New insurance rules could increase cover for women drivers by 24% = £300 a year or more
Northern Ireland’s women drivers are among the biggest losers following a new EU gender rule on car insurance that has come into force.
A change to existing rules means that insurers are now banned from setting premium prices according to a person’s gender — which could cost women around £300 more.
Previously a young woman could get a cheaper deal than her male counterpart because she was seen as a lower risk.
A female driver aged between 17 and 25 pays an average of £1,551, according to the AA, compared to an average of £1,977 for a man in the same age group.
But the European Court of Justice’s ruling, which follows a 10-year legal battle against the proposals by insurers, will put an end to women getting better deals on car insurance.
Premiums could go up by 24% for young women — equivalent to around £300 a year — as a result of the rules, according to industry experts.
Women aged between 31 and 35 could face a rise of around 10% — or £53 — a year.
AA Insurance spokesman Ian Crowder said that the average shoparound car insurance premium across the province was £736 a year.
“During the last quarter of 2012 premiums in Northern Ireland fell by 3.1%, which was the second biggest fall in the UK,” he said.
“What this new gender neutral regime means is that insurers will have to start from scratch again; they’re going into the unknown, but they’re doing so at a time when premiums are generally falling again reasonably rapidly, so that gives them scope to not pass on the additional costs.”
Mr Crowder said that women in gender specific occupations, such as midwives or nurses, can expect their premiums to stay the same or even fall.
Similarly, he said that men who are in male gender specific occupations, like HGV drivers or scaffolders, are as likely to see the cost of their policies staying much the same, rather than falling.
He added: “The message in the gender neutral market is that consumers should shop around.”
The new EU directive states that “gender should not be used as a risk factor to create differences in premiums between men and women”.
David McKendry, operations manager at Adelaide Insurance, a local broker, said most policy holders won’t notice much difference.
“There has been an awful lot of hype surrounding the issue but I don’t think people are going to see huge changes in their premiums,” he said.
“Women are going to see increases, but males will not see the same types of decreases because insurance companies may use this as an opportunity to realign their rates.”
The Association of British Insurers said only new insurance policies and renewals will be affected by the rule change.
Background
Historically, young women have paid premiums that could be 40% cheaper than their male counterpart, because young men are 10 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a car crash than those aged 35 or over, and more than twice as likely as young women to suffer a serious collision. Drivers using black box policies will be least affected by the gender ruling. Premiums for such policies are based only on the way customers drive.
SOME TIPS TO PUT BRAKES ON HIGH PREMIUMS
There is a massive variation in the cost of car insurance.
The price you pay will depend on age, where you live, your car and whether you’ve made any previous claims. The price will also vary from insurer to insurer and you can save hundreds of pounds if you shop around. Also, insurers like it if you:
- Only put regular drivers on your insurance policy.
- Protect your no claims bonus. A long no claims bonus is the single best way of cutting car insurance costs.
- Increase your voluntary excess. Agreeing to pay more towards the cost of accident repairs will cut premiums.
- Fit an alarm immobiliser: it can mean a 5% discount.
- Reduce your annual mileage. The fewer miles you drive, the greater the saving will be.
Medical giant Abbott’s pays no corporation tax after exemptions ‘but has profits of €1.1bn’
Profits at the main Irish arm of medical products giant Abbott increased more than four-fold to €1.1bn last year, but the company still paid no corporation tax.
New figures show Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises (ALVE) recorded the sharp increase in profits through €716.9m in dividend income received mainly from two Irish subsidiaries as well as net royalty income totalling €374.3m.
But the figures also show that the firm, which employs 228 people in Ireland, paid no corporation tax on its €1.1bn profits last year.
Accounts filed with the Companies Office point out that Abbott would have been liable to pay €139m in Irish corporation tax based on the 12.5pc rate.
However, thanks to items exempt from the tax that totalled €139m, the charge was zero.
The main activities of the firm are the distribution of medical and nutritional products, investment holding and undertaking research and development.
Accounts show revenues increased 2pc to €264.8m. Key figures include:
? The cost of sales jumped to €271.5m in the year to the end of December 2011.
? A gross loss of €6.6m was recorded compared with €7.2m in 2010.
? Net royalty totalling €374m and dividend income of €716.9m resulted in the €1.1bn pre-tax profit.
? The firm’s R&D spend last year totalled €161m.
According to the directors’ report, they “anticipate the company’s trading position will continue to improve”.
Abbott is a global healthcare company involved in the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharma- ceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics.
It employs around 91,000 people worldwide and markets its products in more than 130 countries.
In Ireland it has manufacturing facilities in Clonmel, Cootehill, Cork, Donegal, Longford and Sligo and a third-party manufacturing management operation in Sligo.
Figures show that the numbers employed by the firm here last year increased by 51 to 228, with 172 involved in production, 28 in administration and 28 in research and development.
The company’s wage bill, including executive directors, increased to €17.8m from €12.3m.
Abbott paid no dividend last year, with the company having €2.4bn in accumulated profits with total shareholder funds amounting to €3.7bn.
The firm established its first commercial operation in Dublin in 1946, and its first manufacturing facility in Ballytivnan in Sligo.
Boycotting new HSE nursing jobs is very short sighted
Calls by nursing unions to boycott a HSE initiative to hire 1,000 graduate nurses are misguided. A starting salary of €22,000 and a two-year contract is a package for which most graduates would be grateful, even more so in an economy that is witnessing almost 15pc unemployment.
The two-year contract will also afford young nurses security — albeit not of the job-for-life variety — as they build up skills and experience.
It is true that the starting salary is 80pc of the previous entry level.
But with the HSE facing budget overruns of €400m this year, many will be surprised that the organisation can afford to hire any new nurses at all.
Nursing unions have urged a boycott of the scheme, but allegations that it will lead to exploitation of nurses are premature, if not unfounded.
The scheme may not be perfect, but a boycott is not merited.
Junior Minister for Agriculture Shane McEntee was given difficult voting choices over budget
The Minister for Agriculture said today the death of Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee had shocked and numbed everyone in Fine Gael and in the Department of Agriculture.
The Minister for Agriculture said today the death of Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee had shocked and numbed everyone in Fine Gael and in the Department of Agriculture.
Simon Coveney (above right) said Mr McEntee’s popularity had crossed the political divide.
“Shane was one of the most honest and big-hearted people I have ever had the privilege to know. His popularity crossed the political divide, everybody loved Shane. We are all just devastated at his untimely death,” he said..
“Shane was such a family man, his wife Kathleen and his children meant everything to him. They will miss him so much and our thoughts and prayers this Christmas and for a long time after will be with them all. He was such a fantastic support within the Department of Agriculture – talented, down to earth and loyal to the core whenever I needed him. He understood farmers and rural people in a way that I can only aspire to.”
“Farmers loved Shane for his blunt and practical approach to solving problems. He was a people person who really took the problems of others to his heart and advocated passionately for the values he believed in and the people he represented.”
Mr McEntee’s funeral mass will take place on Monday followed by burial at Nobber cemetery in Co Meath.
He was found dead yesterday morning after taking his own life.
Mr McEntee was a Fine Gael TD for Meath East since 2005. He was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for food, food safety and horticulture following last year’s general election.
He is survived by his wife Kathleen and children Aoife, Vincent, Helen and Sally. His funeral will take place at 11am on Monday at St Patrick’s Church, Castletown, Kilpatrick.
Mr McEntee, a former farmer and agricultural sales representative, was also a publican.He was involved with the GAA and had trained many football teams, including Meath minors. His brother Gerry McEntee was an All-Ireland medal-winning footballer.
His Fine Gael colleagues from Co Meath – Regina Doherty, Ray Butler and Damien English – today said they had lost a loyal friend.
“Shane was a man of his people, a man of his place, a man of his party. And he exemplified everything that is good about family, friendship and loyalty to the State,” Ms Doherty said in a joint statement.
President Michael D. Higgins said Mr McEntee had “made an enormous contribution to community and public life” in the fields of politics, agriculture and sport.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny declared himself “devastated” at the death of a “loyal friend”. He said Mr McEntee was a dedicated servant of the people of Meath who had brought great energy and diligence to his ministerial role.
Mr McEntee was first elected to the Dáil in 2005 in the byelection caused by the appointment of former taoiseach John Bruton as EU ambassador in Washington. Mr Bruton said that election represented the revival of Fine Gael and said Mr McEntee brought passion to politics.
“It wasn’t just work for him. He would call to people in their own homes to try to fully understand the problem that was on their mind.”
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said Mr McEntee’s “good nature and warm personality” would be sadly missed. Fine Gael deputy leader James Reilly fought back tears as he described Mr McEntee as a “larger-than-life individual” who gave 100 per cent.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin described Mr McEntee as “a true gentleman who commanded the genuine affection and respect of people on all sides of the House”. Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said his thoughts were with Mr McEntee’s family and friends.
Pope grants jailed butler Paolo Gabriele a pardon
Pope Benedict XVI talks with former butler Paolo Gabriele at the Vatican today. The pope has pardoned Gabriele, who was convicted in October of leaking sensitive documents that alleged corruption in the Holy
Pope Benedict XVI has pardoned Paolo Gabriele, his former butler who was convicted in October of leaking sensitive documents that alleged corruption in the Holy See.
The Vatican said the pope visited Gabriele in the Vatican’s jail this morning to tell him personally of the pardon. They spoke for some 15 minutes.
He was subsequently freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lived with his wife and three children.
“What they said to each other will remain a secret between them … he knows he made a mistake,” Gabriele’s lawyer Cristiana Arru, who was in the apartment when he returned home, told Reuters.
The Vatican said he would not continue living or working in the Vatican, but that it “intends to offer him the possibility to serenely restart his life together with his family”.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s meeting with Gabriele was “intense” and “personal,” noting that Gabriele and the pope had worked together closely for six years.
Rev Lombardi called the pope’s action “a paternal gesture towards a person with whom the pope shared his daily life for several years … this is a happy ending in this Christmas season to this sad and painful episode.”
Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft on October 6th and had been serving an 18-month sentence in a Vatican jail cell.
He was arrested in May after Vatican police found many documents that had been stolen from the pope’s office.
He gave them to the media in what became known as “Vatileaks” and mushroomed into a major embarrassment for Benedict’s pontificate.
The butler, who served the pope his meals and helped him dress, photocopied sensitive documents under the nose of his immediate superiors in a small office adjacent to the papal living quarters in the Apostolic Palace.
He then hid more than 1,000 copies and original documents, including some the pope had marked “to be destroyed”, among many thousands of other papers and old newspaper clippings in a huge armoire in the family apartment inside the Vatican walls.
A former member of the small, select group known as “the papal family”, Gabriele was one of fewer than 10 people who had a key to an elevator leading directly to the pope’s apartments.
He said at the trial that from his perch as papal butler he was able to see how easily a powerful man could be manipulated by aides and kept in the dark about things he should have known.
The Vatican said he pope had also pardoned a second Vatican employee, Claudio Sciarpelletti, who was convicted of aiding and abetting Gabriele.
What’s missions can we expect from NASA in 2013
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) as above will gather valuable data and imagery of Earth to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government.
In 2013, NASA will push ahead with an ambitious exploration program, continuing crew flights and commercial resupply missions to the International Space Station, and advancing the systems needed to send humans deeper into space. We’ll also be launching a new mission to the Red Planet, learning about our own planet, understanding our place in the universe, and developing technologies that benefit us right here on Earth.
We’ll be watching the skies with you when meteor showers, asteroid encounters and eclipses capture your attention, and we’ll surely make scientific discoveries and technological advances we haven’t even planned for yet. Meanwhile, we already have a busy launch schedule planned, with destinations from the International Space Station to Mars.
2013 Launches
NASA’s Consolidated Launch Schedule
2013 Launches
NASA’s Consolidated Launch Schedule
• The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRS) will update NASA’s space communications network.
• The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) will gather valuable data and imagery of Earth to be used in agriculture, education, business, science, and government.
• Several International Space Station Expeditions head to the orbital outpost, beginning with Expedition 35 in March.
• The Orbital Sciences Corporation plans tests flight with the goal of sending its Cygnus capsule to the International Space Station.
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) plans the second and third contracted commercial resupply flights to the International Space Station.
• The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) looks to increase our understanding of energy transport into the Sun’s corona and solar wind, and provide an archetype for all stellar atmospheres.
• TheLunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will gather detailed information about conditions near the lunar surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
• The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission to Mars is the first devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere, with a goal of understanding how Mars changed through time.
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