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Apartment towers and the International Commerce Centre, tower at center, are seen through a work of art entitled “Poetic Cosmos of the Breath” by Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno, which is part of an exhibition called “Mobile M+: Inflation!” at the waterfront of West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong today. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps…
THINGS WE LEARNED
#ABORTION: The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald has told TheJournal.ie that women seeking abortions because of suicide ideation should not require “so many consultants that it becomes illusory”. Fitzgerald also said that six consultants would be “clearly too many” and that the upcoming legislation needed to be sensitive, reasonable and meaningful.
#PUBLIC SECTOR: Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that the rejection of the Croke Park 2 public pay deal means public sector workers no longer have any automatic protection against mandatory redundancies, saying that the protection had been “an inherent part” of the deal. His comments came as government continues its plans to cut €300 million from public sector pay this year.
#CHILD SAFETY: The National Board of Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland has found that allegations of abuse were made against three priests that are currently on active duty in the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora. The board also found that there were unacceptable delays and unsatisfactory responses to abuse concerns in Clogher.
#WATER CHARGES: Government is set to seek approval to delay the introduction of water charges until October 2014, with the first bills not due to arrive in homes until 2015. Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin plan to ask the visiting Troika inspection team – who arrived in Dublin this week – for permission to push back the rollout.
#MORTGAGE RATES: AIB’s variable rate mortgages rates are to increase by 0.4 per cent from 5 June this year. The bank also announced that EBS and Haven variable mortgages would increase by up to one quarter of one per cent, effective from 1 June. A spokesperson from the bank said that the increases were required in order for the bank to “make a return to profitability”. Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty has called on Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to block the rate increase.
#KATE MIDDLETON: Two people have been charged over the publication of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge last September, the publishing of which caused international scandal. The head of the publisher of France’s Closer magazine and a photographer have been charged in relation to the incident.
THINGS WE LOVED
THINGS WE SHARED
(Jedward Official Youtube/YouTube)
Reason number 5: Because even if you have a diabolical night, there’s always taco cheese chips at the end of it. (tlianza/Flickr/Creative Commons)
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This country is sinking in debt and us the taxpayers are fed up.
@James: Does this include Eamon Ryan’s “special appointment” Cara Augustenborg? She’s doing some amount of posting photos from fancy hotels on social media. Wonder if these are going down as expenses?
Great. More tax
@Shaun Gallagher: Green policies cost I’m afraid. We can try and ignore climate change but it won’t save us from the inevitable economic crash that will follow increased temperatures
@Mickety Dee: Green policies, what does that mean exactly? More tax on fuel when there are no alternatives will not save the planet.
@Mickety Dee: increased temperatures will have very little direct effect on ireland or Irelands economy. The effect it may have on the world wide economy is a different matter but since no matter what we do will have any impact on climate change then we should be the last people to make the changes not the first. It’s like two people at the top of a cliff looking at doing a dive, one says you go first I’ll follow, first person jumps and splats on a hidden rock under the water, ends up paralysed for the rest of their life. The second person looks on and says nah, I’ve changed my mind and decides to walk down to a much lower level on a different part of the cliff that they know to be safe and then jumps.
Our government are so eager to be seen to be best in class we are foolishly handing over energy security, driving up costs of homes with rolls Royce building regs for every new home meaning most can’t afford them, on the verge of handing over food security by destroying our aggri sector. We are jumping off that cliff recklessly for no discernable benefit
@Anthony Guinnessy: I think you’ll find the Irish economy is heavily correlated with the world economy. We are a long way from leaders in green policies and even then way behind on targets.
@Steve: An example would be subsidies on wind energy which translates into a tax on your electricity bill. Without subsidies and carbon tax there would be no wind generation on the island. The same would apply to recycling. It is still far cheaper to extract raw materials than recycle them.
It does seem crazy. Just six years ago the doors were thrown open on dairy sector deregulation which drove up investment and quotas and flattened prices. How was the ‘green’ impact of that decision not factored in at the time? Simon Coveney has questions to answer about wildly contradictory policy
@Eoin Roche: there is no plan or long term strategy that planning must align with. There are lobby groups who get what they ask for and over time we end up with a patchwork quilt of lobby appeasing policies that are fit for nothing. We get rid of sugar beet production and increase our dairy herd. Its mind boggling how short term and self serving (for a few) that we have allowed our system to become.
I for one am in favour of the jobs the comet will create.
Irelands headlong dash to be first to the climate action post at all costs no matter who it hurts will have very serious consequences for the economy and future generations
The Irish government practice of showboating on the world stage continues, and we, the people are the ones to suffer.
@Ciaran Maher: yep well said
@Ciaran Maher: yep showboating aptly described it
@Ciaran Maher: Are you really suffering? Doubt it. And certainly not as much as people who live in the areas directly impacted by climate change.
@Paul Whitehead: And these measures will relieve their plight, while China builds more coal fired power stations every week.
have your say