesterday, the Electoral Commission recommended that no changes be made to Ireland’s European Parliament constituencies, but this is likely to change soon.

Johannesburg fire

7. The death toll from a fire that engulfed a five-storey building in central Johannesburg has risen to 63, the South African city’s emergency services said, with many more injured. 

“We are now on 63 fatalities and 43 people injured who were transported to various healthcare facilities,” said Emergency Management Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi.

Virgin Media TV

8. The new programme for the upcoming season of Virgin Media TV is offering two very different shows. 

‘Confessions of a Crime King’ features interviews with convicted crime lord John Gilligan, while Grá on Trá is the Gaeilgeoir answer to Love Island. It sets up ten singletons in couples with fluent Irish speakers. Who stays and who goes depends on how much progress the non-Irish speaker is making with their cuid Gaelige.

Gabon coup

9. Leaders of the coup in Gabon have named a general transitional president after seizing power following disputed elections.

The claimed takeover sparked condemnation from the African Union and alarm from Nigeria over “contagious autocracy” in a continent where military forces have seized power in five other countries since 2020.