EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you nine things you need to know with your morning cup of coffee.

1. #ÁRAS11: The presidential race officially gets underway today – with a record seven candidates having secured their places on the ballot paper for next month’s election, following the nominations of independent candidates Dana Rosemary Scallon and David Norris yesterday.

2. #WORK STOPPAGE: Nurses at Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital Emergency Department are holding a four-hour work stoppage from 8.30am today, in protest against serious overcrowding at the facility. Nurses say cutbacks are having a detrimental impact on their ability to do their jobs and they are concerned for the welfare of patients. It will be the second stoppage in eight days.

3. #DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Despite the number of domestic abuse cases against women rising last year, Safe Ireland says that over a third more women were unable to access emergency accommodation. The organisation says that the situation had reached “tipping point”, with a total of 7,235 women and 2,850 children receiving assistance from domestic abuse services in 2010.

4. #POVERTY: A Cork organisation offering dinners for 5 cent has seen a three-fold increase in people seeking its hot meals in the past two years. Cork Penny Dinners, founded by the city’s Quakers during the Famine, says that it helps to feed around 2,500 people each month – and that more and more people are coming to them in a state of hunger and “total desperation”.

5. #JOBS: A new bingo facility will create 30 new jobs in Cork this year: the 1,000-seat Rock Bingo venue is due to open at the old Waters Glass premises in Togher, Cork, and the recruitment process for staff has begun.

6. #GREECE: The Greek Parliament voted last night to introduce a massively unpopular property tax, in the government’s latest attempt at securing the next round of bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

7. #LISTERIA: Up to 16 people have been killed by a listeria outbreak in the United States. A batch of contanimated cantaloupes from Colorado has been blamed for the deaths and approximately 72 infections.

8. #PHILIPPINES: Twenty people have been killed and dozens are still missing following a powerful tropical storm hitting the Philippines. Winds reached up to 120 kmp in the capital, Manila, where search and clean-up operations are now underway, reports the BBC.

9. #LITTLE GREEN LIES: A vegetarian dating website in the UK has been reprimanded by advertising watchdogs… because the majority of its members were actually meat eaters, the Guardian reports.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint about veggiedates.co.uk, saying that not enough of its members were vegetarian. It has now changed its strapline to “single people who lead a healthy lifestyle”.