In other news, Budget 2025 will contain 'significant' income tax and USC reductions, says Taoiseach, while a kitchen porter left jobless after a fatal shooting in a restaurant in Blanchardstown last Christmas, is awarded €22k at the WRC.

Elsewhere, the world is emerging from its warmest northern hemisphere summer since records began.

In health news, HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster has defended the pace of reforms benefitting patients, saying hospitals have seen an overall 20% drop in people on trolleys waiting for a bed. The HSE's Integrated Care conference took place in DUblin yesterday, where Gloster said improvements remain a priority for him. 

At the same event, health minister Stephen Donnelly was interviewed by former broadcaster Sean O’ Rourke, who raised warnings from the health unions that staff vacancies from 2023 are not being filled even though the hiring freeze is lifted: "Mr Donnelly, to loud muttering from the audience of HSE staff, said: “I don’t buy that. I know in individual teams that is true.” 

Zen

With the outpouring of 90s nostalgia last week, and the subsequent spike in inflation it precipitated, I was reminded that the 90s had a clutch of artists who were far better, and much cooler, than Oasis. One of those bands, Massive Attack, played a one day festival in their home town of Bristol last week, designed to be more sustainable, and providing a blueprint for other industry acts to follow. And they still sound amazing.

Have a glorious weekend.

Niall