1. Joan Burton wants to stay on as Labour leader
Tánaiste Joan Burton has told senior Labour Party figures she wants to stay on as party leader and has discussed a campaign to retain the leadership, even though many in the party believed she would step down. Meanwhile, Independent Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath has said he may oppose all nominations for taoiseach in Thursday's Dáil vote if there is no deal for a minority government agreed between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It may or may not come to that of course as acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was his "earnest hope" that a government could be formed, following talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil negotiating teams last night. In recent days, senior Fianna Fáil figures, including party leader Micheál Martin, have said publicly that negotiations with Fine Gael on government formation would not deal with specific policy issues.
2. Third-level courses at ‘crisis point’ due to cuts, report says
A report commissioned by the State body responsible for quality assurance in higher education highlights issues of considerable concern, including the cumulative effects of reduced funding, lower staff numbers, increased teaching burdens and the casualisation of staffing and promotion limitations. Over 1,000 secondary and 3rd level students are expected to attend a careers showcase in Dublin today. The gradireland #FYI Careers Showcase is aimed at helping students understand their career options and to help them make better-informed decisions that will affect their career trajectory. Access to the event is free-of-charge for students.
3. Major changes proposed for Garda pay arrangements
A proposed fundamental reform of existing Garda pay arrangements in a bid to facilitate more flexible rosters and cut overtime spending might not be welcomed by Garda representative bodies as they had hoped the review would recommend significant pay rises. Instead, the department argues that the review of pay and conditions should not cost the exchequer any more money and should be "cost neutral". Frustrations came to the fore at the opening session of the AGSI's annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo where the force's middle managers launched a highly critical attack on Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, saying delays in improving pay and conditions had left them "angry and frustrated".
4. David Cameron is mired in a dog’s breakfast of hearsay
British prime minister David Cameron sought yesterday to draw a line under the controversy over his tax affairs, admitting to MPs that he handled it badly but defending the right to "make money lawfully". As columnist Janan Ganesh writes: "British public life is made up of people who are steeped in the humanities, ignorant of finance and quietly scared by numbers. From parliament to the BBC, they conflate "offshore" with "illegal", elide "turnover" with "profit", and touchingly assume their personal holdings never swing by such exotic jurisdictions. Outside these unworldly few, there is no great Albion of common sense. The perceived vulgarity of discussing money ensures that principles are never thrashed out and cant is left to fester unchallenged."
5. Berkeley tragedy witnesses sue for ‘emotional harm’
Three Irish students who stepped off the fourth-floor balcony in Berkeley,California, last summer moments before it collapsed killing five Dublin students and a young Irish-American woman have sued for emotional distress. The lawsuit says the women suffered "severe mental and emotional harm when they were endangered by and forced to bear witness to the horrific accident that killed and disabled their closest friends". The tragedy claimed the lives of Eoghan Culligan, Lorcán Miller, Niccolai (Nick) Schuster, Eimear Walsh and Olivia Burke, who were all 21 years old and from Dublin, and Ms Burke's cousin Ashley Donohoe (22) of Rohnert Park, California, north of Berkeley.
