Morning briefing: Irish Water has cost State €2bn. Catch up on all the headlines
IRELAND
Irish Water will have cost the State over €2bn by the end of the year, according to government projections.
More than 3,000 Cork City homes and businesses will be given long-overdue protection from devastating floods under a €150m scheme set to be unveiled by Government today.
Today marks 10 years since the murder of plumber Anthony Campbell — and despite her seemingly endless wait for justice his mother Christine is defiant: “My hope is strong.”
Ireland has been ranked in the top 10 tax havens for big business. Oxfam branded the Republic the sixth-worst country for helping corporations to cheat their way out of billions of euros in tax bills each year.
A celebrity doctor, two comedians, two actresses, a sports broadcaster, a news reporter, a Big Brother contestant, a model, a boyband member, and a Kerry GAA player will all be putting on their dancing shoes for RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars.
WORLD
Romania's left-leaning Social Democrats have easily won parliamentary elections a year after a major anti-corruption drive forced the last socialist prime minister from power, near-final results show.
An official Chinese newspaper has called Donald Trump "as ignorant as a child" after the president-elect again suggested that he was reconsidering how America deals with Taiwan.
New Zealand's finance minister Bill English will be sworn in as the country's 39th prime minister on Monday after his colleagues chose him as their new leader.
SPORT
Sports groups have been warned to hire more women or face funding cuts. Minister Patrick O'Donovan wants new gender quotas which would mean a third of all board members will be female.
Cork GAA standards have fallen and hard questions will have to be asked if the various county teams fail to deliver in 2017, county board chairman Ger Lane told delegates at yesterday’s Convention.
Rassie Erasmus believes keeping Springbok centre Jaco Taute at Munster beyond his short-term contract could be a possibility.
As Darren Randolph can testify, a goalkeeper’s life can be a rollercoaster ride. One moment you are sitting on the sidelines, wondering when your chance will come; the next, you find yourself in the spotlight, and perhaps wishing you were not.
OPINION
In the US presidential election and the Brexit referendum, Facebook and Twitter not only allowed fake news to proliferate, but withheld data on voter intentions, says Philip Howard.
Zombie-banks, anti-EU sentiment and a stagnant economy are just some of the issues facing a country that would be too big to bail out, writes Philippe Legrain.
BUSINESS
Business group Ibec said — even amid the “massive worry” that Brexit is savaging a number of Irish-owned industries — that overall employment levels will return to their pre-crash peak at the end of next year.
You’d think that given the bruising troika years and the fact that we still toil in order to service the debt of private bankers that our attitudes towards the European project would have cooled considerably.
LIFESTYLE
Ailín Quinlan talks to two parents who are battling to raise funds to treat the multiple rare illnesses afflicting their little boy Fionn Barry.
SHOWBIZ
We live in what seems like an increasingly polarised world, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone with a bad word to say about Sir David Attenborough. As the second series of Planet Earth drew to a close, viewers became reflective, not just about our planet but about the wonderful man whose voice many of us have grown up with.
EXAMVIRAL
John Legend, Robbie Williams and Craig David are among the stars due to perform at the BBC Music Awards today.
VIDEO - OUR CHOICE
With only two weeks to go until Christmas Day, the people of Buttevant, Co Cork have been getting into the festive swing of things.
TECHNOW
: It felt like the Super Mario game we always wanted for our phones was never going to come, but at last it looks like he’s on his way in Super Mario Run.
: The Timelines in Star Wars are a little topsy turvy, it's hard to keep on top of what film goes where.
: The rumour mill is ablaze with an iPhone 7S announcement expected in 2017.
MOST READ RIGHT NOW
Irish Water will have cost the State over €2bn by the end of the year, according to government projections.
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