Newstalk Breakfast

Strike action by school secretaries and caretakers gets underway today with staff calling for pension equity with teachers. Newstalk reporter Josh Crosbie who’s at a school in Rathfarnham and he reported on the situation there.

It’s Irish week all this week on Newstalk Breakfast. This morning we heard from Historian and ex-human rights worker Nadia Dobrianska who and has not only learned to speak English, but Irish too.

The UN’s peacekeeping operation in Lebanon is set to end by 2027.  To discuss this further Shane spoke to Defence and Security expert Declan Power.

A HSE drug testing programme is returning to Electric Picnic this year after screening last year discovered high-strength MDMA pills. We got all the details about the programme with  Nicki Killeen, Project Manager on Emerging Drug Trend Programmes with the HSE. 

Nearly 1 in 4 men under the age of 45 say they would “probably keep going” even if they suspected their partner isn’t enjoying a sexual encounter, a 3 percent rise since last year.   That’s according to new research from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s We-Consent campaign, which also reported that 16% of young men aged between 18 and 24 are unsure what consent means.   We discuss further with Eoghan Cleary, Secondary school teacher, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Board member.

The number of people in Ireland aged 85 and over is projected to almost quadruple in the next 30 years, according to the Central Statistics Office.  But what does that mean for the economics of a country, and how can we adapt? Shane discusses this further with  Aedín Doris, Labour Economist and former member of the Pension Commission and member of the Department of Economics at Maynooth University.

After a failure to reach an agreement yesterday, strike action by school secretaries and caretakers gets underway today. For more on this, Ciara spoke to Andy Pike, Head of Education at Fórsa.

All this week on Newstalk Breakfast we are exploring the Irish language and its place in Irish society.   Today, we are diving into the topic of education.   We ask is the model for Gaeilge in schools fit for purpose?   All to discuss with Shane O’Quinn, Chairman of Gréasán do Mhúinteoirí Gaeilge.

A new threat of higher electricity bills has emerged after the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities approved a rise in network charges.  We get the latest on this with Daragh Cassidy, Head of Communications at Bonkers.ie.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs and curb exports to countries with digital taxes or regulations that affect American tech companies. With the EU Digital Services Act in affect, this puts Ireland and its tech companies firmly in the firing line, but how can we react? For more on this we heard from Dan O’Brien, Chief Economist at the Institute of International and European Affairs and Columnist with The Currency.