GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know as you start your day.
1. In today’s lead story, Christina Finn reports that cost-rental apartments which opened for applications in the last two weeks have attracted thousands of applications.
The 621 homes cost-rental apartments in four locations in Dublin and Kildare are being delivered through the Land Development Agency’s Project Tosaigh initiative.
A total of 3,351 applications were received in one week for just 247 homes at Barnwell Point Apartments in Hansfield in Dublin 15.
2. Teachers who are not eligible to earn the teaching-through-Irish allowance have told The Journal that it should be reintroduced “for the sake of equity”.
The allowance was paid to all teachers who were qualified to teach through the medium of Irish as a supplement to their basic salary prior to 2012.
But it was one of a number of public service allowances to be scrapped by the government in 2012 amidst the financial crisis.
3. The UN Security Council will meet next week over the decision by the global body’s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, the council’s presidency has announced.
The Wednesday meeting was called for by Algeria, whose ministry of foreign affairs said it would give “binding effect to the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation.”
4. Bambie Thug won last night’s Eurosong contest to represent Ireland at the 2024 Eurovision.
Winning song “Doomsday Blue” garnered eight points from the international jury, 12 points from the national jury, and 12 points from the public vote.
5. Donald Trump called a New York jury’s order for him to pay $83 million in damages for defamation to a writer whom he was found liable of sexually assaulting “absolutely ridiculous.”
Trump, who is running for a new term as US president in the November election, said in a statement he will “be appealing” what he said was a “Witch Hunt.”
6. The war in Ukraine will be among the “immediate priorities” for Galway native Michael O’Flaherty when he takes up his new role as the Human Rights Commissioner for the Council of Europe.
The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading organisation in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
O’Flaherty was elected to this role last night and will take up the position in April.
7. The DUP’s executive has been summoned for a meeting with their leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on Monday, amid speculation that the party is inching closer to a deal with the UK Government over post-Brexit trading arrangements, which could see them return to devolved government.
The Press Association reports that the DUP’s executive members were invited to register for a short-notice meeting at 7pm on Monday.
The DUP has stayed out of the institutions at Stormont for almost two years in an effort to force the Government to act on unionist concerns over the impact of the Windsor Framework on the union.
8. Nine Islamist militants, including three suspects in a Catholic mass bombing in the southern Philippines, have been killed in a clash with troops, the military has said.
9. Fine Gael is set to update their local election canvas guidebook to include further guidance on how to discuss the issue of immigration on the doorsteps.
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