A comparative report of Ireland’s national archives has uncovered a system creaking under the pressure of staff and skills shortages, expanded responsibilities, new technologies, space constraints, and legislative shortcomings. Read more about that here.

Fórsa has welcomed the allocation of €75,000 to investigate the feasibility of bringing Dublin City Council’s refuse and waste management services back into local authority control. The decision, which is included in the council’s 2020 budget, comes on foot recommendations by a working group on remunicipalisation of the service, which was privatised in 2011. 

The Indo reports that private sector workers are expected to seek pay rises in the region of 4pc from January. It is understood that the the Private Sector Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will consider a benchmark between 3.4pc to 4pc in 2020 at a meeting today.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is to begin balloting its consultant and non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHDs) members on possible industrial action. The move is over what the union said was a crisis in medical manpower and lower salaries for more recently appointed consultants.

Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy is set to face a second Dáil motion of no confidence this evening.

Meanwhile, Dublin has been ranked the worst city in the world to find a place to live for expats in a new study published today. The capital was in last place of the 82 cities surveyed in the Expat City Ranking 2019 by Internations, which is mainly a social community for expats, with San Francisco and Munich second and third worst.

The Examiner reports that a group of Dublin councillors opposed to development plans for the O'Devaney Gardens site will take their fight to the courts after losing a vote last night to block the €7m redevelopment. Last night a motion to rescind that deal was defeated 35 to 22 at the monthly council meeting.

The Times reports that another 60 women have applied to join the support group for those affected by the CervicalCheck controversy after an independent review of their smear tests found abnormalities were missed. The women are among hundreds who have received a “discordant” result from a review of their slides led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in the UK.

And finally, teenagers in Ireland are among the top performers in the world in reading literacy, according to latest international standardised test scores, RTÉ reports. 

We're keeping it country with our zen this morning with a run down of the top Christmas country tunes.  

Have a good day folks.