RTÉ reports that there are now 330,500 public servants working for the State - the highest such figure since the economic crisis of 2008, according to the latest Public Service Performance Report for 2018.

Over in Scotland, college lecturers are staging a two-day strike in a significant escalation of their ongoing pay dispute. This is the third national industrial dispute at colleges in recent years.

Back to this side of the water, members of Ireland's Reserve Defence Forces are being paid on average 18% less than the rates being given to their counterparts in the regular forces as they claim the minister has 'essentially forgotten about their existence.'

Siptu members in the construction industry have welcomed a pay increase and other improvements granted under a new Sector Employment Order which sees the union's 14,000 construction operative members get a 5.4% pay increase over two years to as well as confirming the 39 hour working week and overtime terms. 

News has emerged that Tesco’s chief executive Dave Lewis picked up a £4.6 million (€5.3 million) pay packet, just months after 9,000 jobs at the supermarket group were put at risk.

In Cork, a city councillor has said requesting special permission for leave to look after a baby is “not a dignified situation” as councillors elected to local authorities are not currently entitled to paid maternity leave and are barred if they do not take their seat for more than six months.

Temperatures will hit 20 degrees this week with most of the country set for a few days of clear skies and sunshine. A status orange fire-risk warning was subsequently announced for the rest of the week as fire crews battled 20-foot-high flames from a gorse fire in Clare yesterday.

And finally, today's Zen marks Mickey Mouse's first ever appearance in a film, 'Plane Crazy'. The 6 minute cartoon debuted on this day in 1928 and features a romantic storyline that they certainly wouldn't get away with today...