BREW THE COFFEE, pour the tea – and catch up with the world with nine stories you really should check out before 9am.
1.#AIR SAFETY: An Oireachtas committee is to hear pilots’ concerns today about the level of fatigue among commercial pilots. Meanwhile, the Irish Independent’s Ralph Riegel claims that survivors and families of those killed in the Cork airport crash of a Manx2 flight last year are to launch lawsuits in the autumn.
2. #NO CREDIT: Banks have been criticised in a report from the Credit Review Office today for not doing more to extend credit to entrepreneurs and businesses trying to take a reasonable risk in the market.
3. #IMMIGRATION: The immigrant population in Ireland has been dealt a particularly bad hand by the downturn according to a report from the Integration Sector. RTÉ has picked out a particularly sobering fact – employment among immigrants in Ireland fell by 40 per cent in three years, compared to a 10 per cent drop for Irish nationals.
4. #PREFABS OUT: Farewell to the prefab? Just over 90 schools have had funding approved to have their flimsy prefabs replaced with permanent classrooms. There’s more to be done though – the Department of Education has allocated €29.3m for prefab rental for this year.
5. #FAITH: An Ipsos/MRBI poll carried in the Irish Times this morning has some interesting stats about modern Ireland’s participation in the Catholic Church. Some random ones: Two out of five Catholics don’t attend Mass, and if you vote Fianna Fáil, you are most likely to identify yourself as a Catholic.
6. #EUROBONDS: TheJournal.ie reported yesterday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not interested in pooling eurozone debt under eurobonds. She is, however, open to the idea of setting up a pan-European banking authority to guarantee banking stability, according to the AP.
7. #JOBSWATCH: Staff at Bord na Móna are carrying out a one-day strike today. They are protesting the introduction of “performance-related elements” into their pay structure. Pfizer staff in Cork might also have gotten a rude awakening this morning – Stephen Rogers on the front page of the Irish Examiner claims that 180 jobs are to go there in the near future.
8. #NORWAY: A photograph taken at the trial of Anders Breivik apparently shows one of the judges, Ernst Henning Eielsen, playing solitaire on a computer while evidence was bring heard. Breivik is accused of killing 77 people in a twin attack in Norway last year.
9. #ROM COM: US President Barack Obama made a gaffe at a fundraiser last night, referring to his Republican presidential race rival Mitt Romney as “George Romney”. George is Mitt’s dad and some commentators have been suggesting the slip-up might have been less than accidental…
(MTV Movie Awards/Youtube.com)
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