The new Ballyshannon Community Hospital is to open this week following the recent dispute over staffing levels.

Following on from yesterday's Oireachtas committee hearing on the new defence bill, the European Organisation of Military Associations and Trade Unions (Euromil) has joined Irish military representative bodies, Raco and PDForra, in criticising the legislation. ICTU's Liam Berney and Dr.Laura Bambrick made this opening address at yesterday's hearing.

Meanwhile, a thousand tech jobs were lost between November and December last year, according to new CSO data. The total number of jobs in the sector was down 5,800, or 4.6%, compared with December 2022. 

Elsewhere, Euronews reports that Access Now - a non-profit digital rights organisation - has said more transparency is needed on how humanitarian aid organisations handle the data of the world's most vulnerable people. 

Finally, there's a cold weekend coming our way, a new survey reveals that more than a third of children with disabilities have experienced unregulated seclusion or restraint, the tourism industry is getting angsty about the use of hotels to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers, and for anyone planning to address the Fórsa conference in May, there's some useful advice for debating techniques in today's Irish Times.

Zen

Your Zen this morning is the news that film director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, 1917, and the only decent Bond film, Skyfall) is to direct four separate feature films, each focusing on one of The Beatles. The project has the full approval of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison.

Have an amazing day.

Niall