The Indo reports that Bord na Móna will not impose compulsory redundancies after more than 600 workers applied for a voluntary exit scheme. The company had set a target of 430 departures as it calls a halt to peat harvesting by 2025 but sources said it may let up to 450 go this year because the scheme was oversubscribed.

Almost 1,000 people have received an increase in their pension payments, after a review by the Department of Social Protection. Following Budget 2012, the government introduced a number of changes to rate bands which reduced some pension payments. The first wave of reviews for those who lost out in those changes has just been completed.

Employers’ group Ibec has called for a new SSIA-type savings scheme to allow households benefiting from economic growth to save more. Ibec Chief executive Danny McCoy said such a scheme would encourage householders to put money aside at a time when the economy was booming and which would help avoid it overheating.

Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North West Aindrias Moynihan has called on the Transport Minister intervene to reduce the amount of time that people are waiting for a driving test. New figures released reveal that there are 13 testers headquartered between Cork, Mallow, Skibbereen and Killarney. There are currently 10,711 people for a driving test across those test centres.

The Examiner reports that a two-day strike tomorrow and Friday by ambulance personnel belonging to the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), which is in dispute with the HSE over union recognition, will be going ahead.

In Brexit news, the European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said he is trying his utmost to ensure there was a deal on Brexit, though he reiterated the Irish backstop could not be renegotiated. Meanwhile, the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs is set to hold an emergency meeting with business leaders next Tuesday. They are expected to discuss emergency no-deal Brexit plans after the government confirmed last week that it does not have enough pallets for UK companies to export to the European Union in a no-deal Brexit.

Our zen today tells the story of a rather rotund rodent who found itself in a spot of bother after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in a sewer cover.

Have a good day folks.