Fórsa’s decision to source and provide medical grade face masks directly to its members working in schools where local management has failed to provide them has been picked up by the Examiner and the Independent.

Covid-19 testing centres are set to be fully operational in Cork and Shannon Airports from tomorrow. The two express turnaround testing facilities will provide the pre-departure tests for passengers flying out of the airports in accordance with the EU’s traffic light system. Meanwhile, the testing facilities at Dublin Airport next week should be up and running next week.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has appointed Shay Cody, the former senior general secretary of Fórsa to the Central Bank Commission, after a decision taken at Cabinet yesterday. The appointments are set to come into effect from 1st December 2020.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday told the Dáil that a high-level taskforce has been created by the Government to oversee the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines in Ireland once they are approved by the statutory authorities. Mr Martin said that targeting people who are vulnerable to Covid-19 will be the immediate priority, adding that Ireland is due to receive roughly 1% of whatever vaccines are made available through the EU's collective purchase scheme.

SIPTU has called on the Government to amend the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme to pay aviation workers 85% of their pre-pandemic earnings in order to maintain employment in the industry in a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications Networks. Fórsa's submission to the Oireachtas Committee is also reported on here. 

Finally, the trailer for the Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan and Christopher Walken starring Irish rom-com Wild Mountain Thyme was recently released - and Tom Cruise may be in danger of losing his accent-mauling crown from Far and Away. The film’s trailer has reignited the debate of some of the best and worse accents over the years, with one tweet describing it as “breaking the record for how many bad Irish accents you can fit into two minutes and thirty seconds.” Here it is if you’d like to judge for yourself.