Fórsa yesterday announced plans to provide face masks directly to members working in schools where local management failed to supply them. Andy Pike said current advice from the Department of Education and Skills is for SNAs to wear visors, despite the HSE stating they're substantially less effective at preventing the spread of Covid-19 than face coverings. 

Meanwhile, described as the "most promising" vaccine so far, the European Commission has committed to buying 300 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech candidate. This would be enough to vaccinate up to 1.6 million people in Ireland, with each person requiring two doses.

In other Covid-related news, International travel will become easier to some countries after a Government decision that will allow coronavirus testing for passengers passing through Irish airports, giving hope to many wishing to return home this Christmas.

Elsewhere in aviation, Cork and Shannon airports are set to get an extra €22m next year under a package of government supports to help them survive the Covid crisis.

The Dáil voted confidence in the Tánaiste yesterday evening, after Sinn Féin proposed a motion of no confidence in Mr Varadkar over his now infamous disclosure of a confidential document to the NAGP when he was Taoiseach.

Meanwhile, Government has said that the stand-off between the Chief Justice and Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe raises “serious constitutional issues”. Chief Justice, Frank Clarke told Mr Justice Woulfe that it was his personal opinion he should resign over the #GolfGate controversy. However, correspondence between the two men released by the court makes it clear that he does not intend to quit.

And finally, I featured this zen a number of years ago but came across it again recently and thought it was too good not to revisit. This video shows Martin Molin play a specially built machine which makes music with 2000 marbles. The beat itself is captivating enough, but it's the mechanics that I find particularly brilliant. I hope you enjoy this selection just as much the second time round.