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EVERY MORNING, TheJournal.ie brings you the nine things you need to know as you kick off your day.
1. #SAVITA: The husband of Savita Halappanavar has expressed dissatisfaction with the draft HSE report into his wife’s death. Praveen Halappanavar’s solicitor Gerard O’Donnell told RTÉ that the report did not explain exactly why Savita had died, and failed to answer a series of questions about the circumstances that led to her death. It is unclear when the report will be published; opposition political parties have asked that the report not be published until Halappanavar’s concerns are addressed.
2. #SCHOOLS: Primary schools in 23 towns around Ireland are set to change patronage due to the demand of parents, according to the Department of Education and Skills. The department has given Catholic school administrators six months to consider how the patronage of some schools could be transferred, after a nationwide survey identified sufficient demand for multi- and non-denominational schools in 23 towns out of 38 surveyed.
3. #PROPERTY: New reports on the state of Ireland’s property market published this morning show more evidence of a two-tier property market – with prices in Dublin up in the last year, but prices nationwide still falling. The reports from Daft.ie and MyHome.ie are the latest to show some stability in the capital’s market, but continuing drops in prices outside of Dublin.
4. #TEACHERS: The education minister Ruairi Quinn will today address the annual conferences of two of the country’s three teachers’ unions, where he is likely to call for a Yes vote to the proposed Croke Park 2 pay deal. Quinn will speak to the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation in Cork and to the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland in Wexford. The Teachers’ Union of Ireland has already voted against the proposals, and will today discuss whether to be bound by the deal if it is approved by a majority of other unions.
5. #NORTH KOREA: North Korea has said it intends to restart a nuclear reactor it shut down six years ago, in a blow to hopes of defusing nuclear tensions between North and South Korea. The Yongbyon reactor was the sole source of plutonium for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
6. #MYANMAR: At least 13 children have died in a fire at a Muslim school in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. Authorities have blamed the fire at the city’s main Muslim school on an electrical short-circuit. The government has urged people not to spread rumours of a malicious origin to the fire, amid suggestions that the fire is the latest round in a conflict between Muslims and Buddhists.
7. #MANUFACTURING: Ireland’s manufacturing sector shrank last month – its first decline in nearly a year – according to new data this morning. The NCB purchasing managers’ index shows a sharp decline in orders placed last month, standing at 48.6. Any figure below 50 is considered an indication of a declining sector.
8. #OILY: Eating oily fish can add years to your life, new studies have claimed. Research by the Harvard School of Public Health says people with the largest amount of fatty acids in their bloodstream – like omega-3, which is typically found in fish like tuna and mackerel - tend to live about 2.2 years longer than those who opt against them.
9. #INADEQUATE: Here’s a story to make you feel inadequate on a dreary Tuesday morning after a four-day weekend. Can you imagine climbing Mount Everest… at the age of 80? After undergoing heart surgery four times? Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura isn’t letting his coronary difficulties get in the way of his attempt to become the oldest man ever to reach the summit of the tallest mountain on Earth.
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A bit of competition is good once it’s honest and there’s no jolleys, stroking, brown envelopes or trips to the red light district
Don’t care who builds it, once the ultimate cost is what was agreed at the start and it represents best value for money and can actually do everything that we need in an MRV.
@Peter: absolutely correct. The bigger ptoblen is managing to crew these ships given the pathetic funding of the navy and the army
. dont care who builds it but no the UK, when your out, your out.
@Spud Geshletter: let’s hope they don’t have the same stupid attitude as you, we will be broke overnight.
@Tipper Irie: How do you like a freezing cold and dark winter? 75% of our gas comes from Scotland!
@Tipper Irie: please explain??
@Spud Geshletter: …but they’re Scots not English.
This is gona be an interesting one. The Brits will probably bend over backwards for these kind of contracts now to prove Brexit works. Might mean a better price, but there will be a lot of pressure on the government from EU partners to not go with the Brits for this. Especially a defence contract. I’m sure there are plenty of other shipyards around Europe that could also build the ship. I wonder will the EU intervene to make sure that EU defense spending stays as much as possible within the EU. Which will be tough seen as the Brits have such a massive arms industry.
@bazhealy: We should source the ships with the EU Single Market and as Northern Ireland is still in the EU Single Market we should source the ships in Harland and Wolf in Belfast.
@Roger Bond: You’d be lucky to get a barge out of H&W.
@Roger Bond: hm no…
@Billybutcher: hm maybe, although it has been used recently mainly for service I read on 25/11 that H&W has been appointed as the prefered bidder to deliver three crucial support ships to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Who will staff it?? The Naval service is on it’s knees.
@Richard Griffin: We can recruit naval personnel from other countries like the Philippines or China.
@Roger Bond: Do people actually think we can do that?
And its also past time Ireland grew up and provided its own proper air defences and stop running to the RAF everytime an incident accurs because we dont have the capability,without a comprehensive radar tracking system anyone can invade our airspace at will and we have to depend on the Brits for information whats happening in our own country,the excuse usually given is because we are neutral sounds demeaning and ridiculous because we can even defend our own neutrality.
@Richard Mccarthy: I’m sure that there is a bit of back scratching going on with that arrangement.
Didn’t know the UK had any shipyards left.
@Ken Miles: they,’ve got s few ,who do you think built the new aircraft carriers?
@Ken Miles: You obvously are misinformed who do you think built the latest Ships for the Irish navy,yep the Brits did only problem now we can’t get the personel to crew them.
@Ken Miles: there is a famous ship yard only up the road in Belfast
@Kevin Carroll: Excellent point. At least we would keep the money on the island.
@Kevin Carroll: Yes there is. Tyneside shipyards closed to keep Belfast in work.
@Ken Miles: There is one just up the road in Belfast and it would be a kind gesture to get the ships built there like before.
As a member of the EU all contracts should be given to eu countries not a country outside eu
They’ve probably wat he’d the childrens hospital and locked their lips at the clown show.
Candy off a baby..
That’s easy then, Trieste in Italy it is, the only EU one of the top 10 largest shipbuilding companies, coming in @ #9.
We should be looking further afield for contracts like this..The best value for money can be found in China or South Korea..
@Roger Bond: Correctamundo, Asia all the way, I’d include Japan on that list.
have your say