We received the sad news last night that our ICTU friend and colleague Eileen Sweeney had passed away suddenly. In a message from ICTU's general secretary, Patricia King said that "the Trade Union movement has lost one of its greatest soldiers, and Congress has lost a great friend and colleague". Our thoughts are with her family at this time. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílis

New Zealanders woke this morning to no restrictions on their daily lives for the first time since 21 March, with all remaining rules lifted after the country’s last known case of Covid-19 recovered from the virus.  Strict border controls remain, with New Zealanders and their families the only people permitted to enter the country. They must remain in government-run quarantine for 14 days.

The Times reports that nursing home deficiencies were of concern to HIQA at start of April, as staffing levels and nursing skills were ‘not commensurate’ with Covid-19 care needs.

Talks on forming a government were continued last night, with senior figures in all three parties involved admitting privately that the coming days represent a “do-or-die” stage in the long-running negotiations. Sources say there is unlikely to be a deal without interventions from the three party leaders of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens to agree key aspects of the programme for government. Read more about that here.

ICTU has called on the government to create a Department of Higher Education and Research. UCD's College Tribune reports that with the added pressures being put on such institutions following the Covid-19 outbreak, there is a need for crisis funding for these facilities to be fully functioning in the future. 

Employers' group Ibec is expected to reiterate its call for the two-week quarantine restrictions on visitors to the country to be removed when it appears before the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee later today. Read more about that here.

More than 100 people were charged with domestic violence offences in the last two weeks of May, according to gardaí. Operation Faoiseamh, set up to target the crime of domestic abuse, also shows that gardaí made over 8,000 contacts, or attempted contacts, with victims since the operation began on 1 April. 

And finally, the meat industry and unions are to be called to address the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response about the large number of cases of the virus in the meat sector. There are now 1,054 confirmed cases of the virus in meat plants and last week more than 30% of confirmed cases of Covid-19 originated in meat plants.

Our zen today Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time' which started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Time After Time' on this day in 1984. Pure 80s gold. 

Have a good day folks.