New CSO figures on pay reveal that Gardaí have the highest average weekly earnings and work the most paid hours in the public sector (Indo). The Irish Times reports that average weekly earnings increased 3.1% to more than €1,011 in the last three months of last year, and that average weekly earnings rose by 11.8% in the three years to the quarter, while all sectors saw increases in average weekly earnings over that period.

John McManus writes that we want services funded by multinational corporation tax but we won’t own up to the compromises involved, as he expands on why we can’t wean ourselves off US multinationals’ taxes, even if we wanted to. I recommend a read of the latest edition of Simon McGirr's The Gist on the same subject.

Joanne Hunt writes about stay-at-home parents "too often forgotten when it comes to measuring their value" and the need for families to arrange insurance and pension cover "to prevent illness or death from creating a financial crisis." Elsewhere, a recent graduate's career query highlights the role of AI in screening job applicants.

Elsewhere, a dust-off between IMMA and the OPW, and the longest State of the Union address in history, as the US-Presidential live-streamed-reality-TV-show continues its dreary broadcast.

Your zen this morning is a short film. That's AI.

Have a great day.

NS