Martin fears home repossessions will be ramped up by Irish banks
Michael Martin of Fianna Fáil says the Government has failed to deal with the mortgage crisis
The Government has handed the banks a charter to repossess family homes and failed to grasp the scale of the mortgage arrears crisis, Fianna Fáil claimed this morning.
The party has published a private members bill on mortgage arrears which is being debated in the Dáil today and tomorrow.
It wants a clear definition of what constitutes a sustainable mortgage to be included in the Central Bank’s code of conduct on mortgage arrears and believes a minimum income level should be protected as part of all negotiations.
It also seeks the reintroduction of a ceiling of unsolicited contacts a bank can have with a borrower in arrears and wants a new clause put into the code which would forbid a bank from moving a borrower off a tracker mortgage unless they were given independent financial advice from a third party.
The bill also wants a 12 month moratorium on home repossessions to be reinstated and a new rule put in place which would force banks to record all calls made to borrowers and given the Central Bank access to those recordings .
Describing the arrears crisis as a “major economic and social issue” which had created a “paralysis” across the wider economy, party leader Micheál Martin accused the Government of repeatedly failing to deal with the issue and described the banks’ engagement with distressed borrowers as “pitiful”.
He said he was “very fearful repossessions will be ramped up” over the next six months.
Finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the Government had given increased powers to the banks through changes to the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears which was published late last month and he said the banks had been given a “charter for the repossession of family homes”.
He said repossession was supposed to be used as a last resort but suggested that banks were becoming increasingly aggressive and repossession was becoming the “solution of choice” for many lenders.
“There are now 70,000 family homes where banks have been given carte blanche to repossess,” Mr McGrath said. “It is very difficult to understand the deferential approach to the banks.”
He said the number of real alternatives being offered by the banks to distressed borrowers was inadequate and lacked consistency. He pointed out that the banks had offered fewer than 150 split mortgages to borrowers in arrears and said that while AIB did not charge interest on the warehoused portion of such loans, Bank of Ireland did which meant “they were not a sustainable solution.
Fianna Fáil has already published a number of proposals on mortgage arrears since 2011 which have been ignored by Government and both Mr Martin and Mr McGrath did not indicate that things would be any different on this occasion.
“We have a platform and we will continue to make the case,” Mr Martin said.
“We are being constructive rather than populist and we have been repeatedly told by groups such as New Beginnings, the Irish Mortgage Holders Association and the Free Legal Advice C entre not to underestimate the power of the pressure we are applying.”
165 different amendments to Irish abortion bill tabled by TD’s & various other groups
The amendments will be discussed prior to the final vote on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013.
A List of all of the amendments tabled regarding the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013 has been published.
The 165 amendments come from a range of TDs and cross a number of different aspects of the bill. They will be discussed in the Dáil tomorrow.
TDs will cast their votes on the bill tomorrow in the Dáil, and the document released this evening is a compilation of amendments tabled by the deputies over the past few days.
There is likely to be heated discussion over which of the 165 amendments do get discussed, given that there could be time constraints tomorrow evening.
Some of the most contentious amendments have related to Section 9 of the bill, which concerns suicide grounds as a means to obtain a lawful termination.
In her amendments, Fine Gael Minister Lucinda Creighton seeks the removal of the suicide section, and sets out a line of care for women who present as suicidal.
Deputy Terence Flanagan also seeks the removal of the suicide section.
Meanwhile, an amendment jointly tabled by TDs Clare Daly and Joan Collins would allow for lawful terminations in cases of rape and incest.
In the first Dáil vote, 24 TDs voted against the legislation. This led to four Fine Gael members losing the party whip.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore told RTÉ today that the amendments discussed by Cabinet won’t involve any “fundamental or substantial change” to the bill.
He said that there will be no change to the issue of suicidal ideation in the bill.
Non-payers of water charges face having pressure reduced
THE GOVERNMENT HAS CONFIRMED PLANS TO LIMIT THE WATER PRESSURE IN HOMES WHO DON’T PAY THEIR WATER CHARGES.
The Department of the Environment says the measure will be included in legislation to be published in the autumn.
The measure is intended as an alternative way of punishing homes without having to cut off their supply.
Water charges are due to take effect in October 2014, with the first bills due in January 2015.
Leader of the Green Party Eamon Ryan said the approach would not work.
“The way Phil Hogan has set this up, it’s pushing for revenue, it’s done in a way that I fear could be privatised in the long run,” he said.
“Everything about having one single Irish water company which they’ve set up rather than, I think, a regional structure which would make more sense.
“It would connect to the river basin districts where our water actually comes from, it would connect to the planning systems.
“Everything that’s been done by Phil Hogan is driven by a revenue-raising, finance-led approach. I think that’s not going to work.”
‘A Dead’ woman opens her eyes on operating table as her organs are about to be removed
A woman in New York state was pronounced dead and about to have her organs removed for transplant when she awoke and opened her eyes.
Colleen Burns had been taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Centre in Syracuse after taking a drug overdose in 2009. She was thought to have passed away, a victim of “cardiac death”, and so her family agreed to turn off the 41-year-old’s life support machine and donate her organs.
It was not until she was wheeled into the operating theatre and opened her eyes in response to the lights that doctors called off the procedure.
Lucille Kuss, Ms Burns’ mother, told Syracuse’s The Post-Standard newspaper that the doctors never explained what went wrong.
“They were just kind of shocked themselves,” she said. “It came as a surprise to them as well.”
Ms Burns, a mother of three, was discharged from the hospital a fortnight after the operation, but committed suicide less than two years later.
“She was so depressed that it really didn’t make any difference to her,” said her mother.
The family did not sue but the hospital was fined $6,000 (£4,000) by the state health department in September – the case only came to light after the newspaper made requests through the Freedom of Information Act.
“These sorts of things do happen,” said Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. “It’s pretty disturbing.”
Mrs McGiffert said there is no way of knowing how often near-catastrophes like the Burns case happen because in the US there is no system in place to collect information from hospitals about medical errors.
The state started investigating the case in March 2010 in response to an inquiry from The Post-Standard.
The investigation revealed a catalogue of errors in the handling of Ms Burns’ case.
The drugs overdose had sent her into a deep coma, the state health department found, and hospital personnel misread that as irreversible brain damage without doing enough to evaluate her condition.
Furthermore, the day before her organs were to be removed, a nurse had performed a reflex test – scraping a finger on the bottom of her foot. The toes curled downward – not the expected reaction of someone who’s supposed to be dead.
Outside the operating theatre, her nostrils appeared to show signs of breathing, and her lips and tongue moved.
“Dead people don’t curl their toes,” said Dr Charles Wetli, a forensic pathologist from New Jersey. “And they don’t fight against the respirator and want to breathe on their own.”
Twenty minutes after those observations were made, a nurse gave Burns an injection of the sedative Ativan, according to records.
In the doctors’ notes, there’s no mention of the sedative or any indication they were aware of her improving condition.
“If you have to sedate them or give them pain medication, they’re not brain-dead and you shouldn’t be harvesting their organs,” said Dr David Mayer, a surgeon and an associate professor of clinical surgery at New York Medical College.
St. Joseph’s submitted a plan to correct problems identified in the investigation to the state health department in August 2011.
The state fined St. Joseph’s and ordered it to hire a consultant to review the hospital’s quality assurance program and implement the consultant’s recommendations.
The hospital also was ordered to hire a consulting neurologist to teach staff how to accurately diagnose brain death.
Kerri Howell, spokeswoman for the hospital, told the newspaper: “St. Joseph’s goal is to provide the highest quality of care to every patient, every time.
“These policies were followed in this case, which was complicated in terms of care and diagnosis.
“We’ve learned from this experience and have modified our policies to include the type of unusual circumstance presented in this case.”
Irish drinks industry is willing to work with Government to combat misuse of alcohol
There is no evidence a ban on sponsorship of sporting events will impact on problem drinking
Tourists come to Ireland and hope to visit places connected with our beer and whiskey industries just as they would want to visit a vineyard in France.
We in the Irish drinks industry agree with the vast majority of the proposals in the National Substance Misuse Strategy. However, some parts of Government do not appear willing to engage with us on this topic. If they would engage they would see how committed we are to promoting responsible drinking.
When considering the problems with alcohol, it is important we acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of people consume alcohol responsibly. It is a fact that alcohol consumption in this country has fallen by more than 19 per cent since 2001, and our consumption levels are fast approaching European norms.
A Unicef report of 29 countries, published earlier this year, found the percentage of young people who reported having been drunk on more than two occasions has fallen in Ireland. Irish consumption is falling and youth consumption is declining.
Scientific proof
It is, of course, still vital that we implement policies that are scientifically proven to combat alcohol misuse. There are many such examples, some of which are very well-articulated in the current proposal from the Department of Health. However, I would like to see further initiatives explored, specifically in the area of young adult education.
For example, I know from my own experience in my home country of Sweden how effective education can be and I would be happy to share independent Swedish research with anyone who would like to discuss this science-based approach. But some of the proposals being considered by the Irish Government will be completely ineffective in combating alcohol misuse and at the same time bring with them many negative economic consequences for this important industry.
I would like to give two examples.
First, let us consider the proposed ban on sponsorship. While initial reports indicated that all sporting, cultural and arts events would be banned from using alcohol sponsorship by 2020, recent media reports seem to imply that this ban would now only apply to major sporting events. As was noted by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications in its Report on Sponsorship of Sports by the Alcohol Drinks Industry, there is no evidence to show that banning the sponsorship of sporting events will have an impact on reducing alcohol misuse.
It would, however, remove a significant source of funding from our sporting organisations. Also, I do not believe that this is where the ban on sponsorship will end. Next in line will be undoubtedly be events related to the arts, culture and music.
Nasa’s next Mars rover will advance the hunt for past life
This view obtained on July 9, 2013 from the left Navigation Camera (Navcam) of Nasa’s Mars Rover Curiosity looks back at wheel tracks made during the first drive away from the last science target in the ‘Glenelg’ area.
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The next robotic rover to explore Mars in 2020 should scour the surface of the red planet more closely than ever for signs of past life, a Nasa science team said Tuesday.
The US space agency’s science definition team (SDT) released a 154-page document containing its proposals for the next Mars rover, after five months of work.
The mission would use microscopic analysis for the first time, collect the first rock samples for possible return to Earth and test ways to use natural resources on site for a future human trip, it said.
The Mars 2020 mission would build on the work being done by Nasa’s Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the red planet since August 2012 and has already found evidence of potentially habitable environments.
The mission would present “a major step toward seeking signs of life,” said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at Nasa headquarters.
The next step is for Nasa to analyze the recommendations and issue a call for scientific instruments, which could include higher resolution imaging devices, microscopes, fine scale minerology, chemistry and organic carbon detection tools to scan for biosignatures on the surface of Mars.
“To combine this suite of instruments would be incredibly powerful,” said Jack Mustard, SDT chair and professor of geological sciences at Brown University.
The rover would collect about 31 samples that might someday be returned to Earth, representing “a legacy for understanding the development of habitability on the planet,” he told reporters.
The US space agency has not yet devised the technology to bring the cache back to Earth without disturbing its contents, and no plans have been set for any potential sample-return.
The next Nasa mission to Mars is a November launch of MAVEN, an orbiter that will study how Mars interacted with the solar wind and lost its atmosphere.
The European Space Agency will follow in 2018 with its ExoMars rover.
John Grunsfeld, Nasa’s associate administrator for science, said the 2020 Mars rover would get the US space agency to the next step in the “quest to answer the grand questions,” before a planned human mission in the 2030s.
“Do we see any evidence of past life in those habitable environments?” he said, alluding to the aims of the future missions.
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