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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #BUDGET 2013: Protests are due outside Leinster House today from carers and recipients of domestic care, in a fresh protest at Budget plans to cut the annual respite care grant. The protests come as the Dáil is due to begin debating the Social Welfare Bill which would bring the cut into law, though no votes on the issue are due until tomorrow.
2. #NORTHERN IRELAND: The leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party has described a firebomb attack on an unmarked police car as “an attempt to kill police officers”. A gang of around 15 masked loyalists threw a petrol bomb at the car in East Belfast last night, outside the office of Alliance MP Naomi Long, in what the PSNI is treating as an “attempted murder”.
3. #FIRE: Five units of Dublin Fire Brigade were called to put out a fire at a pub in the city centre last night. The fire at the Karma Stone bar on Wexford Street was spotted in the early hours of the morning. People were inside the pub when the fire broke out, but no injuries were reported.
4. #ABORTION: The Council of Europe’s conference of ministers has called on Ireland to ‘expedite’ its moves to address the legal vacuum at the centre of the A, B and C ruling. Ministers yesterday debated Ireland’s response to the ECHR ruling in Strasbourg. The Pro-Life Campaign said the ministers’ statement suggested “a lack of understanding” as to the court’s actual ruling.
5. #GRANTS: Only one of every nine first-year college students who applied for a third-level maintenance grant at the start of the year has actually been paid, new figures show. Data published by Ruairi Quinn shows that almost 67,000 grant applications were sent in by new students – but only 7,570 payments had been made as of the middle of last week. The body in charge, SUSI, has pledged to process all applications by Christmas.
6. #EGYPT: Rival protests are due in Cairo today, with separate demonstrations both in support of, and opposition to, Mohammed Morsi. Morsi’s opponents fear his new self-imposed powers are bringing the country back to the Mubarak era, while supporters believe the president’s decision to hold a referendum on a new constitution will bring the country into a new age of democracy.
7. #NORTH KOREA: North Korea has delayed a planned rocket launch, putting it back by a week citing “technical issues”. The planned missile launch has drawn wide condemnation, with many seeing it as an experimental launch of a long-range missile, but Pyongyang says the purpose of the mission is to put a scientific satellite into orbit.
8. #ZEITGEIST: Many of us may claim to dislike Craig Doyle, but he’s certainly popular among the Googling classes. Doyle, Katie Taylor and Euro 2012 are all prominent features in Google’s ‘Zeitgeist’ charts for popular search terms in 2012.
9. #LUCKY: A 54-year-old man has thanked his 15-stone friend for falling on him – and saving his life. Kevin Brockbank suffered a heart attack at work, prompting pal Martin Amriding to try and catch him as he fell to the ground. Amriding failed to catch him, and instead landed on him – but the impact kickstarted Brockbank’s heart. Thankfully, Brockbank is making a full recovery.
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So it takes SUSI over 12 weeks to process 7,570 grants yet they’re able to process a further 60,000 in two weeks? Somebody’s been having a laugh…
Was thinking exactly thing!
they are begging and borrowing to survive. I have had to stop payments on my loan to try and help keep my son in College. it’s an absolute disgrace and now I’m going to be in even more trouble financially then I was. and that was not good in the first place :-(
How are these students surviving ??!
i have been waiting three months for a dole payment to be processed and am now lucky enough to be working part-time. the truth about SUSI in this regard is they just can’t be arsed helping students as the department of social protection can’t be arsed helping me or anyone else who deserves support from the government
have your say