Irish Banks to face finance committee over mortgage crisis
THE LABOUR PARTY CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE, CIARAN LYNCH, SAID CHIEF EXECUTIVES COULD HELP SHINE A SPOTLIGHT ON SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS TO THE MORTGAGE CRISIS
The State’s four leading banks will have to explain just how they are tackling the mortgage debt crisis and offering people long-term and sustainable solutions to their debts when their executives appear before the Oireachtas Finance Committee starting today .
The Labour Party chairman of the committee, Ciaran Lynch, said last night that the appearance of chief executives of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB before the committee would help shine a spotlight on sustainable, long-term solutions to the mortgage crisis.
The first senior executive to appear before the committee will be AIB’s chief executive David Duffy. Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank executives will be questioned tomorrow, while Permanent TSB will appear at the committee on Thursday.
“A key focus will be finding sustainable, long-term solutions to the mortgage crisis and measures to ease the burden on struggling homeowners and distressed borrowers,” Mr Lynch said.
Specific targets
He pointed out that when the banks last appeared before the committee “there were no specific targets in place to provide solutions for homeowners in arrears. Those targets are now in place and, more specifically, we will consider how AIB is meeting its targets and ensuring that there is a consistency of approach in dealing with distressed borrowers.”
He pointed out that when the banks last appeared before the committee “there were no specific targets in place to provide solutions for homeowners in arrears. Those targets are now in place and, more specifically, we will consider how AIB is meeting its targets and ensuring that there is a consistency of approach in dealing with distressed borrowers.”
Ahead of the hearings, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath criticised the banks’ piecemeal approach to the mortgage crisis as a “huge drag on the economy” that “is causing enormous distress for thousands of families across the country”.
Ireland’s Junior doctors vote overwhelmingly to go on strike
Industrial action in Irish hospitals likely within weeks after 97% vote by NCHDs
Ireland’s junior doctors have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action over their campaign to reduce “dangerously long” working hours.
Junior doctors have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action over their campaign to reduce “dangerously long” working hours.
Some 97% of the 1,000 non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) who voted on the proposed and favoured industrial action, according to the result of the ballot released by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) this evening. Some 56 per cent of junior doctors voted in the postal ballot.
It said a special meeting of the organisation’s NCHD committee would take place tomorrow to decide on the next steps in their campaign. A meeting of the IMO Council will also be held tomorrow at which formal approval for the campaign of industrial action will be sought.
Eric Young, the IMO’s assistant director of industrial relations, described the ballot result as unambiguous.
“Doctors are worried and angry. The concerns which they highlighted about the danger posed to hospital patients and to themselves continue to be ignored and there is now a strong appetite to step up the campaign to force the HSE and the Department of Health to do what everyone knows must be done – implement the European Working Time Directive and stop the dangerous and cruel exploitation of NCHDs in Irish hospitals.”
Mr Young criticised Minister for Health James Reilly, who has said he sympathises with the plight of NCHDs.
“When you read his comments in support of NCHDs, you’d think he was still president of the IMO. But he’s the Minister for Health now and he can fix this chaotic situation with the stroke of a pen, but he won’t do it.”
The IMO and the HSE have agreed to meet on Wednesday in relation to contingency plans for industrial action. Major disruption to hospital services is expected in the event of industrial action, with only emergency services certain to be unaffected. The IMO is expected to give three weeks’notice of any action.
The junior doctors are seeking an immediate end to shifts in excess of 24 hours and agreement for a planned move to compliance with the European directive by the end of next year.
John Perry’s credibility badly damaged after Danske Bank ruling against him
Perry has won time with the agreement but his standing as minister of state has been severely undermined. He retains the support of Taoiseach Enda Kenny but serious questions remain as to whether he can credibly continue in Government in command of the small business portfolio.
The junior Minister’s statement last evening disclosed little enough about the new arrangement with Danske, with which he has been in prolonged and difficult talks over unpaid debts since the start of 2012.
The agreement is understood to involve assets disposal and longer loan maturities but the debt itself is not settled. A Commercial Court judgment against him remains in place, as does a bank-appointed receiver.
Perry will still have to work hard to uphold his side of the bargain, something he was unable to do in the face of a torrent of Dankse pressure when his finances veered out of control not long after he took office.
In many respects, the embattled Minister has met difficulties similar to those confronted by thousands of small business owners and mortgage holders.
Now that he has reached agreement with his bank, the hope must that he can indeed overcome his troubles and establish order in his affairs. That is only reasonable.
In political terms, however, Perry emerges badly from this affair. Court records show he used his formal ministerial title in correspondence with Danske on his private difficulties. Not only that, but he borrowed from the State-owned Allied Irish Banks to meet certain business liabilities and borrowed from the State-supported Bank of Ireland to meet a big tax bill.
Perry’s statement says all his tax affairs have been and remain up to date – but can he seriously exercise any political authority in exchanges with the banks on small business matters? Hardly.
Further nagging questions arise in relation to the code of conduct for office holders.
His increasingly fraught engagement with Danske is set out in court exhibits and it is fair to assume he spent the summer trying to reach an agreement with Danske.
Still, the official code of conduct says an office-holder “should not carry on a professional practice while in office”. It goes on to say they “may make arrangements for the maintenance of a practice until such time as s/he ceases to be an office-holder and returns to the practice”.
The code also says office-holders “should not take any part in the decision-making or management of the affairs of a company or practice and should dispose of, or otherwise set aside for the time being, any financial interests which might conflict, or be seen to conflict, with their position as an officeholder”.
Perry has never answered how he reconciles his dealings with Danske with his obligations under the code. He retains Kenny’s support but his ministerial stock has been laid very low indeed.
Enda Kenny has yet to respond to Stephanie's letter on Priory Hall suicide dad
Enda Kenny has not responded to the heartbreaking letter from Priory Hall resident Stephanie Meehan (above with her two children) four days after she made it public.
There has been an outcry since Stephanie allowed the letter, which she wrote in the wake of her partner Fiachra Daly’s suicide, to be published.
In the letter, she told the Taoiseach how banks were putting them under pressure on their mortgage in the days before Fiachra took his own life in July.
Stephanie told how her life, and the lives of her two children, will never be the same again.
She said Fiachra (37) had ended his life because of the stress and worry over the fire-trap homes from which they were evacuated, along with nearly 300 other families, in 2011.
Pleading for action on the blight of Priory Hall, Stephanie asked the Taoiseach to act.
“What will it take now for someone to listen and act on something that should’ve been dealt with two years ago and saved a lot of taxpayers money and, most of all, saved a life?” she said.
But asked if she had received a reply from the Taoiseach’s office since she sent her letter, Stephanie said she had got nothing “apart from an automated response”. Stephanie made her letter public last Thursday afternoon, and received a wave of support from people all over the country after they read how banks had sent demands for arrears payments and forms to be signed just days before Fiachra took his life.
RESPONSE
She is now set to appear on the Late Late Show in the coming weeks to talk about her life since the family were evacuated from Priory Hall in October 2011.
The Herald contacted the Department of An Taoiseach for a response to Stephanie’s letter, but was told that no statement would be made on it.
HIGH-POTENCY STATIN drugs may help prevent dementia
HIGH-POTENCY STATINS SUCH AS ATORVASTATIN AND ROSUVASTATIN SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT INVERSE ASSOCIATION WITH DEVELOPING DEMENTIA
THE MOST COMMONLY PRESCRIBED CHOLESTEROL-LOWERING DRUGS MAY HELP PREVENT DEMENTIA WHILE ALSO REDUCING THE RISK OF DEVELOPING CATARACTS, NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS.
A study of almost 58,000 Taiwanese people aged 65 and over who were followed up for four and a half years found that those taking the highest dosage of statin drugs had a lower risk of developing symptoms of pre-senile and senile dementia.
In comparison with a control group, the 5,500 participants who went on to develop dementia were less likely to have been prescribed a statin or had taken the drug in low dose.
Statin effects
Statins are widely used in older people and those with a previous history of cardiovascular disease to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Statins are widely used in older people and those with a previous history of cardiovascular disease to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
However, in contrast to this latest research, some recent reports of statin-associated cognitive impairment have led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to list statin-induced cognitive changes as a potential side effect.
Lead investigator Dr Tin-Tse Lin of the National University Hospital in Taipei told the European Society of Cardiology congress at the weekend that “patients who received the highest total equivalent doses of statins had a three-fold decrease in the risk of developing dementia”.
He added: “It was the potency of the statins . . . which was a major determinant in reducing dementia. High-potency statins such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin showed a significant inverse association with developing dementia.”
Statins can cause side effects such as liver and muscle inflammation and are a common reason why patients stop taking their medication. Taking higher doses of statins may increase the risk of experiencing these side effects.
A Lowers risk of cataracts
Meanwhile, separate research from the US presented at the conference showed statin use was associated with a 19 per cent lower risk of developing cataracts compared with those who did not take them.
Meanwhile, separate research from the US presented at the conference showed statin use was associated with a 19 per cent lower risk of developing cataracts compared with those who did not take them.
Earthlings are really Martians, says a new theory
Life on Earth was kick-started thanks to a key mineral deposited by a meteorite from Mars, according to a novel theory aired on Thursday.
The vital ingredient was an oxidised mineral form of the element molybdenum, which helped prevent carbon molecules — the building blocks of life — from degrading into a tar-like goo.
The idea comes from Steven Benner, a professor at the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida, who was to present it at an international conference of geochemists in Florence, Italy.
“It’s only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed,” Benner said in a press release.
“This form of molybdenum couldn’t have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did.”
In this violent epoch of the Solar System, the infant Earth was pounded by comets and asteroids.
Mars, too, would have come under bombardment, and the impacts would have caused Martian rubble to bounce into space, where they would have lingered until eventually being captured by Earth’s gravity.
Recent analysis of a Martian meteorite showed the presence of molybdenum, as well as a boron, an element that would also have helped nurture life by helping to protect RNA — a primitive cousin to DNA — from the corrosive effects of water.
“The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians, that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock,” said Benner.
“It’s lucky that we ended up here nevertheless, as certainly Earth has been the better of the two planets for sustaining life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained on Mars, there might not have been a story to tell.”
Other theories about how life began on Earth suggest that water, the key ingredient, was brought by comets, famously dubbed “dirty snowballs,” which comprise ice and dust left from the building of the Solar System.
Another hypothesis, called panspermia, suggests bacteria hitched a ride on space rocks, splashing into Earth’s warm and welcoming sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment