A number of media outlets report on today's lunchtime protests taking place in Kilkenny and Blanchardtown.  RTÉ, KCLR and 98fm report, while the Indo reports that a UK expert advising the HSE has said Irish health staff are suffering significant levels of burnout, and that target-driven moves alone to increase productivity will not work. Professor Michael West is affiliated with the King’s Fund in the UK which supports hospitals. He says: “staff generally have the answers themselves on how to improve productivity.”

A new report launches today says companies are making it harder for trade unions to organise or represent their workers, and are using tactics such as refusing officials physical access to workplaces, monitoring employee communications and victimising activists to weaken union activity.

“Union Access to Workers in Ireland – Barriers faced by representatives in Ireland within a comparative European context” includes a survey of trade union officials regarding their experience of attempting to organise and represent members in Irish workplaces, with 92% saying they have have witnessed or experienced incidents of victimisation of members or activists, and 30% saying it is a tactic regularly employed to deter organisation.

Elsewhere, a new ESRI report says being or becoming a lone parent while their children are young more than doubles the chances of a person experiencing poverty, while a new report from DCU says the need for fluent Irish is a significant impediment to more working-class young people becoming teachers.

Zen

Your Zen moment is the tale of a long life. Henry (pictured) is a tuatara, a unique and rare reptile endemic to New Zealand, and believed to be between 110 and 130 years old. He's likely to be the world’s oldest living tuatara and New Zealand’s oldest resident. 

Have a great day.

Niall