The European Commission has told officials working on post-Brexit customs arrangements at Northern Irish ports not to go to work today due to concerns over their safety amid tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The move comes after Northern Ireland’s agriculture department suspended the animal-based food checks at Larne and Belfast ports that have taken place since special post-Brexit arrangements came into force at the start of the year.

 
The Health Service Executive yesterday said childcare workers will be considered part of the “key workers” cohort in the State’s vaccination priority list. However, there was confusion last night as the Department of Health insisted no final decisions had been made.
 
Further on the vaccine front, Dublin Fire Brigade staff have paused consideration of industrial action following assurances on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. This follows a commitment from management that the 250 Dublin Fire Brigade members who received their first Pfizer-BioNTech jab will get the second by the end of the week. Firefighter paramedics are in the 1b category for the vaccine rollout as frontline staff.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is calling on the government to take steps to eliminate the un-necessary bureaucracy faced by bereaved people cancelling benefits, entitlements and public services after the death of a loved one, and to close this gap in public service delivery within the Department of Social Protection. Calls to explore the more ambitious option of providing a ‘Tell Us Once’ service for reporting a death across government departments are also being put forward. 

Popular food delivery service Deliveroo has sought a meeting with gardaí after attacks on its cyclists in Dublin city centre. Cyclists for Deliveroo have long been the target of anti-social behaviour in certain areas of the city with groups of young people occasionally assaulting them or attempting to steal their bicycles, with tensions having escalated in recent months, the gardaí heard.

Preliminary data from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) shows hundreds of tenants across the country received warnings or eviction notices over rent arrears in the run-up to Christmas despite a nationwide eviction ban being in place.

Writing in the TheJournal.ie this morning, People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny makes the case for the People’s Vaccine, a global campaign to make vaccines available for all. 

And finally, our zen today is part of an international dance-off which is in full swing as Gardaí responded to a dance challenge set by their Swiss counterparts. Gardaí across Ireland took to roofs, beaches and bogs, and even got some four-legged officers involved, to record a video of them taking part in the 'Jerusalema Challenge' which was kicked off in Switzerland by the Zuger Polizei.