Highlights From Newstalk Breakfast

Ireland is beginning to clean up its act! That’s according to the latest survey results monitoring litter around the country. Conor Horgan, Spokesperson for Irish Business Against Litter gave Shane a breakdown.

Today marks day 6 of 100 days of walking! Every Friday we will be recognizing some of the great 100 days community out there, as every Friday we will be crowing a walker of the week! Our first walker of the week of 2023 is Tara Spain from Barna in Galway. She told us why she's taking part..

Prince Harry’s tell-all autobiography “Spare” was set to be released on the 10th of January; however, copies of the book were released in Spain yesterday. He allegedly made a series of sensational claims of longstanding grievances and bitterness against Prince William, his father, Prince Charles, Camilla, and Princess Diana. Chris Ship, ITV News Royal Editor spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

As was reported in the Examiner yesterday, an elderly woman had to wait 27 hours for a trolley at University Hospital Limerick. Her daughter Marie O’Connor spoke to Ciara about her mothers' exprience.

Online gambling among young males in Ireland quadruples between the ages of 17 and 20, according to a new study from the ESRI. Professor Colin O’Gara is an Addiction Psychiatrist At St John Of Gods Hospital & Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCD spoke to Ciara this morning.

Health staff have been told to make themselves available for weekend work over the next two or three weeks, as overcrowding issues continue in hospitals across the country. Speaking to Shane was Stephen Mulvany, HSE Interim Chief Executive Officer.

Road space will be reallocated to cyclists across the southeast of Dublin city, with measures including the removal of bus lanes in Ranelagh and car parking at Merrion Square, under new Dublin City Council “active travel” plans. For more on this Newstalk Breakfast spoke to Associate Professor School of Engineering at Trinity College, Brian Caulfield.

Separating children with additional educational needs from mainstream classes is "setting them up for a fall". That’s the view of Anne Marie Ford, Principal of Scoil Naomh Colmcille in Togher, Co Louth who spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

A Lebanese military court has pressed charges against seven people allegedly involved in the attack on Irish peacekeepers in South Lebanon which killed Private Seán Rooney and seriously injured Trooper Shane Kearney. Joining Ciara from Lebanon was journalist Hannah McCarthy

First Dates Ireland is back on our screens tomorrow evening, with a host of new singletons set to take to the restaurant in the hope of finding romance. Alice Marr First Dates waitress spoke to Shane this morning on the return of the show.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath confirmed that the government is considering extending inflation supports to homes and businesses after State finances recorded a €5 billion surplus for 2022 Seamus Coffey is the Former Chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Lecturer in Economics at UCC discussed this further.

Yesterday, 838 patients were waiting on trolleys across the country in our emergency departments, the second-highest figure ever recorded after Tuesday’s figure of 931 It comes as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says the crisis is “likely” to get worse while also calling for consultants to work weekends. For reaction, we spoke to Mick Molloy a Consultant in emergency medicine and disaster medicine specialist, a former IMO president and current member of their Consultant Committee, and David Cullinane, Sinn Fein Health Spokesperson.

Cristiano Ronaldo should speak about human rights issues in Saudi Arabia after his big-money move to the country. So says Amnesty International, who released a statement saying the football star’s signing is part of a wider pattern of sports washing in the oil-rich country. Irish Independent Columnist Frank Coughlan spoke to Newstalk Breakfast to discuss this further.

The Workplace Bullying Institute in the UK has found that women are bullied up to 80 percent of the time by other women in the workplace, while other studies have shown that women who report to women experience a greater frequency of bullying So much so, the term has been coined as “Queen bee syndrome” But how common is it here in Ireland? To discuss Caroline Reidy, HR and Employment Law Expert from the HR Suite spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

Ireland should give serious consideration to the potential role for nuclear energy to help achieve our ambition for a net-zero power system. So said Eirgrid chief executive Mark Foley yesterday. William Reville an Emeritus professor of biochemistry at UCC spoke to Ciara this morning.

An estimated 60,000 people are expected to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square later this morning. One of these attendees is Bree Dail, Rome Correspondent with The Daily Wire who joined us live from Rome this morning.

Cork County Council veterinary officers are calling for dog insurance to be made compulsory, due to the worrying rise in dog attacks on humans and livestock. North Cork Fianna Fail, Bernard Moynihan joined Ciara on the show this morning.

Europe has been experiencing a major heatwave to start the year which have seen a number of January temperature records broken. Cities from Berlin to Warsaw have experienced their warmest-ever start to the month. Cara Augustenborg is a Professor of Environmental Policy at University College Dublin and a member of the Climate Advisory council and spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning,

Last night, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly described the overcrowding crisis in Irish hospitals as a "perfect storm" of flu, RSV, Covid and the normal pressures facing hospitals His comments come as a record 931 admitted patients were left waiting for hospital beds across the country yesterday Ciara spoke to Dr Lisa Cunningham, Consultant in Emergency medicine in Mayo University Hospital, and Colm Burke, Fine Gael spokesperson on Health.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Ireland. The measure aims to reduce the sale of very strong alcohol products at very low prices and is one part of many measures introduced through the Public Health Alcohol Act 2018 – but what needs to be done to ensure successful implementation? Speaking to Ciara this morning was Sheila Gilheany, CEO of Alcohol Action Ireland.