Minister Reilly astonished that some 80% of HSE bosses have no financial expertise or training
Irish Health Minister James Reilly has admitted he was “astonished” to learn that some 80% of HSE managers have no financial training.
And Dr Reilly insisted that he is focused on accounting for every cent spent on health care.
“We are addressing that deficit and there is going to be real change this year. There is going to be real control of money,” he said.
“Funding is always going to be an issue in the HSE. We have brought in new accountants and financial managers to address the deficit that clearly was there,” said the minister.
He was speaking in Donegal where he opened a new €24m emergency department and medical block at Letterkenny General Hospital.
Dr Reilly was called to respond to concerns raised this week by the Dail’s Public Accounts Committee that the financial controls of the HSE were based on old practices from the previous health boards and were “no longer fit for purpose”.
TDs also found that the HSE has failed to collect money it is owed by insurance companies and others at a time when it is under severe financial pressure.
Just six anti-austerity protesters picketed the hospital during the minister’s visit.
But a health service campaigner did make it into the Emergency Department waiting area for the official opening. Betty Holmes, from Donegal Action for Cancer Care, handed a letter to the minister criticising staffing levels in hospitals.
Ms Holmes later told the Irish Independent: “This is a fantastic new facility for the people of Donegal but because of the recruitment ban we need more staff to run it.”
Dr Reilly also revealed that cross-border co-operation on health care would increase with discussions continuing with both Altnagelvin, in Derry, and the new Enniskillen Hospital in Fermanagh.
This would also include a joint air ambulance and community health-care service between Strabane, in Tyrone, and Lifford, in Donegal.
IMF shows its support for Ireland with pledge on bailout plans
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised the Government and said it will lend Ireland a further €970m as part of the bailout plan.
However, in its ninth review of Ireland’s financial status, it also warned that the Government needed to continue to rein in health spending, as well as strictly enforce the controversial property tax.
As Cyprus totters on the edge of chaos, the Washington-based IMF last night said Ireland’s “strong policy implementation has continued and positive signs are emerging”.
It pointed to recent economic indicators that suggest a revival of domestic demand.
But it warned that the Government must remain vigilant this year.
“Building on the strong budget out-turn for 2012, sound budget execution remains critical in 2013, including continued vigilance on health spending and a successful introduction of the property tax,” the review read.
It also cautioned that Irish banks remained weighed down by bad loans.
Repossessions
The fund praised the Government’s decision to press banks to repossess more houses when owners default on mortgage payments. The IMF and other members of the troika have been pressing for reforms to allow more repossessions almost since the bailout began in 2010.
However, on a more positive note, it pointed to recent successes in Ireland.
It hailed this month’s bond sale, which raised €5bn on the markets, and new figures that show that the economy expanded 0.9pc last year, the second year of consecutive growth.
“The Irish authorities have pursued steadfast policy implementation for more than two years and positive results are emerging,” said IMF official David Lipton. “Nonetheless, problem loans remain high and accelerating their resolution is a key to economic recovery.”
IMF boss Christine Lagarde called for reforms during her recent visit to Dublin. The IMF repeated yesterday that the Government must push banks to come to terms with small and medium-sized companies that are in trouble.
Irish Kids get property-tax demands from Revenue Commissioner’s
It is reported that children have received letters from the Irish Revenue demanding payment of the house property tax.
According to the Irish Independent, flaws in the database have resulted in “errors” as the 1.6 million letters about the property tax are posted out to homeowners.
In some cases, children have received a notice seeking payment, with one irate mother telling the newspaper that her 15-year-old daughter got a letter from Revenue.
The blunder from Revenue comes as a national day of local protests against the property tax gets underway around the country.
It follows a huge reduction of the number of houses eligible to claim exemption from the property tax on the basis of inhabiting ghost estates.
Of the 1,770 unfinished housing developments around the country, residents in only 421 will not have to pay the new fee.
Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said homeowners who believe they are entitled to a deferral of the charge should outline their reasoning on the tax forms.
Latest figures show of the 1.6 million homeowners liable to pay the levy, just over 7,000 have so far filled out their property tax forms and sent them back to Revenue.
Activists from the Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes will picket the clinics of several Labour TDs and County Council offices countrywide.
Campaign spokesman Michael O’Brien said there was going to be an angry backlash from affected people.
“The amount of exempt houses has gone from 43,000 down to 5,000,” he said. “In other words, the Government is saying that 38,000 houses that were in ghost estates last year are all of a sudden in estates that are complete, which I think will come as a shock to people who are directly affected.”
Bankrupt star Shane Filan gets no offers for his mansion despite €990k special offer price
Shane Filan was offered €10m for it at the height of the boom, and perhaps he should have taken it.
Because a month after going on the market for just €990,000, former Westlife singer Shane Filan has still not found a buyer for his home.
Set in five acres at Carraroe, outside Sligo City, estate agents had described the five-bedroom detached home as a “modern-day mansion with no expense spared” when the property first went on the market in February.
But despite several viewings, a buyer has yet to be found.
Now it looks as if another price-cut might be needed to shift the house, which cost Filan an estimated €3m to complete in 2004.
“The property is still on the market and a viewing can be arranged,” estate agents Sherry Fitzgerald Draper said last night.
Luxury. Initially, there had been huge interest when the house first came on the market. But like so many other luxury properties for sale nationwide, it has struggled to find a buyer.
However an insider remained confident one would be found for the home, which has been described as “exceptional by any standards”. Features include a gym, a snooker room, two living-rooms, a music room and a study.
All this is behind electronically controlled gates on landscaped grounds with a lake, patio and terraces as well as a golfing area.
In 2006, a Japanese businessman offered Filan €10m for the house.
The 32-year-old, who sold 43 million records worldwide with Westlife, was declared bankrupt in the UK last June where he now lives. More than €18m is owed to creditors from the building company owned by Shane Filan and his brother Finbarr.
The incredible fish with human teeth
An Irish tourist made the startling discovery in Florida
But that is exactly what a lucky Irish fisherman named John encountered in Terra Ceia Bay, Florida.
The sheepshead fish is most famous for the black and white stripes and the fact that other species in the Sparidae family can switch sexes.
But the most startling feature of this particular specimen was its very human-like dentures.
Meteor lights up an Virginian East Coast Friday night sky
A METEOR THE SIZE OF A VOLLEYBALL WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA IN VIRGINIA.
A large meteor lit up the night sky across the East Coast, leading hundreds of dazzled spectators to report sightings in more than a dozen states.
The event was not unusual but was widely reported because it happened across a populated area on a Friday night, said Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office.
“There was a lot of people out and it got everyone’s attention,” Cooke told the Los Angeles Times.
The meteor was reported at about 8 p.m. EDT. It was probably the size of a boulder, about one yard across, and was bright enough to be classified as a fireball, Cooke said. It broke up in the atmosphere and went out across the Atlantic Ocean.
The light show it created was not as spectacular as the one set off when a tiny asteroid exploded over Russia in February. Still, it was quite a sight.
Excited stargazers sent more than 600 reports of sightings from 16 states, Quebec and Ontario to the American Meteor Society, which published a map of sightings on its website. The map plots where sightings occurred and even indicates if the viewers saw the meteor travel right to left, left to right or vertically.
While meteors like the one spotted Friday night are common, “it is rare…for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they also occur during the day, on a cloudy night, or over a remote area where no one sees it,” said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society, in astatement on its website.
Within minutes social media sites exploded with news of the meteor – at least one fake photo was widely circulated within hours.
The website Mashable managed to put together a hilarious list of the top 10 artistic renditions of the fireball on Twitter. Two of them involve cats.
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