The devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria dominate the front pages this morning as rescuers continue to brave freezing temperatures, aftershocks and collapsing buildings as they dig for survivors.

Senior staff at Munster Technological University (MTU) will meet this morning to assess the scale of a major IT breach. MTU's Cork campuses will close today and tomorrow as a result.

The Indo reports that Aer Lingus is to put new entrants straight on to the third rung of its wage scale for ground staff in an effort to attract new employees.

More than €111m was overpaid by the Department of Social Protection last year, over half of which was attributed to customer error. Read more on that here. 

Searches for part-time and casual work surged in 2022, according to Indeed, with the recruitment company citing the impact of inflation on the cost of living.

Elsewhere, NERI’s Ciaran Nugent says that increasing spending on Housing Assistance Payment is a bad sign, and calls for both wage increases and serious efforts to bring down the cost of housing. Read more on that here. 

Cabinet is set to consider a key report by the Attorney General into the controversial State legal strategy on nursing home charges.

The Examiner reports that an investigation into the practices and conflicts of interest at the board of An Board Pleanála may have found that the director of was negatively impacted by media reports, but no demand for a retraction was made. Read more on that here.

Tens of thousands of nurses and ambulance service staff in Britain took strike action yesterday in a pay dispute. Nurses are also striking today, followed by physiotherapists Thursday and ambulance staff on Friday.

And finally Labour Party senator Mark Wall has called for the end to the exclusion of apprentices from minimum wage legislation. Read more on that here.

Zen

George Michael and Aretha Franklin bring us zen this morning.  'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) is 36 years old this week. 

Have a good day folks.