The rough beast continues to slouch, and is currently making its presence felt in Brazil. 

In better news, Fórsa won an agreement on job evaluation in higher education at the WRC on Friday evening. The union has suspended the industrial action in IoTs and Mary Immaculate College in Limerick (MIC) which had commenced on 15th October. The Irish Times and RTE report.

The Irish Times front page this morning leads with HSE to contact hundreds not told of exposure to superbug, reporting that the health body has begun writing to hundreds of patients who were not told they had come into contact with other patients carrying a highly antibiotic-resistant superbug.

Elsewhere, nearly half a million outpatient appointments were missed last year, the Irish Times reports that Dublin's St James’s Hospital has one of the highest no-show rates nationally. The paper also reports that a housing charity (The Catholic Housing Aid Society) has been moving students into a senior-citizen flat complex in Dublin’s north inner city, after asking elderly residents to move out so the building could be redeveloped.

Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that the global wildlife populations have fallen by 60 per cent since 1970. 

Finally, your moment of Zen this morning comes from the weekend count for the presidential election. Our friend and Siptu colleague Paddy Cole found himself and his infant son in a potential politician-kisses-baby moment.

However, as any of you who follow Paddy will know, this formidable father and son team had been out canvassing for weeks, and were frankly having none of it. RTE captured the moment.

Have a good week, it's time for a scarf, hat and gloves.

NS