WRC ruling
An Aer Lingus Cabin Service Manager who claims that the new Aer Lingus uniform perpetrates the ‘trolly-dolly’ image of female cabin crew has failed in her gender discrimination claim over the uniform.
At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), long serving employee with the airline, Elizabeth Barry claimed that the sexualisation of the female Aer Lingus uniform “is inappropriate and degrading in a professional environment”.
Ms Barry claimed that she was degraded in her professional duties uniform as the new uniform “portrays an outdated and sexualised image of women”.
Nobel Prize
There will be no lasting peace in Ukraine until there is justice and human rights, the head of the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties said as she arrived in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow human rights campaigners from Belarus and Russia.
Russian president Vladimir Putin “thinks he can do exactly what he wants”, Oleksandra Matviichuk told reporters at Oslo airport.
“There will be no lasting peace in our region until we achieve justice.
Strep A death
Health authorities have moved to reassure parents after it was confirmed that an invasive form of Strep A was linked to the death of a four-year-old child.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) had been investigating whether invasive Group A streptococcal had been a factor in the death of the child in the north-east of the country.
“We can now confirm that invasive Group A Streptococcal infection was found to be the cause of the infection associated with their death,” it said.
Cold snap
A yellow warning for ice has taken effect for the entire country as Met Éireann warned of "treacherous" conditions on Thursday morning.
The ice warning began at midnight and will last until midday on Thursday before a second yellow warning for low temperatures and ice begins at 10pm, lasting until 10am on Friday.
The forecaster issued a winter weather advisory on Sunday, lasting until Monday morning, as an Arctic airmass sets in "bringing sharp to severe frosts, and ice or black ice on roads and footpaths".
However, climate scientist Cathal Nolan told Newstalk's Pat Kenny Show that the current cold spell may last longer than originally anticipated.
CPI index
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 8.9 per cent between November 2021 and November 2022, down from an annual increase of 9.2 per cent in the 12 months to October 2022.
The CPI measures the overall change in the prices of goods and services that people typically buy over time.
The new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show it is the fourteenth straight month when the annual increase for the CPI has been at least 5.0 per cent.
East Wall protests
Protesters opposed to the housing of asylum seekers in the East Wall have called for a referendum on how they are accommodated and vowed not to meet any more politicians until their demands are met.
Protests and blockades of Dublin’s Port tunnel have now entered their third week and the East Wall Committee have hardened on their stance to continue until a former ESB office building being used to accommodate the asylum seekers is shut down or the government accedes to their demands on how men, women and children are housed.
Up to 100 male asylum seekers were bused into the former ESB building at the end of November. Now the protestors claim men, women and children are being accommodated at the former office block in unacceptable conditions.
Germany plot
German authorities expect further arrests in the coming days as they investigate a far-right group that prosecutors say was preparing to overthrow the state and install a former member of a German royal family as national leader.
A former parliamentary lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) was also among those detained, according to German prosecutors.
"Based on my experience, there is usually a second wave of arrests," Georg Maier, the interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Thursday.
