1. Independent Alliance seeks budget package for pensioners
The Independent Alliance is seeking a budget package of its own that would reverse a number of cuts made during the economic crisis to welfare payments for pensioners.
The alliance – led in its efforts by Minister for Transport Shane Ross – is pushing for a “senior citizens package” that would focus on payments separate to any increase to the basic State pension.
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2. Bodies of elderly deaf brothers found in west Dublin home
Gardaí have described as “tragic” the discovery of the bodies of two elderly deaf brothers at a house they shared in Dublin.
One of the men is believed to have lived at the house with the body of his brother for several weeks before he himself died last weekend.
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3. VP debate: Democrat Kaine cites past racism towards Irish
US Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine invoked past discrimination towards Irish immigrants in US as he pushed his Republican opponent Mike Pence to defend running mate Donald Trump’s inflammatory remarks about Mexican immigrants during a televised debate on Tuesday night.
The Irish-American politicians squared off in their only encounter that Mr Pence, Indiana’s governor, was deemed to have won on style if not on substance. He deflected attempts by Mr Kaine, a US senator from Virginia, to force him to defend Mr Trump’s most incendiary campaign comments.
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4. Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti and Cuba, bears down on US
Hurricane Matthew, the fiercest Caribbean storm in almost a decade, hit Cuba and Haiti with winds of well over 160 km/h on Tuesday, pummelling towns, farmland and resorts and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to take cover.
Dubbed by the UN as the worst humanitarian crisis to hit Haiti since a devastating 2010 earthquake, the category four hurricane unleashed torrential rain on the island of Hispaniola that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic.
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5. Public nursing home bed costs €700 more than private sector
The cost of accommodating a patient in a publicly-run nursing home is up to €700 per week higher than in a private facility, official figures due out soon will reveal.
The cost of providing care in a public long-stay residential centre at present ranges from €884 to €2,089 per week.
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And finally. . . Gordon D’Arcy: Leinster v Munster derby needs to get back to its roots
Whenever I played Munster I did foolish things with my body. Put my head where it could be gnashed by long steel studs. Shunned all logic from my mind, even at the risk of missing out on a few caps due to injury. So what? Pile in. Nothing else mattered when you were living those games.
Such intensity seems to be missing in recent seasons. Leinster versus Munster has become sanitised. Too much about rugby.