Would inject some €400m into the Irish economy Says a new promotion campaign
Irish people who spend €4 billion a year on their foreign holidays, if only just 20% of this outlay was switched to spending it on “stay at home vacations” it could and would provide the country with an economic boost and bonus 0f up to €400 million a year.
This is according to a new campaign that aims to encourage Irish people to holiday at home this year.
The campaign and website, StayHome.ie, was unveiled by Senator Catherine Noone yesterday in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green.
“Unfortunately, many people won’t be in a position to take a holiday this year. But despite our current economic situation, many people are still holidaying abroad and they are spending plenty of money while they are at it.
The most recent figures available, for 2009, show that Irish people spent almost €4 billion on foreign holidays during the year,” Ms Noone said. “If we could get just a portion of these people to stay at home instead, it would give a great boost to the local economy.”
According to the most recent figures from the Central Statistics Office’s Household Travel Survey, Irish people spend €878 per person on a foreign holiday, while those who stay at home spend €209 on average.
Also on hand at St Stephen’s Green to launch the campaign was Minister of State for Tourism Michael Ring, Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, and Deirdre Regan of Ireland’s Blue Book.
James Reilly health minister says no IMF threat to Ireland's medical card holder's
Health Minister James Reilly has played down speculation that State-provided health schemes such as the medical card scheme may be under threat and that the ‘Troika’ may be seeking cuts to free health entitlements.
The Minister said today his understanding very clearly was that the IMF had made inquiries about the medical card scheme and how it operated.
“There has been no suggestion of anything else,” he added.
Dr Reilly was speaking to reporters at the National Health Conference in Dublin.
At the conference, a health adviser to the IMF had said that in order to spend public funds to best effect, it may be necessary to omit treatments from State schemes that were not cost-effective.
However, the Minister stressed that it was still the the Government’s goal is to deliver free GP care at the point of delivery to the entire population.
He said costings for free GP care had been worked out.
Accepting that when medical cards were extended to all over 70s there had been a gross underestimate of the number of people who were over 70 and entitled to free care, Dr Reilly said the Government had good census figures on the population of the country for the purposes of this scheme.
“We are doing this on a phased basis starting by providing free GP care to the people on the long-term illness scheme, then we will move to those on the high-tech schemes and then we will move on a phased basis to covering parts of the population on a increasing basis. We are costing it as we are going along – we are not going to have any nasty surprises.”
He said GP care, which was most effective and most convenient, had the barrier of a fee, whereas the more expensive hospital service, often at a distance from the patient, was free, and this needed to be addressed.
The Minister said 95% of chronic illness care could be delivered by GPs, and refocusing care away from hospitals towards primary care would require a transfer of resources from the hospitals.
Asked if there would be contractual issues involved in extending free GP care to long-term illness patients initially, the Minister said there would be discussions on the extension of free GP care with the IMO.
He said that while the current GP contract is supposed to be renogotiated if the proportion of the population with medical cards exceeds 40%, he did not believe this applied if additional GP visit cards, as opposed to full medical cards, were given to long-term illness and high-tech medicine patients.
“This is a separate issue and how that applies is another day’s work and a matter for discussion with the IMO.”
Currently, just under 39% of the population is covered by medical cards.
The Minister added that his Special Delivery Unit was currently working on outpatient waiting lists and hoped to have figures on numbers waiting in six to eight weeks.
He added that mandatory standards for quality and safety in healthcare settings including hospitals, which will lead to a hospital licensing system, would be published before the summer.
Arrests imminent’ over a Cavan Man kicked to death in front of his girlfriend
Ciaran with his girlfriend Emma Brogan
GARDAI are close to making arrests in the tragic case of a 22-year-old man who died three days after being kicked a number of times in the head at a St Patrick’s Day house party.
Sources say officers have identified and interviewed the two young men who they believe brutally attacked Ciaran O’Connell at a house near Mullagh, Co Cavan.
“Gardai will be in a position to make arrests in the very near future. This is a murder investigation — a definite line of enquiry is being followed,” said a source.
The suspects are from Kells, Co Meath, and the Mullagh area. Both men were known to Mr O’Connell.
He was beaten and kicked in the head in front of his devastated girlfriend Emma Brogan during the attack at around 4am on Sunday.
The investigation is being led by Superintendent Gerry O’Brien who said yesterday: “Ciaran was in the foetal position on the ground when he got a bad beating.
“All the people who attended the house party have attended the station and have been questioned.”
Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalised but Mr O’ Connell is expected to be buried next week as his body remains at the morgue in Marino, north Dublin, today after a post mortem was carried out yesterday.
Preliminary results confirmed Mr O’Connell died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
He was taken to Cavan General Hospital at 4.40am on Sunday and was later moved to Beaumont where he passed away yesterday morning.
It has emerged that the victim — who was originally from Dublin — had clung to life for over 48 hours which enabled his sister Sinead to fly home from Australia to be at his bedside when his life support machine was switched off yesterday.
Ciaran’s distraught girlfriend Emma posted on her Facebook page: ‘Rest in peace babe xxxx.’
Woman (34) who ran brothel in Galway jailed for three months
Monica Ciuciu operated brothel in Mary St. Galway (above picture)
A 34-year-old Romanian woman has been sentenced to three months in prison for operating a brothel in Galway city earlier this year.
Monica Ciuciu (34), of Cois Clair, Claregalway, Co Galway — and with a former rental address at Apartment 3, 15 Mary Street, Galway — pleaded guilty at Galway District Court yesterday to acting or assisting in the management of the brothel at the Mary Street address on February 12.
Judge Conal Gibbons said he did not believe Ciuciu when she said she had three children in Romania and had been working as a cleaner in Dublin for two weeks before coming to Galway to operate the brothel.
He said he didn’t believe her either when she said she had met an unnamed person in Dublin and travelled to Galway where she met a woman called Tina who left a key in a letterbox at the Mary Street address for her.
Ciuciu told the court she had operated the brothel on her own at the Mary Street apartment and did not know Tina’s surname.
Judge Conal Gibbons didn’t believe Ciuciu’s story and he remanded her in custody to give the man who had accompanied her to court time to get proof of the children’s existence in Romania.
When the matter was recalled later yesterday, solicitor Ronan Murphy produced photographs of the children.
Judge Gibbons said he was not being told the truth and he did not believe Ciuciu’s story about the woman named Tina.
He said he wanted to know whether Ciuciu was “part and parcel” of the brothel operation or whether she was a victim.
Mr Murphy said his client had pleaded guilty to running the brothel and she was doing so on her own as a sole trader.
“She is telling lies. I wish she didn’t tell me lies,” Judge Gibbons said before sentencing Ciuciu to three months in prison. Leave to appeal was granted.
It emerged at an earlier court sitting in February that Ciuciu had received two marriage proposals since arriving in Ireland six months ago.
AIB’s introduction of new fees ‘show two fingers to the Irish public’
AIB was today accused of showing “two fingers” to struggling taxpayers after the bank introduced a raft of new charges.
Up to one million customers of the State-owned bank will be hit with fees of around €90 per year — despite it being rescued to the tune of €20bn.
The bank will punish current account holders who cannot keep their balance above €2,500.
The bank is set to be met with fury by customers who will now only avoid fees if they meet strict new rules.
The move has been met with anger today with one Independent deputy accusing AIB bosses of “showing the two fingers” to the public.
Consumer groups described the move as “insulting” and are advising the bank’s one million customers to shop around with the view to moving savings.
As well as the attack on current accounts, savers will be hit with quarterly charges of €4.50 and transaction charges of 20c to 30c if their balance falls below the new level.
The measures — which come into force from May 28 — will strip up to €90 from customers’ savings.
They include:
- 20c charge for every debit card transaction
- 30c charge for every staff-assisted transaction — including withdrawals, cheques and lodgements
- 20c fee for every cash withdrawal from ATMs using AIB banklink cards and AIB debit cards
Up to 60pc of the bank’s customers will be affected.
The changes follow similar moves at Bank of Ireland, EBS and National Irish Bank (NIB) to make it more difficult for existing customers to avoid fees.
However, those over 60 on AIB Advantage, student accounts and graduate accounts are exempt from the measures.
Defending the move, the bank said it was necessary in order to “become a strong and viable entity again”.
“Free banking offerings across the industry have changed significantly in recent times,” said AIB director Bernard Byrne. “While this was a difficult decision to make, it is a necessary one if we are to continue to create the conditions in which we can become a strong and viable entity again.”
Chief executive of the National Consumer Agency (NCA), Ann Fitzgerald, described the move as “insulting”.
“This is really unacceptable. We will be writing to the Central Bank, as well as the regulator for the bank and asking, ‘is this is the consumers’ best interests?’”
And Independent TD for Dublin North Central Finian McGrath said the move represented a showing of “two fingers” to customers.
“We are talking about a bank that has had billions of taxpayers’ cash pumped into it. It is nothing short of outrageous. AIB are showing two fingers to its customers.”
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