GOOD MORNING.
Here’s all the news you need to know to start the day.
Public sector strike
1. Jack Chambers is to brief cabinet today on efforts to avert the public sector strike.
Wednesday’s strike will be the biggest since the height of the financial crisis in 2009.
Among the striking workers are nurses, consultants, teachers, special needs assistants (SNA), firefighters, prison officers and dentists.
Waterford house fire
2. Several people are feared dead following a house fire in Waterford city.
Gardaí and other emergency services are currently at the scene of the fire at a domestic residence in the city.
The fire broke out at a house in the Birchwood housing estate, around 3km south of Waterford city centre, near the city’s ring road.
George Gibney
3. At around 11.30am on Monday, all those seated on the wooden benches of Court 9 at the Criminal Courts of Justice turned their heads left as a wood-panelled door opened and a man was wheeled into the room.
That man was George Gibney, once a celebrated swimming coach who took two Irish teams to the Olympic Games in the 1980s and earned a celebrity-like status as a result in the country at the time.
Price freeze
4. Prepaypower has announced it will freeze electricity and gas prices for more than 200,000 customers over the winter months.
The pay-as-you-go energy supplier said it would hold its current rates despite rising wholesale energy costs and concerns over European gas supplies.
It marks the second successive winter that PrepayPower has introduced a price freeze for customers.
Breaking Bad actor dies
5. RJ Mitte, who played Walter White Jr in the hit TV series Breaking Bad, has died at the age of 34.
His co-star Bryan Cranston said he was in “deep despair” following the death of his on-screen son.
Inequality
6. Nearly half of the total net wealth in Ireland belongs to the richest 10% of households, figures show.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has released a report on hypothetical tax scenarios and their outcomes for different groups of people based on current wealth distribution.
It found that Irish household wealth has increased substantially over the past decade and household balance sheets have strengthened.
Animals seized
7. More than 60 animal welfare concerns were reported to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) during this year’s Ballinasloe International Horse Fair.
The NSPCA confirmed that it took 26 animals into its care following 17 separate seizures over the three main animal trading days of the famous Fair on 4, 5 and 10 October.
Among the animals seized were horses, ponies, dogs, puppies, poultry and goats.
Selma Blair
8. Actor Selma Blair was arrested after she was accused of injuring two flight attendants on a trip from Los Angeles to New York.
She was also accused of kicking a police officer taking her to the hospital and kicking a nurse once she got there.
Blair pleaded not guilty on Monday night to two counts of assault for state charges involving the officer and the nurse.
Big bag of cans
9. The deposit return scheme for cans and bottles has promised to roll out more bulk reverse vending machines by the end of the year.
Strong uptake of the deposit return scheme for recycling plastic drinks bottles and aluminium drinks cans has resulted in long queues for the regular return machines in many shops and supermarkets.