Newstalk Breakfast

Requests from schools for voluntary contributions must be written in bold, plain language so that no family is misled. That’s the call from Paul Lawless Aontú TD for Mayo, who says that too often these requests are wrapped in language that sounds like a bill.  

Eighty thousand music fans will descend on Stradbally, Co. Laois, for this year’s Electric Picnic. But will the EP attendees need to pack their raincoats? We get an idea of the weekend weather with Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather.

The richest 10 per cent of households in the Republic hold almost half the wealth, according to new figures from the Central Bank.  Given these figures, is a tax on the wealthy necessary? All to discuss with Dr Emma Howard, Economist at Technological University of Dublin. 

The number of incidents involving “unruly” passengers on flights more than trebled, according to the Irish Aviation Authority. To discuss further we spoke to Jade Kirwan, Director of Communications of Ryanair.

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.

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.

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.