News Ireland update as told by Donie on Tuesday

60% of Irish obese people

Are in denial of their Over-weight problem

 

IRISH PEOPLE are in denial about the extent to which they as individuals are overweight, according to the authors of Government-sponsored new research on obesity by Safe-Food.

Some 61 per cent of Irish people are overweight, but only 40 per cent see themselves as such.

The research was carried out by safefood, the cross-Border agency which promotes food safety on the island of Ireland.

It involved a representative sample of 810 adults surveyed by Millward Brown Lansdowne on the island of Ireland in December.

Safefood’s director of human health and nutrition, Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, said the research showed there was a general awareness of the dangers of obesity in Ireland, but many of those at risk felt the dangers pertained to other people and not themselves.

She explained: “There is a big gap between perception and reality and that particularly relates to being overweight rather than those who are obese,” she said.

“It’s seen as someone else’s health problem or someone much heavier than you as an individual.”

The research also found that, while almost all Irish people recognised that obesity is a health problem, many did not know that simply being overweight is also bad for one’s health.

Having a waist size greater than 32 inches for a woman or 37 inches for a man is a clear indication that a person is carrying excess weight.

Safefood has been running a hard-hitting Stop the Spread campaign on television which seeks to confront those who are in denial about their weight. Only 35 per cent of people knew that waist measurement is around the belly button area, according to the report. A fifth of those surveyed had measured their waist in the six weeks before the survey was conducted.

The research also revealed that only one in four of the population (23 per cent) has told their partner that they needed to lose weight, with women more likely to do this than men.

Similarly, 27 per cent of respondents claim to have told a friend they needed to lose weight.

Dr Foley-Nolan said obesity was “unquestionably” the biggest public health issue in Ireland surpassing that of alcohol and cigarettes, particularly with the attendant problem of type 2 diabetes.

According to the National Adult Nutrition Survey earlier this year, 61 per cent of adults in the Republic of Ireland were either overweight (37 per cent) or obese (24 per cent).

The prevalence of obesity in 18- to 64-year-old adults has increased significantly since 1990 from 8 per cent to 26 per cent in men, and from 13 per cent to 21 per cent in women.

Government could sell Aer Lingus,Dublin Port and Coillte stakes in agreed Troika bailout deal

  

The state assets of 25% in Aer Lingus is included in the list of State companies recommended for sale as part of the bailout agreed with the EU-IMF troika.

The list has been drawn up by an interdepartmental group which identified assets and commercial State companies that could be sold in addition to the minority stake in ESB, a sale already agreed with the EU Commission, ECB and IMF.

Other key assets which have been identified as suitable for sale include Dublin Port, which has been provisionally valued at €400 million, and parts of Bord Gáis and Coillte.

The report of the group, drawn from six Government departments, cautioned against the “fire sale” of any asset and also emphasised that the stake in Aer Lingus would have to be sold at the right time.

The value of the stake, at less than €100 million, may be considered too low at present.

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has also been examining how the airline’s valuable Heathrow slots can be safeguarded in the event of a sale. A senior Government source said that any outcome would have to include protection for the slots.

The report has been discussed by the Government’s Economic Management Council – comprising Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin – but has yet to be tabled for discussion at a full Cabinet meeting.

However, it has formed the basis for detailed discussions with officials from the troika. Its latest 10-day mission to Ireland is assessing the Government’s implementation of the four-year €85 billion rescue package during the last quarter of 2011.

A Fianna Fáil delegation, which met the troika yesterday, said its officials had praised the Croke Park agreement, saying it was working well. “They told us that it was a good model as it was achieving greater efficiencies through a consensual approach,” said a party spokesman.

The assessment does not tally with the views of some senior figures in Fine Gael and in business who have called for reform of the Croke Park deal in light of deteriorating economic growth prospects.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin will meet senior officials on Thursday morning, ahead of two separate media conferences. The Government has said it has met all the targets laid down in the programme to date.

Mr Gilmore insisted all in Government agreed there was no need for a second bailout despite weekend comments by his Labour colleague Joan Burton that a second rescue could not be ruled out: “There is a single, unified Government position on this and that is to get out of the programme as quickly as possible, and all of the measures and action we are taking are aimed in that direction.”

Fianna Fáil challenged suggestions from Government sources that the troika was seeking €5 billion in State asset disposals. The party said that the troika had set no targets.

New not-for-profit Entrepreneur to help firms with on-line marketing in the west of Ireland

  

Eyre Square in Galway City above

Former Googler Maricka Burke Keogh has decided to channel her online marketing experience into helping businesses and start-ups in Galway and the West of Ireland to help them and capitalise on the on-line marketing tools the web has to offer.

She has set up a not-for-profit on-line marketing group called On-line Marketing in Galway.

The group has been running since August 2011 as a network for local marketers and businesses in the West of Ireland to share their online marketing knowledge and techniques.

Burke Keogh said the idea for the group came to her when she migrated from Google to take up a position as senior online marketing executive in the energy management software company Enerit, which is based in Galway. Another colleague at Enerit, Eimear O’Brien, has also volunteered her time to work with the group.

Burke Keogh said the aim of the group is to help businesses understand how they can increase their web presence and capitalise on internet tools such as Foursquare and Google Places to market their businesses.

GALWAY TO SHARE IN ONLINE RETAIL COMPANY’S NEW JOBS BOOST

       

Ten new jobs are to be created in the Galway area with a €3.3 million euro investment into an online retail technology company.

OpenJaw Technologies has announced the creation of 45 jobs to be shared between Dublin and Galway over the next two years.

OpenJaw Technologies delivers online retail technology and services to the global travel industry.