Proposed changes to the vaccination programme cover most of this morning's front pages as concern grows over the impact of the Delta variant of Covid-19. This morning the Health Minister also confirmed that pharmacies across the country will begin vaccinating people aged 18-34 from Monday 5 July. The youngest age cohort of adults would have an option to be given the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

And the Journal has this piece to assess the progress of the vaccine rollout and see where we’re at now.  

Meanwhile, almost 1,000 schools across the country intend to run special summer programmes to help children make up for losses to learning and socialisation as a result of the school closures, preliminary figures from the Department of Education indicate.

Ireland is not on the list of signatories to the proposals to bring about sweeping new reforms to global corporation tax rules. Under the plan, countries will be able to tax the profits of large companies in markets where they are earned regardless of whether they have a physical presence there.

There’s good news for those with expiring driving licences as the Government has extended the expiration date by ten months.  The extension will apply to driving licences expiring from yesterday, 1 July, to 31 October 2021 with ten months added to the expiry date in cases where the driving licence has not benefited from an extension previously.

In an opinion piece John Gibbons takes a look at the issue of climate change and its link to the crippling heatwave in the northern region of the US and Canada. 
 
Back home, the Tánaiste has told the Dáil that Aer Lingus staff at Cork Airport should be kept on the payroll if possible. The issue was raised with Leo Varadkar by Cork North Central TD Mick Barry who questioned the appropriateness for a company which receives State support to lay off staff.

And finally, today’s zen is Frank Sinatra’s single 'Strangers In The Night' which was released on this day in 1966, 55 years ago, and which also interestingly served as the inspiration for the creation of the widely loved animated character Scooby-Doo. 

One of the Hanna-Barbera executives took a liking to this song, particularly the "Doo-bee, doo-bee, doo" part at the end. And so Scooby-Doo was born.

Have a good weekend.