The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has written to Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O'Callaghan, urging him to take action over increasing violence and aggression against minorities. RTÉ reports that, in recent months, "workers from a minority background are facing verbal and physical attacks travelling to and from their workplaces."

Congress President Phil Ní Sheaghda told the minister that union members, many who've worked in Ireland for more than 20 years, have reported that the experience of violence and aggression, particularly when leaving their places of employment and using public transport, were not a feature of their lives in Ireland prior to 2024.

The auguste denizens of Dartmouth Square may well be heard squealing with delight this morning as it's reported that people who object to infrastructure projects could be offered damages rather than allow judicial reviews to delay a project. This is under the terms of a plan to give the Government more power to decide when and how the legal instruments can be used. 

Further up the canal, council residents in south Dublin have described cold, mouldy and poorly insulated houses they live in in a new survey, with one describing their home as being like a “meat locker.”

Meanwhile, a statutory five-year funding review carried out by Coimisiún na Meán has found that RTÉ is facing cash pressures in the forthcoming years, and saw reform efforts stall in the period leading up to the end of 2024. The regulator's report has also found that audiences are declining, with a quarter of the population watching less than one minute of broadcast television per week.

Ibec's fourth gender pay gap report is out, and Anne-Marie Walsh reports in the Indo that the average pay gap at the business representative group has widened to 23%. 

Elsewhere a worker at Pobal, affected by the condition, and whose bosses ignored their own medical adviser and refused to let her come back to work part-time, has been awarded €30,000 in compensation after winning a second equality claim against her employer. 

Your Zen this morning is drawn from the new documentary on film director Martin Scorsese. He directed the concert film, The Band's The Last Waltz, in 1978. Here's a clip.

Have a lovely day.

NS