Fórsa has expressed solidarity with our members in the Grand Parade Library in Cork. The staff have been intimidated and subject to abuse in their workplace in a number of recent incidents involving people opposed to the display of LGBT+ reading material.

The Government is failing to address the root causes of energy poverty and deprivation, leaving many Irish households “left out in the cold”, a new report has warned. The research from Friends of the Earth makes a series of damning findings and says state policy is found wanting in many areas, including in retro-fitting and the one-off electricity credit.

On the eviction ban, a packed public meeting in Cork last night heard that a 78-year-old woman in the city has been given a notice to quit the home her family has rented since she was fifteen years old. Meanwhile, Sinn Féin is submitting a Dáil motion calling for the eviction ban to be extended until January 2024.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has downplayed the suggestion of any pre-budget tax breaks for renters and landlords.  

On the recurring topic of tech layoffs, Facebook’s parent company Meta has announced it is set to cut its global workforce by around 10,000, just months after laying off 11,000 employees.

Complaints to the consumer watchdog about utilities and fuel more than doubled last year, as more people made contact over Eir than any other company. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said that issues with vehicles and transport topped the list of consumer concerns for the second year in a row, with complaints about telecommunications and holidays, and travel also featuring highly. More on that here. 

And hundreds of personal messages left by the public at a mural of Savita Halappanavar during the 2018 referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment have been captured and published online. They will be accessible in the future after Dublin City Council’s Library and Archive published photographs of the messages on the Digital Repository of Ireland.

Have a good day folks.