5 Things you need to know today

All you need to read to be in the know on Thursday

Sisters Emma and Hannah Mackey from Waterford at the launch of the 2016 Dublin Horse Show, which takes place from July 20th to 24th at the Royal Dublin
Society in Dublin 4. PHOTOGRAPH: DARA MAC DÓNAILL
Sisters Emma and Hannah Mackey from Waterford at the launch of the 2016 Dublin Horse Show, which takes place from July 20th to 24th at the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin 4. PHOTOGRAPH: DARA MAC DÓNAILL

1. Major campaign to assure investors of State’s EU commitment

The Government is to begin a major campaign to assure global investors Ireland's place in the EU is secure if the UK decides to quit in next week's referendum. Meanwhile, Opposition leaders will be given a briefing today on the Government's contingency planning to cope with an exit decision in the June 23rd vote should it occur. Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Fine Gael parliamentary party last night Ireland would not hold a vote on its future in the EU. Mr Kenny said regardless of the outcome of the referendum Ireland would remain a committed member of the EU.

2. Colleges may have to fight for funds, says Bruton

Universities could be asked to compete against each other for funds to provide courses to meet skills shortages under changes being considered by Minister for Education Richard Bruton. He said a "competitive tendering model" and other incentives could be developed to encourage further responses to skills shortages. The Minister added that close co-operation with industry will be vital and the sector needed to invest much more in the education system. "We've had this real problem of how do you make sure the education system and enterprise system are engaged in a more purposeful way," he told The Irish Times.

3. A fifth of all plants could be facing extinction

California's oak trees are dropping dead in their hundreds of thousands in an epidemic described as "unstoppable". The emerald ash borer has wiped out ash trees across North America with losses amounting to billions of euro. Olive trees are being knocked out by a bacterium first found in Italy in 2013 but now spreading rapidly through plantations. Here in Ireland, ash dieback disease, also known as Chalara, has spread to nearly every county since it was first discovered in a tree plantation in Co Leitrim in 2012. And there are other insects, bacteria and fungi causing varying amounts of damage to food crops, ornamentals and trees around the world. What has happened to cause this destruction and what does it mean for our shared future, given that plants feed us, shelter us, clothe us and provide energy to warm us?

4. Hundreds of marriages may be invalid

The validity of hundreds of marriages could be in doubt amid concerns about the "training and accreditation" of some wedding solemnisers. The Department of Social Protection, which maintains the register of solemnisers, is so concerned it says it may require all marriages to be solemnised by a civil registrar in addition to solemnisation by another religious or secular body. It says it has no way of knowing how many marriages may be affected as a result of being performed by inadequately trained solemnisers because a civil registrar is not present at such weddings. There are almost 6,000 marriage solemnisers registered across the State – some based in Northern Ireland.

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5. McClean likely to replace Walters against Belgium

The Italian players queued up, it seems, to tell a grateful English media the other night how Antonio Conte had engineered Italy's defeat of Belgium. But Martin O'Neill laughed off the idea yesterday that it was the new Chelsea manager's tactical tinkering that proved the different between the sides, insisting instead that footballers are the ones who decide matches. "The great, great Brian Clough said it. The game is still simple: when you haven't got the ball you have to work your guts out to get it back again, when you do have it, if you have talent around you, you have a chance.

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