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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #CAN’T GET ENOUGH: Only five days after being over there to rub shoulders with Bill Clinton, Enda Kenny is back in the United States today. He’ll be at events in New York and Boston, spreading that the message that Ireland is “open for business and investment”. He’ll be meeting New York mayor Michael Bloomberg tomorrow.
2. #JOBSEEKERS: The latest terms of Ireland’s deal with the EU-IMF commits the government to taking action against people on the dole who aren’t actually seeking work. The Department of Social Protection is to take steps to “strengthen activation and training policies”. Sanctions are to be imposed on those who don’t take up opportunities to work.
3. #JOBSWATCH: Credit card giant Mastercard has announced it’s to set up a global IT headquarters in Dublin – creating 130 jobs over the next four years.
4. #SNAP HAPPY: Opposition TDs have criticised news that the Department of the Taoiseach has spent over €30,000 on photography since Enda Kenny took office. Even though last year’s bill is less than half of what had been spent in 2008, Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins said the decreased costs were “no defence”.
5. #RYANAIR: The low-fares airline has been rapped on the knuckles by Britain’s advertising watchdog for ‘sexist’ advertising of its cabin crew calendar. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints that ads for the calendar were “unsuitable for display in a national newspaper”.
6. #EMBASSIES: Figures carried in many of today’s newspapers show that the cost of running Ireland’s overseas embassies reached €76 million last year. The details were released by the Department of Foreign Affairs following a Freedom of Information request by Rowan Gallagher – and show that the embassy in the Holy See was one of the cheapest ones to run last year.
7. #GREECE: It looks like the fear over a potential Greek default hasn’t been put to bed just yet. The leader of the Eurozone’s finance ministers, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, has called off a planned meeting for today – which had been expected to sign off on Greece’s €130bn second bailout. Juncker says Greece hasn’t offered enough “political assurances” that it can implement its new austerity measures.
8. #HUNGER: In the next 15 years, the bodies and brains of 450 million children will not develop fully as a result of malnutrition. That’s according to the international humanitarian group Save the Children, which is calling for a ‘global hunger summit’ to be held in London while leaders travel to attend the opening of the Olympic Games.
9. #COVER UP: The Afghan government has asked female TV presenters to wear less make-up and to don headscarves, Reuters reports, following complaints by the country’s MPs. Journalists have been angered by the request, saying the move suggests the government is trying to appease the Taliban.
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I be more worried about their victims’ waiting times
Who is caring for/monitoring that woman while she is on bail?
Waiting time for mental health services for the general public is hugely long, why should prisoners be any different?
This government couldn’t care less about the mental health of its people.
@Carm(Orange Vampire): would you really want dangerous people becoming more unwell and even more dangerous! Stemming the progression at the earliest onset is in everyone’s best interest, prisoners and ours
@Jason: most prisoners are on a trajectory that the basic help provided through the prison services is not going to help long term
@Carm(Orange Vampire):
How is every single thing in this country a disaster/over crowded/under funded/long waiting lists etc etc?
Why can nothing run smoothly?
A great little country for American multinationals and hedge funds and a lousy one for its citizens.
@Ronaldo Blanc: hear hear
@Ronaldo Blanc: If these American multinationals were not here we would still be going around on horse and cart and you would have nuns and priests running run down old dilapidated hellholes that nobody would dare visit…..who do you think are paying the bills?, the farmers lol…..kop on and think just a little before you point the finger. Its our rotten government that have the country a mess, them and their public service buddies and private sector criminals creaming every last drop out of the place….
@Ronaldo Blanc: It’s citizens are responsible for the mess they’re in because it’s citizens continue to vote the same degenerates in to govern them. People have to take responsibility for their actions and Irish voters are responsible for voting in the government. You can’t blame corrupt politicians for being corrupt when corruption is all they have demonstrated since the state came into existence. The blame falls squarely on the voters who continually put them in a position to exercise their corrupt ways and “cream every last drop out of the place”. So if Irish people want someone to blame for their woes they need only look in a mirror.
As for American multinationals; since we have no indigenous industry worth a mention we need to generate income some other way and this means prostituting ourselves out to whoever is willing to pay. Thanks to our corrupt politicians this has historically been American multinationals.
It’s not ok to not be ok in Ireland because Ireland inc can’t help you
@Tony Henry: Mental health is way down the government’s list of priorities and they don’t give a flying f***. Ask any parent of a child on a waiting list for a MH service and you’ll see. They just don’t care.
Would like to take issue with your headline of “prisoners with severe conditions” these are people with Mental Heath issues in dire need of Help where they should be classed as “patients” where the services they need are been Starved of resources
@Eamonn Tierney: while they are in prison they are still prisoners. If they move to the CMH they then become patients.
How is every single thing in this country a disaster/over crowded/under funded/long waiting lists etc etc?
Why can nothing run smoothly?
Typical Banana Republic Of Ireland!
An absolute joke of a country!
When the poor, the mentally ill and former prisoners begin to vote regularly, things will change. Politicians feel no pressure to protect these groups.
I was brought up very close to Dundrum ‘Asylum’ as it was called back then. It was a dark dank place to visit and a dangerous one. It was done up and improved but there is always the risk of a sudden burst of violence and some of these people are so ill, that they will kill. Hence not the nicest of environments to work in.
I believe that many political prisioners are psycopaths just as laypeople who are killers are and I believe in Ireland that Mental illness is way down the list of priorities infact a lot of funding has been taken away from Day Centres and call in centres which are preventative, but our Govt is longterm stupid and short term wise.
have your say