Irish householders pay among the highest prices in Europe for electricity
IRISH PRICES ROSE TWICE AS MUCH AS THE REST OF EUROPE LAST YEAR
A new Eurostat report shows that Ireland has the fourth most expensive electricity in the EU.
Irish householders pay among the highest prices in Europe for electricity and they rose twice as much as the rest of Europe last year.
A new Eurostat report shows that Ireland has the fourth most expensive electricity in the EU and the price rose by 5.1pc in the second half of 2013 compared with just 2.8pc across Europe.
Consumers in Ireland pay €24.10 per 100 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity which is 20pc higher than the EU average of €20.10 and 34pc higher than our nearest neighbourBritain.
That makes us the fourth most expensive country in Europe for power behind Denmark, Germany and Cyprus.
Irish electricity prices are up to three times higher than the cheapest country Bulgaria, and twice as high as Romania.
The Eurostat figures show that gas prices in Ireland have soared by almost 15pc since 2011
When it comes to gas meanwhile Irish prices are closer to the average in Europe but prices rose by seven times as much here as elsewhere in Europe.
Householders here pay €7.20 per 100 kWh of gas which is only marginally above the EU average of €7.10, although the price is 22pc higher than in Britain.
Irish gas prices rose by 7.4pc in the second half of 2013 compared with the same period of 2012 while across Europe the average price increase was just 1pc.
Irish gas prices are up 16pc since 2011 which is nearly twice as much as the rest of Europe in that period.
When Eurostat adjusted prices into ‘purchasing power standards’ to take account of general differences in the cost of living in member states, Irish electricity prices were 10pc higher than average, but gas prices were slightly cheaper.
Some good news:-
Permanent TSB’s core business bank now profitable
Permanent TSB’s core business bank was profitable after impairments for the first four months of the year, according to its interim management statement.
Moreover, the 99.2% state-owned bank reported a big increase in mortgage lending and a stabilisation in mortgage arrears.
All three domestic banks — Bank of Ireland, AIB and PTSB — have reported a return to post provision profitability so far this year.
The three banks face a stringent set of stress tests later this year as part of the ECB’s comprehensive assessment of the banking system, which also includes an asset quality review. If any of these banks fail the stress tests, then they will be required to raise capital.
According to the PTSB interim management statement the group continues to maintain a significant buffer against regulatory requirements, “with capital attrition reducing as loss levels have abated.”
The bank reported a drop in early and late stage arrears across all portfolios with overall levels 10% below the peak reached last year. It expects this year’s impairment charge to be “significantly reduced” from 2013 levels.
Under its restructuring plan, that is still awaiting approval from the European Commission, the bank has been split into three entities: a good bank; an asset management unit that will run down its distressed assets, including mortgages, and a separate UK division.
According to the interim management statement, the asset management unit has met its Central Bank target on mortgage arrears, with 19,000 sustainable treatments offered to customers and 15,600 accepted.
The net interest margin which is a key indicator of profitability, is improving at a rate similar to last year, on the back of a growth in retail deposit volumes and an overall reduction in the cost of funds.
However, if the ECB reduces the interest rate at its next monthly meeting in June, then this would negatively impact the net interest margin, warned the bank. PTSB had roughly €15bn in tracker mortgages, which are directly priced off the main ECB rate.
New mortgage approvals are up 80% over the first four months of this year compared with last year. PTSB’s market share for new mortgages is now 13% compared with 1.2% at the end of 2012.
As well as an increase in new deposits, there has been a 60% reduction in borrowings from the ECB, from peak levels in 2007.
The loan to deposit ratio is 142% overall and 124% for the good bank.
Little Aoife gets her medical card back
A Toddler girl who is battling a brain tumour has had her cancelled medical card reinstated as the HSE apologised for what it called an administrative error.
Three-year-old Aoife Keogh, from Blessington, Co Wicklow was diagnosed with a brain tumour last May and was given a medical card for two years to cover treatments.
But in April, the card came up as invalid when her mother, Carly, attempted to use it in a pharmacy.
M/s Keogh wrote to the HSE two weeks ago but had heard nothing back, and yesterday her story appeared in apology
By midday the HSE had rung the mother-of-three to personally apologise, and reinstated her with a working card.
“It’s just such pure relief – there’s no other way to describe it,” said Ms Keogh. “I never expected such a quick turnaround because I’d had such little dealings with the HSE.”
The Blessington woman said the confusion over the card was, “quite stressful on top of everything else that is going on”.
“Yesterday at around 12.30pm I got a call from a person over medical cards and he apologised for the hassle of everything and confirmed that the card would remain in place until June 2015 as previously agreed,” said Ms Keogh.
A spokeswoman from the HSE explained that Aoife’s card had come up for review 18 months early and then invalidated because of an admin fault.
“Due to an administrative error at the medical card processing centre the family was brought into an additional review in error,” she said.
The spokeswoman also stated that, “the HSE wishes to sincerely apologise to the Keogh family for the genuine errors involved in the processing of their case and the subsequent distress and upset caused to them”.
Aoife, who is the youngest of three children, suffers from a life-long condition and will have to live with brain tumours.
But it is hoped that her current bout of chemotherapy will be her last, said Ms Keogh.
The mum-of-three also said that she was not alone in her plight.
“There are so many other people who haven’t had their story in the media and their children need help,” she said.
Ms Keogh’s story came to light after she spoke to members of Our Children’s Health campaign.
The group is currently lobbying the Government to have a piece of legislation updated allowing terminally ill children and youngsters living with congenital conditions to have immediate access to medical cards.
Big confusion,
After months of confusion surrounding Aoife’s card, which originally kicked off last December when her mum was asked to fill in review forms, it took just half a day to sort out.
Ms Keogh had written to the HSE saying she had a card until June 2015 and that filling in the review forms was quite time consuming.
The HSE replied to her in January saying there was no need to fill in the forms but in April she discovered her daughter’s card had “just stopped working”.
James Reilly says €108m in health savings are not achievable
MINISTER SAYS MATTER FOR GOVERNMENT AS TO WHERE MONEY WILL NOW COME FROM
JAMES REILLY SAYS:
“We don’t want doctors looking after patients nurses could be looking after; we don’t want nurses looking after patients that health care assistants could be looking after.”
More than €100 million in previously-anticipated pay savings in the health service this year are not achievable, Minister for Health James Reilly has said.
He said it was a matter for the whole of Government to determine where this money would come from.
The HSE’s service plan for the year was based on €290 million in savings being delivered under the Haddington Road agreement, as well as a further €108 million in pay savings.
Consultancy report
The Irish Times reported last month that a consultancy report commissioned by the health service had forecast that the Haddington Road deal may only produce €212 million in savings, plus or minus 20 per cent.
Dr Reilly said the €290 million target could be achieved at a stretch.
Proposed measures set out in a new HSE plan aimed at bridging the gap between the €212 million figure and €290 million target, such as changing skill mixes, were at the heart of the row between nurses and health management over the weekend.
Speaking yesterday, the Minister said the €108 million in savings which was set out in the health budget for the year was not achievable.
The consultancy report had shown the savings were “not available in the manner originally perceived”.
He said this was now a matter for negotiations between theDepartment of Health, the Department of the Taoiseachand the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Separately, the Minister accused the country’s main nursing union of leaving itself open to the charge of “scaremongering” in its claim that patient safety would be put at risk in the move to alter the ratio between nurses and healthcare assistants. He said the changes had been agreed under the savings attached to Haddington Road.
The Minister also stressed he wanted to put to bed the idea that the model of care could not change, saying “the model of care has to change”.
Standards
This country was a long way off the London Royal College of Nursing advice on standards of one nurse per 2½ health care assistants in community service units, he said in Kenmare Co Kerry, where he opened a primary care centre which brings the town’s eight GPs and other practitioners under one roof.
Dr Reilly said in some big teaching hospitals in Ireland there were nine nurses to one health care assistant. In some other countries the ratio was 2.8 nurses per health care assistant.
“I want the patient looked at in the lowest level of complexity that is safe, timely and efficient and as near to home as possible,” he said.
“We don’t want doctors looking after patients nurses could be looking after; we don’t want nurses looking after patients that health care assistants could be looking after.”
Expensive
There had to be an end to “inappropriate use of very expensive time”.
He said the expanded role for nurses in taking over colonoscopy examinations and such from doctors and managing patient care as practice nurses, meant they too had to give a little bit.
White-tailed eagle chick hatched in Clare is sibling of shot bird
FIRST BIRTHS OF THE YEAR TAKE PLACE IN MOUNTSHANNON AND GLENGARRIFF
The first white-tailed eagle chicks of the year have been hatched in Co Clare and west Cork in recent weeks, it was announced today.
The rare birds were born in nests at Mountshannon, Co Clare and Glengarriff in west Cork, according to the Golden Eagle Trust which runs the reintroduction programme .
The chick born in Mountshannon is a sibling of a bird which was shot and killed three months ago. The deceased bird was one of two chicks born to the Mountshannon pair last year which became the first chicks to fly from a nest inIreland in over a century. The crime is under investigation by the Garda.
The chick born in Glengarriff, the first of the year to hatch, uunfortunately died at two weeks old. This was likely due to a combination of bad weather and inexperienced adults, Golden Eagle Trust project manager Dr Alan Mee said.
Nesting pairs at sites in Kerry and Galwayhave also laid eggs which have yet to hatch. At least half of the fourteen pairs of eagles across four counties have nested and laid eggs in recent weeks. Some pairs, including a nest in Killarney National Park, failed to breed.
These are the latest chicks in the reintroduction programme which began in 2007 with the release of 100 young Norwegian eagles in Killarney National Park .
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan described it as a “very promising development” after the shocking killing earlier this year ” “That was a dark day for this ambitious project to reintroduce these magnificent birds of prey into Ireland,” he said. “I hope these young eagles will have a long life in our skies,” he said.
The pair at Mountshannon gives the general public a chance to see some of the most “spectacular birds” at “close quarters”, he said.
Dr Mee warned about risks of disturbance during the early stages of nesting which would be detrimental to success and could result in chicks being left unguarded.
“We would caution people not to approach the nest area but instead avail of the unique opportunity to watch from a nesting pair of sea eagles from nearby Mountshannon pier,” he said.
The increase in the number of nesting pairs is “encouraging” and “bodes well for the future of the species” he said. White-tailed eagles can live for 25 to 30 years and generally mate for life.
“Ultimately the viability of the reintroduced programme depends on these chicks going on to breed themselves in Ireland. Each step brings us closer to that goal,” he said.
The reintroduced birds came from Norway and the Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland also welcomed the news: “ This is an excellent example of international cooperation on the practical level, aiming at preserving nature and biodiversity for the benefit of future generations,” Roald Næss said.
The white-tailed eagle reintroduction project is managed by the Golden Eagle Trust with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. One hundred white-tailed eagles were released in Killarney National, park between 2007 and 2011 and 29 have been recovered dead mainly due to illegal poisoning.
The birds were historically a part of the Irish landscape before being made extinct here in the early 20th century due to human persecution.
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