The HSE is to put in place restrictions on travel for staff and to minimise the use of the postal service in communicating with the public as part of a new plan to save money.

Average weekly earnings for employees in the Irish economy rose by 5.6% (on annual basis) in the final quarter of last year while average hourly earnings rose by 6%. Meanwhile, a group of Limerick City restaurant workers who decided to close down the premises in a revolt over unpaid wages have won nearly €22,000 for employment rights breaches. 

Elsewhere, details of the detention and torture of Palestinian medical personnel by Israeli forces makes for difficult reading, while new research shows that the requirement to continue working through the Covid-19 pandemic "was the single greatest factor in the level of risk taken by people during the tightest restrictions."

In Cork, the City Council gets its fingers burned over the refurbishment of a historic fireman’s rest, as the Tánaiste chairs the first meeting of the new Consultative Group on International Trade today as part of the Government’s ongoing efforts to ensure the country "is well placed to withstand any potential trade shocks, particularly in light of the new Trump Administration."

Zen 

Your Zen this morning whimsically explores the blended work culture war via the medium of cinema, specifically the 1991 Kathryn Bigelow crime classic, Point Break. The clip is incomplete, here's how that exchange ended.

Alas, the Zen news desk was saddened to learn that soul legend Roberta Flack left us on Monday. I heartily recommend giving her debut album, First Take, a spin. Released in June 1969, it remains timeless and beautiful. Her versions of Ewan MacColl's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Leonard Cohen's Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye stand out while the opening track, Compared to What? remains one of the great protest songs.

Have a lovely day.

Niall Shanahan