 Good evening and welcome to this year's first TV news broadcast. I'm Colleen Brady and tonight we'll be looking at the top news stories that have taken place across the Glastnevan and St Pat's campuses over the past couple of weeks. We'll also be looking at national news stories that directly affect DCU students. Our first story this evening looks at the ongoing rail strikes which are to continue over the past few weeks. DCU TV News spoke to Willie Noon from SIPTO about the dispute. Commuters will face travel chaos on Wednesday with the first of five 24-hour rail strikes set to take place. Unions have been looking for a pay rise of 3.75% with management offering a one-year increase of 1.75%. Talks between management and unions at the WRC took place earlier this month but failed to reach an agreement. The breakdown of the talks was very disappointing because we put an awful lot of effort into trying to construct a package that our members would accept. And to spend 12 hours in the WRC to have, as we call it, the road pulled from Wonders at the last minute was totally unacceptable. And now that the company of traders is in this fashion it's going to make it actually harder to come to a D now at this stage. At Conley station commuters reacted to the imminent disruptions. I think sometimes you have to stand up for your rights and they have tried everything. I would be a strong trade union supporter. I'll just be using the bus instead. I don't think it will affect me too much. I think it's important for workers to strike if they think it's needed, I guess. It's annoying when it affects public transport because it affects so many different people. But if you compare yourselves against Paris, they have so many more strikes. Well I'm not a regular commuter so it wouldn't affect me directly. But if I was a regular commuter I wouldn't be too impressed but then at the other side I can understand where they're striking. So I could kind of see both sides but if it would affect me getting to work obviously I wouldn't be too happy. Over 155,000 people a day are expected to be affected by the stoppages, costing the firm 900,000 per day. CEO of Irish Rail, Dave Franks, warned the workforce of 3,800 that they may scupper their chances of a pay rise if they continue with the rail strike. New reports have emerged which state that current flu vaccines may not be able to tackle new strains coming from countries such as China and Australia. Adam Daly and Kyle Ewald took a look at this report. With flu season well underway everyone is trying to take the necessary precautions to stop the spread of germs. However, reports suggest that existing flu vaccines may be unable to cope with new strains emerging this year in Australia and China. Media coverage recently about a severe strain of flu in Australia. So there is an Australian strain included in the vaccine we're using here in Ireland this year. I'm not sure I suppose it remains to be seen whether that will confer any greater immunity or not. All healthcare workers should have the vaccine and it's not compulsory at the moment but I think maybe in the future it will become compulsory. I think in other countries it already is. For student nurses there is no compulsion to get the flu vaccine before they go on placement. It's kind of up to the discretion of the student to get it themselves off their own back. You're not obliged to get it, it's just kind of if you want to get it or not. I'm not getting it just because I'm more conscious that if I do get it and if I do go sick I will have to repeat the placement. So I'd rather just do my placement and learn and put myself at that risk. It's at my own expense. An intensive flu vaccination campaign by the HSE has 100,000 vaccines in circulation already. However, if strains of the flu virus that are circulating in Australia emerge in Ireland it is likely that the vaccines will only be partially effective. Which could mean a heavier reliance on alternative remedies. Adam Dale, DCU TV News. A new subsidised bike rental scheme on the Glassnevan and St Pat's campuses is proving to be a success by making travel between the two campuses easier for students. VP for Engagement and Development, Siobhan Niktaig, spoke to our reporters Alex Dunn and Michelle Townsend about the new scheme. Travel between the three campuses of DCU has been a pressing issue ever since the uniting of St Pat's, All Hallows and Glassnevan last year. But a new subsidised bike travel scheme has now arrived at the university. DCU students can now register for a new bleep or bike scheme giving them access to bike travel at one of four access points across all three campuses. With over 200 downloads so far, the scheme has proved very popular and the Vice President for Engagement and Development of DCUSU, Siobhan Niktaig, has been explaining to us how it all works. So it's very similar to the double bike scheme where you get your bike, you have an app and then it scans the bike to unlock it and it usually is 30-year-old for a three-month membership with people bikes but what we managed to get and then to do a deal of 20-year-old for DCU students for three months. However, the bike scheme is not perfectly tailored for everyone's use and past people of Irish and journalism, Aidan Garrity, who was forced to travel extensively between campuses last year, believes more needs to be done. If we were dependent on that scheme, it wouldn't be enough because personally we can't cycle a bike so I think that's obviously looking at it as progress but I don't think that would be enough because obviously not everyone can cycle a bike so if you're dependent on that scheme, then you're still going to be paying for boats and things like that and to be honest, that's not fair. The bleep or bike scheme is currently being piloted with 20 bikes across all three campuses and looks set to be DCU's way forward for student travel. Alex Dunn, DCU TV News. A new HIV infection is diagnosed every 18 hours in this country. The HIV treatment drug, PREP, has shown great results in the UK. However, it's not available through the public health system in Ireland. Lee McGowan reports. Would a preventative drug for HIV being available in the UK but not in Ireland, we ask the chairperson of the LGBT society for his views on people who suffer HIV and how this drug could have affected their lives? I find that the access of PREP gives MSM and in particular people of the queer community both choice and security so in terms of choice allows them for a more comprehensive sexual health plan. It's not for replacing traditional contraceptives but more for working in conjunction with them and then for security the drug has been shown consistently to curb HIV transmission. So in that respect the individual is confident that the contraceptive measures that they're taking is effective. So in that way I think that's what's really important. We ask student union president Nell Beaton about the current state of HIV in DCU. I definitely think that there is a presence in DCU of HIV. I don't think it's at an epidemic level compared to other different illnesses that we would come across and people would come into the student union and what I do think that there is a presence and it is something that students should be informed about and also as a union that we should be looking into. We ask DCU students if they thought the government should be doing more to help people who are living with HIV. Nothing's been really done much, there's not many options, it's kind of like oh we can treat it but I think we need to speak up for HIV. That's a good idea, we don't know enough about it like we're not really talking about it. And it's still associated with only gay men. It affects everybody kind of. I know there was an increase last year in the number of people that had HIV so yeah like there's a lot of money wasted in other places so yeah. And at this day I feel like HIV shouldn't be a massive problem like you know especially if it's available in England to say and not in Ireland like that's crazy. The new drug called PREP is a HIV prevention drug available in England. It can only be bought online here but it is illegal to buy the drug online in Ireland. Secondary schools across the country are being hit by teacher shortages as many newly qualified teachers are moving abroad to work. DCUTV News spoke to representative from the INTO, Sheena Freel, about the current trend. Secondary schools are being hit by teacher shortages as many qualified graduates are moving abroad to work in the Middle East. Benefits include tax-free salaries and free living accommodation. Sheena Freel of the INTO gave her thoughts on why teachers are leaving. Well there are a number of factors I think really and pay inequality is a big one that you know teachers aren't going you know they're not being paid and newly qualified teachers aren't getting the same pay as teachers who qualified a few years before them. And I think the cost of living in Ireland is the cost of buying a house, the cost of getting a mortgage, the cost of rent. So for a teacher living in Ireland trying to pay rent and save money for a mortgage it's not feasible if you have the choice between that or going to Dubai or Abu Dhabi for a couple of years and having the price of a deposit coming back it's an easy choice for teachers to make. At a time of rising enrolment in schools and huge demand for teachers many Irish teachers cannot afford to live and work in places such as Dublin and are choosing to take the skills elsewhere. Approximately 326,000 teachers worked in international schools in 2014. This figure is meant to rise in 2020 to 436,000. We spoke to a number of student teachers to see if they plan to work abroad. Yeah I definitely would because it's way better like you get free accommodation you get more money because it's tax free, it's class because it's a different culture you get to see it all, you get to travel, it's a win-win. A place like Abu Dhabi and even England you get paid a lot more than you would over here for teaching so I probably go over there for a couple of years and then like build up money and then maybe come back here like I don't think I'd stay over there for the rest of my life like I would always probably come back home and teach. I think I'd prefer to stay at home you know just kind of like Ireland did all my teaching practice here so I think I'd be a bit more comfortable teaching here and it means I can stay home with family and friends and that as well. I'd probably stay here for a year or two and get experience because if you go abroad straight after you finish and then you come back it'll be much harder to get a job because all the newly qualified teachers would get to my head of you because you've just gone abroad for two years and left. On your holiday DCU TV news. And now to take a look at our sports news. DCU's men's B soccer team took on DIT's soccer team at the St Clair Sports Grounds two weeks ago where they secured a great win of 4-2. Our reporters Megan Conway, Amy Murphy and Katie Gallagher report. It was a fantastic day for DCU's men's B soccer team as they took on DIT's soccer club in the Russers Referee Joe Boylan had a tough game ahead of him as both sides put up an excellent display of football at the DCU St Clair Sports Grounds. DIT started off the better side going in front early in the game however DCU wouldn't stay behind for too long. DCU's Frankie Cullen came back to equalise with a fine head of gold set up by Rudy Kinslay. The equaliser brought both teams half time however DCU came back with a fine second half performance. The second half saw yet another goal from the energetic Frankie Cullen Cullen also played an important role with DCU's Irla Conner to see the home side take the lead. Fergal Delahou scored the final score in the match for DCU and he gained four goals too. To go down and come back for it was always tough but we did well that I'd say well. First time playing with a lot of them so it was a good performance and good to get the three points you know. The same as he touched on all the points there to be honest getting a group of people out there and trying to put everything together. They were in such a short space of time I thought we did really well back for one and that was a great character and I really look forward to the rest of the season and the match this year. I'll take that, I'll take that all day. Megan Carmay, DCU TV News. And that's all for this week. Tune in again next time for all your DCU student news. I'm Colleen Brady for DCU TV News.