Breaking news this morning that Folpar Dosilay MP (Conservative) for Altrincham and Sale West has sought the intervention of President Michael D Higgins to help break the Brexit deadlock.

Dosilay, whose Irish mother attended NUI Galway with Michael D, formally requested that the president take over as head of the British state and declare a joint republic. The EU has signalled support for the proposal, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has praised Dosilay's initiative as "an absolutely fabulous idea."

Gordon Deegan filed a story with The Irish Times last Friday about a recent Labour Court recommendation for Fórsa members at the National Lottery firm, Premiere Lotteries. Our official Denis Keane will be meeting the members there on Friday. Meanwhile, IT Sligo Students' Union hosted a walkout last Thursday as part of the  'Fund The Future' campaign and were joined by members of Fórsa.

Elsewhere, and contrary to last week's predictions, Paul Reid has been appointed the HSE top job (Sunday Business Post). Reid is county manager of Fingal County Council and previously worked as a senior official in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The Indo and Times report today on his salary, just north of 300k.

Also in the SBP was a report that Revenue will spend €15m this year on Brexit staff, while the Indo reports today that hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland are living in substandard housing conditions, and a quarter of companies in Ireland say that there is a gender pay gap at their firm (Examiner reporting on CIPD/IRN pay survey).

The INMO has reported that nearly 10,000 people spent time on a trolley in an emergency department on or a ward waiting for admission to a hospital bed last month.

Your Zen this morning features the second-most distinguished graduate of St Wilfrid's comprehensive in Crawley. The Cure's lead singer Robert Smith is suitably underwhelmed by the band's entry into the Rock n'Roll Hall of Fame.