Strike action
Tens of thousands of medical procedures and appointments are being cancelled on Tuesday and Wednesday due to ongoing strike action by medical scientists.
Up to 30,000 hospital procedures will be cancelled due to the strike over long-standing pay discrepancies and career development issues, which follows similar action taken last Wednesday.
Strike organisers, the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA), have warned its members will be left with no choice but to strike for three days next week if no resolution is found by the end of this week, a situation which the chief executive of the Saolta hospital group said “does not bear thinking about”.
Monaghan road death
The driver of a steamroller, a man aged in his 50s, has died following a road traffic collision in Co Monaghan.
Gardaí were alerted to the collision involving a road roller work vehicle at Shankhill in Smithboro at around 9.45am on Monday morning.
The driver of the steamroller was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was later removed to the mortuary at Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, where a postmortem will take place.
Mortgages report
New mortgage customers need "significantly higher incomes" compared to the past, according to a new report from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland (BPFI).
The latest mortgage report found the median total household income for First-Time Buyer (FTB) borrowers jumped from €71,000 in 2019 to €77,000 in 2021.
Compared to 2009 figures, 51 per cent of households applying for a FTB mortgage earned up to €60,000 13 years ago, dropping to just 13 per cent last year.
The BPFI's chief executive Brian Hayes said the figures illustrate that new mortgage customers "now need higher incomes than in the past to purchase a home".
Monkeypox concerns
EU officials are meeting to discuss the spread of the monkeypox virus as cases continue to rise in England, Portugal and Spain.
The meeting follows comments from the World Health Organisation's leading advisor, Dr David Heymann, who said the unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox in developed countries was “a random event” that might be explained by sexual behaviour at two recent raves.
The HSE said it is monitoring the situation in Ireland, but no cases of the virus have yet been detected in the State.
