News Ireland update Monday as told by Donie

One in eight drivers 12.5% admit to a collision or ‘A near miss’ with cyclists

  

12 1/2 % of  Irish drivers has admitted to either colliding with, or only barely avoiding an accident with, a cyclist in the last two years.

A survey published this morning by AA Motor Insurance, which polled 12,500 Irish motorists, also revealed that 11 per cent of motorists have been involved in similar incidents involving a pedestrian, and a similar number reported run-ins with animals.

5 per cent of respondents said they had hit, or almost hit, a motorcyclist – while 0.7 per cent, or around 90 motorists, said they had had a similar encounter with someone on horseback.

On a county-by-county basis, Dublin drivers were most likely to have a near-miss with cyclists – with 17 per cent of motorists admitting to an incident – ahead of Galway (14 per cent) and Wicklow (13 per cent).

On encounters with pedestrians, Donegal and Kerry had the worst records, at 17 per cent, while Mayo was close behind on 16 pcer cent. Wicklow (8 per cent), Roscommon (7 per cent) and Dublin (6 per cent) had the highest incident rate when it came to pedestrians.

Across all categories, male drivers were more likely to be involved in collisions or near misses – with 14 per cent of men admitting to accidents or close shaves, compared to 11 per cent.

The survey also found that such accidents were most likely to occur in wet weather – with 17 per cent of the incidents occurring in rain. Perhaps surprisingly, only 4 per cent of run-ins were recorded during fog.

“Naturally road surfaces are slicker and visibility can be affected during downpours, cyclists may swerve to avoid a puddle you won’t necessarily see,” said AA Ireland’s Conor Faughnan.

“Pedestrians will be anxious to get out of the rain – so motorists should exercise extreme care and expect the unexpected.”

Less than half of incidents reported to the survey occurred during daylight, with 20 per cent of incidents happening at dusk and another 28 per cent during darkness hours – stats which Faughnan said underlined the dangers of night-time driving.

“Given that the peak traffic volumes occur during daylight hours, the number of incidents occurring after dark is disproportionately high,” he said.

Siptu Union gives warning over Castlebar Hospital outsourcing dispute

   

A DISPUTE at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar over outsourcing of vacant posts could spread to the district hospital in Ballina, a union has warned.

Siptu national health divisional organiser Paul Bell yesterday said that hospital management had refused to negotiate a settlement to the row over the outsourcing of vacant posts in its cleaning department. He said the dispute, which involves some 90 Siptu members, would escalate to industrial action at the end of February.

Mr Bell said with no meetings with the Health Service Executive scheduled on the issue, Siptu members in the district hospital in Ballina were planning to engage in the dispute in support of colleagues in Castlebar.

Mr Bell said the union had put forward proposals on cost-neutral replacement of staff who had retired over the past year or who were due to retire prior to the February 29th deadline for pension changes – which is likely to see large numbers of staff leaving the public service overall.

The proposals would have involved part-time workers in the community such as home-helps taking up roles in the hospital which were vacant as a result of staff leaving. He said this would be within the terms of the Croke Park agreement. He was “aghast” this proposal had been rejected by HSE management in Mayo.

“The local management’s response beggars belief as they formally advised this union that they could not assign hospital work to home-helps due to an issue with the payroll system, which I must say is bizarre, as HSE hospitals in the northwest and southwest already engage home-helps in hospital hygiene operations.”

He said the HSE was advising it would stand over the part-time workers’ agreement which permits in this case low-paid workers to work up to 39 hours.

Nearly 600 public care home beds units to go in HSE cuts

  

ALMOST 600 public beds are expected to be closed in community nursing units this year, under health spending plans announced today.

The HSE is to set out where savings of more than €700 million are to be made in 2012. Minister for Health James Reilly approved a reworked service plan for the HSE late on Friday night. He had previously rejected a draft drawn up by the HSE just after Christmas. The approved service plan is due to be put before the Oireachtas early today and then published.

Minister of State for Health Kathleen Lynch yesterday confirmed that the 555 bed closures contained in the draft service plan presented before Christmas would not change in the updated plan.

Ms Lynch, who has responsibility for disability, mental health and older people, indicated the part of the plan relating to her area of responsibility did not look as bleak as it had before Christmas. “There is an improvement in what was expected in relation to disability and older people, and €35 million in relation to mental health posts has been ring-fenced.”

There is also understood to be additional ring-fenced funding under the new plan for primary and community care services, which are overseen by Minister Róisín Shortall.

The plan has also been changed in relation to hospital services: Dr Reilly had argued he did not want to see a 5 per cent cut in funding translate into a 5 per cent cut in hospital activity – a move that would have affected thousands of patients.

Instead there will be greater emphasis on efficiencies. In a statement on Friday night Dr Reilly said: “I am pleased that the approach taken in developing this year’s service plan means that the reduction in funding levels has not translated into an equivalent drop in the level of service activity.

“It also reflects Government priorities in areas such as primary care, mental health and children. My intention now is to accelerate the reform of how health services are funded and delivered in order to achieve a more productive and cost-effective health system.”

House prices fell further last year than in the year 2010

House prices continued to fall across the country last year, with Co Wexford showing the steepest decline at 34%.

  

House prices continued to fall across the country in 2011, with Co Wexford showing the steepest decline at 34%. According to the annual house price survey published in today’s Sunday Times,  house prices fell further last year than they did in 2010.

Average prices fell by 17% last year, compared to an average decline of 12% in 2010. The annual survey shows prices have fallen for over four years and values are now close to where they stood at the turn of the millennium.

Nationally, on average, those who purchased at the peak in early 2007 are now living in homes worth 55% less than they paid for them.

The five best performing markets overall were Counties Monaghan and Longford, both down 5%; Limerick City, down 5.4%; Co Kilkenny, down 10% and Co Roscommon, which reported a negligible year-on-year change in house prices.

The worst performing locations, in addition to Wexford, were Tipperary South, West Co Dublin, Dublin 10 and Dublin 20; all of which were down by 25%.  Dublin 24 fell by 23%, Dublin 9 homes dropped by 22.5% and Dublin 7 houses fell by 22%.