5 things you need to know today

1. FF and FG agree people who have not paid Irish Water charges will be pursued

Fianna Fáil may be willing to commit to allowing Fine Gael to introduce three budgets as part of a deal to put a minority government in place.  Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs were briefed on the emerging deal at parliamentary party meetings on Wednesday night and there was agreement at both meetings that people who have not paid water charges will be pursued for payment, regardless of what decisions are made about the future of Irish Water. Fianna Fail believes refunding those householders who have paid in full would be "dangerous, unprecedented and risky for the State". Otherwise,  the Government will have to find more than €140 million if it is to repay people who have paid water charges. Meanwhile, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has estimated there could be an additional €10 billion to €11 billion available for public spending between next year and 2021. It has been a long road but, as writes Pat Leahy, they'll fall over the finishing line. Miriam Lord describes it as a New government built on foundations of fudge.

2. Singer Frances Black elected to Seanad on 27th count

Singer Frances Black has been elected to the Seanad. Ms Black, running as an Independent, but supported by Sinn Féin, was elected to the Industrial and Commercial panel of the Seanad on the 27th count.   TCD student leader Lynn Ruane and Alice-Mary Higgins, daughter of President were also elected. Trinity College students' union president Lynn Ruane has taken the third Seanad seat on the Trinity panel ahead of outgoing Senator Sean Barrett, by 145 votes.

3. Campaigners to protest at Dáil over mental health funding

Mental health campaigners are to protest outside the Dáil today against the diversion of funds from mental health to other areas in the Health Service Executive. The Union of Students in Ireland and Mental Health Reform, which are organising the protest, claim the proposed diversion of €12 million away from the sector will cause "irreversible" damage.  Some €35 million was supposedly ringfenced for new developments in mental health in the last budget but €12 million of this is now being used in other areas of the health service, despite opposition from Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Kathleen Lynch.

4. Concern at 'basic skills' of many Leaving Cert maths pupils

Leaving Cert examiners have expressed concern at the lack of basic skills of some students sitting the higher level maths paper. In a report published on Thursday by the State Examinations Commission, it says a significant minority of candidates are struggling to complete simple procedures.
"It is clear that the proportion of the candidature for whom this is a significant difficulty has increased since 2011, and that a significant minority of candidates now struggle to complete multi-step procedures accurately," the chief examiners' report states.

5. Councils to expand litter lout shaming

More of Dublin's litter louts are to be exposed publicly following the city council's decision to expand its use of CCTV images of people dumping their rubbish on the streets. The council earlier this month erected a poster in a litter black spot in the north inner city showing 12 people caught on CCTV dumping rubbish. Within days,  the Data Protection Commissioner contacted the council questioning its use of the images. The council's head of waste management, Declan Wallace, said illegal dumpers were "just bad citizens" and he saw no difficulty in exposing them. The council plans to keep the poster in place and extend the successful campaign to more litter black spots in the city.

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