The Civil Service divisional conference concluded its business on Friday evening, with coverage on the DEC motion on remote working in the Irish Times, which also carries coverage this morning on the conference's motion on Garda civilian staff. Elsewhere, our colleague Paul MacSweeney is speaking live now about the wearing of masks in social welfare offices on Tipp FM from 09.10 this morning.

As we headed into the weekend Andy Pike circulated this note to SNA members about the allocations for the 2021/22 school term, and his appearance on RTE news on Friday, to comment on the easing of travel restrictions (not available online), was picked up by the Irish Times.

Other News

Elsewhere, the Irish Times reports that Congress opposes plans for a separate pay review for Defence Forces personnel, while Richard Curran is downbeat about remote working in the Indo, and the same paper reports that women earn significantly less than men at some big Irish companies that are legally obliged to publish details of their gender pay gap in the UK. In the Examiner, Daniel McConnell writes that the treatment of Ireland’s aviation sector "will go down as perhaps the greatest failure of our response to Covid-19."

Gig for Gaza

Tonight, the Musicians’ Union of Ireland (MUI) and SIPTU will host a #GigforGaza in aid of the Middle East Children's Alliance with performances by leading artists including Andy Irvine, Frances Black and 12 year old Palestinian rapper MC Abdul. Fórsa members, staff and supporters can tune in on SIPTU Digital on YouTube from 8pm.

Donations be made on the MUI Facebook page or directly to the Middle East Children's Alliance here.

Zen

Your Zen this morning celebrates the appropriation of Friends star Matt le Blanc by Irish Twitter (click the image above for an explainer) as everyone's favourite uncle/cousin over the weekend. A rare moment of Twitter unity and consistently funny user-generated content, it might just be the best thing to have emerged from the much-hyped Friends reunion that aired last week.

Have a good week. Soak up the sun.

Niall