Cost of living
The Government is continuing to consider its options to tackle the rising cost of living.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said an increased energy bill credit and more welfare benefits and tax reliefs are among the measures being discussed.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar are also understood to have meet with workers groups to examine how best to ease the financial pressures for workers and those on lower incomes.
Stormont
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney has said it was the primary responsibility of the British government and British prime minister Boris Johnson to fulfil the commitments they have made regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol and not to breach international law.
Mr Coveney's comments come after the North's First Minister, the DUP's Paul Givan resigned on Wednesday in protest over the protocol, meaning Sinn Féin's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill automatically loses her position.
Although Sinn Féin has labelled Mr Givan's resignation a "ruse", DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his party was patient when it came to negotiations between the EU and the UK over the protocol, but their January 31st deadline had passed with no progress.
Russian military drills
British, French, and US forces have converged off the Irish coast to monitor the start of what is believed to be a five-day Russian navy exercise.
The Irish Naval Service also has ships monitoring the exercise, bolstered by aerial surveillance supplied by the Air Corps.
Russian forces originally planned to conduct the exercise approximately 240km off the southwest coast, in an area within Ireland's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), however, relocated the drills following calls from politicians and local fishermen.
Facebook's parent group Meta has seen its market value drop by over €200 billion.
The figures come as the social media giant reported a drop in daily users for the first time ever, falling from 1.939 billion in July-September in 2021 to 1.929 billion in the last three months of the year.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg partially attributed the decrease to competition from apps such as TikTok.
Dublin remains
Gardaí are investigating after the body of a man was discovered in Co Dublin on Wednesday afternoon.
Shortly before 12.30pm, the man's remains were discovered in a house on Sallynoggin Road Lower.
The remains were removed to the Dublin City Mortuary where a post-mortem examination was carried out.
