Opening the gates
by Mehak Dugal

Following Minister McGrath’s comments on Morning Ireland yesterday speaking of the State’s willingness to further engage in negotiations with unions, the Times, Examiner, and Indo cover Fórsa’s position on the matter. The union said there must be “movement” from the Government side on a “credible” pay offer to get public pay talks back on track.


Health minister Stephen Donnelly is to introduce a bill creating a protest exclusion zone around all healthcare facilities, including those that provide abortion services. A motion supporting the same was passed at Fórsa’s conference in May. In effect, this would introduce exclusion zones around all hospitals, GP practices and family planning clinics.

 

Meanwhile, a committee has been told there are almost 4,200 lost bags in Dublin Airport, and it is “like trying to climb a sand dune” to return all baggage to the owners as the busy summer period continues. Irish Rail too seems to be having its own set of problems with increased passenger numbers. 

 

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said nurses and midwives are now leaving the healthcare system in droves as the cost of living crisis bites. The union stated many of its members have significant costs driving to and from work for every shift and are driving lengthy distances because they cannot afford a home to rent or buy near places of work.

 

Elsewhere, the three coalition leaders plan to meet this morning ahead of Cabinet to try to reach an agreement on important emissions reduction targets for individual sectors. The trio convened yesterday evening but failed to agree on the target for the agriculture sector, which has become a serious point of conflict within the government.

And increasing taxi fares to weigh in favour of those working ‘unsocial hours’ is expected to entice drivers back into city centres during busy weekend evenings, an industry expert has said. 

 

Zen

 

The Spice Girls scored their first No.1 UK single on this day in 1996 with 'Wannabe'. The Girl Power song became the best-selling single by a female group selling over six million copies worldwide.

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