Following the Cabinet’s decision yesterday to consult the Attorney General (AG) on a referendum to guarantee that water services stay in public ownership, Fórsa, which represents water staff in local authorities and Irish Water, called on both the Government and the AG to ensure that the wording of a proposed constitutional amendment reflects and sustains existing all-party support for keeping water in public control.

Coinciding with our own conference today is an event at the Aviva which will examine ways of 'future proofing' the labour market. It will look at the impact measures to combat climate change have on jobs, as well as ways to ensure that sustainable jobs are created which embrace new technologies.

Yesterday, Congress met the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality on the 'General Scheme of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill'. Fórsa's Geraldine O'Brien addressed the Committee and highlighted what the gender pay gap means on a practical level. You can find coverage of that on our Twitter.

In other Congress news, ICTU has given its backing to the draft deal agreed last week for the UK's departure from the European Union.

RTÉ reports British Prime Minister Theresa May will make a further unexpected trip to Brussels on Saturday for further talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Last night, Ms May returned from talks with Mr Juncker in Brussels without having finalised a deal.

Today's Zen has been floating around the Internet for about a week now, but I'm sharing it here just in case you haven't caught it yet. This year's Iceland (the shop's) Christmas ad was banned from TV for being 'too political' and thus has gone viral online. A lovely story with an important message if you ask me.