EVERY DAY, TheJournal.ie brings you a round-up of the day’s news as well as the bits and pieces you may have missed.

• Preliminary data from the 2011 census estimates that the population of Ireland has increased by 8.1 per cent since 2006, with a total of 4,581,269 people believed to be in the country on census night in April. The figures also show that the strongest population growth over the five year period was recorded in Laois and, overall, 118,650 more people immigrated to Ireland than left the country.
• Given the census figures, it transpires that the maximum number of TDs that could be cut in the next Dáil is 13. This morning we asked how many TDs (if any) you thought should be cut. Most of you thought we could either do away with half of the current number of TDs or reduce it by between 20 and 50 House members.
• Judge Peter Smithwick has accused Minister for Justice Alan Shatter of attempting to interfere with his tribunal’s proceedings and independence by imposing a deadline on it. Shatter denies the accusation.
• The newly-elected North Tipperary mayor Micheál Lowry says his father Independent TD Micheal Lowry didn’t help him get elected to the post, but admitted his surname hasn’t done his political career any harm.
• RTÉ reports that a major multi-million euro settlement has been reached between the HSE and the 22-year-old Limerick woman who claimed she contracted a rare brain disease from parrots at a pet store. Patricia Ingle of Murroe is paralysed and brain damaged after contracting the illness in 2008.
• According to figures released by Google, the Irish government made under ten requests to have content removed from its online services in 2009. Content was subsequently removed, but the internet company hasn’t said what it was.
• Karaoke, cocktails and QEII: All-Ireland hurling star Lar Corbett covered these and more in today’s Twestion Time with TheScore.ie.
• And speaking of social media, do you want to know how it conquered the world? Here’s a four-minute video with the low down on how social networking now generates more web traffic than pornography.

Grace Dargan, 5, right, Mia Lambe, 5, and their four-legged friend at the launch of July’s Made in Temple Bar event today in Dublin. (Photo: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

• A cut in the VAT rate from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent kicks in tomorrow for a range of items in the hospitality sector, including food and hotels. Enda Kenny has called on the relevant businesses to ensure they pass the reduction on to their customers, while the Irish Hotels Federation said the initiative could help boost tourism.
• “Tear gas is horrendous, you don’t really smell it… Your eyes start streaming and stinging, your nose is running and you realise a scarf is no defence to tear gas. You can’t really breathe properly and it takes a long time to get over the effect.  It’s horrible.” One Irish woman who lives in Athens told TheJournal.ie what it was like on the streets of Athens amid yesterday’s anti-austerity protests.
• The UN-backed tribunal investigating the killing of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri has issued four arrest warrants, according to the BBC.
• What’s a peloton? Why is that cyclist in a different colour jersey today? For the answers to those questions and more, check out this spoofer’s guide to the Tour de France, which kicks off tomorrow.
• Time’s editor-at-large and MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin has been suspended by the network “indefinitely” for calling President Barack Obama “kind of a dick” on air this morning.
• Meanwhile, the French president also came under attack today. Nicolas Sarkozy was almost knocked down during the incident, before his security team tackled the other man involved.
• Germany’s legislators voted today to completely stop the country’s nuclear power production by 2022.
• It was only a matter of time before this surfaced: a Fight Club and Monty Python video mash-up: