Tax bracket
Fianna Fáil Ministers have played down the likelihood of a new 30 per cent tax bracket in next month's budget.
Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath said it would be "extremely challenging" to have a new tax band in place by the end of September, while Minister of State Sean Fleming said the party was more interested in indexing tax bands and tax credits to get extra income to lower and middle income families.
Speaking to the , Mr McGrath said Fianna Fáil was open to the idea of a 30 per cent rate, but there were a number of questions which needed to be answered about how it would be implemented.
The middle tax bracket, an idea first mooted by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, was discussed in last week's Tax Strategy Group papers.
Digital devices
The three-year backlog to examine digital devices, which includes child abuse imagery, is a “critical weakness” for gardaí, a Policing Authority report has said.
The Policing Authority warned of their “enduring concern” in the continuing backlog to electronic devices following the seizure of items.
It said this has an impact on the timelines of investigations, the potential identification of victims, and the journey of victims through the criminal justice system.
In its latest report, it said the three-year backlog is a “critical weakness” for An Garda Síochána, warning it has the potential to have “considerable impact” on investigations and individual victims and suspects.
Dublin Airport changes
Dublin Airport has revised its advice to departing passengers thanks to a "significant improvement" in security screening queue times.
DAA, the airport's management body, said passengers should now arrive two hours in advance for a short-haul flight, and three hours for a long-haul flight.
Passengers checking in a bag still need to allow an additional time of up to an hour.
DAA said passenger advice remained under constant review throughout the summer to ensure passengers made their flights and to avoid the need to reduce flights.
It said there were no significant security challenges in June, July or August, and no passengers that "heeded" the advice missed flights in these three months.
Blood clot research
Irish researchers have developed a groundbreaking new system for removing blood clots from stroke patients within 20 minutes.
As The Irish Times reports, the system, invented by a NUI Galway team, allows for stroke patients to be treated safely under local anaesthetic and to return home on the same day as the procedure.
Last month, European and US patents were obtained for the invention, which provides for minimally invasive access to a patient’s artery through the neck, close to the location of the brain clot.
Under existing methods, clots are removed by a medical device that is passed through a catheter inserted into the groin.
The system was conceived by vascular doctor Prof Sherif Sultan, who then built a prototype with co-inventor Dr Niamh Hynes and biomedical engineers Colin Henehan and Stefan Lohfeld.
Wexford crash
A man in his 30s has been killed in a road traffic collision in Co Wexford.
The man died when the car he was a passenger in hit a tree in the townland of Bargy Commons, Cleariestown, at around 10.40pm on Sunday night.
The driver of the car, also in his 30s, was treated at the scene by ambulance personnel.
The R733 at Bargy Commons is currently closed in both directions as investigators examine the scene. Local diversions are in place.
Gardaí are appealing for any witnesses to the crash to come forward.
Thunderstorms
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning after thunderstorms swept across much of Ireland.
ESB Networks said lightning strikes caused a number of faults on the electricity network overnight.
The largest outage was experienced in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, where 5,000 customers lost power at 5am. Power was fully restored by 6.30am.
Also among the worst impacted regions was Limerick, with an outage impacting 1,200 customers in Ahane. Several faults were also reported near Nenagh, Co Tipperary.
Covid boosters
People aged over 60 and pregnant women will begin receiving their second booster vaccine against Covid-19 from Monday.
The Irish Pharmaceutical Society has called the public to book in advance for booster jab which will be available in some community pharmacies.
David Twomey, spokesperson for the society, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that generally people need an appointment, but that some would be able to accommodate “different scenarios”.
