Donie's news Ireland on Friday

Motorists in Ireland are paying a very heavy price as fuel prices keep on rising

   

The Automobile Association (AA) has calculated that if someone was paying €142 a month for petrol or diesel in Jan 2009 that they would now be paying €300 per month for the same quantity of fuel to run their car. Back in Jan 2009 the average price on forecourts for a litre of petrol was estimated by surveys at 95 cent a litre.

Since then it has gone up to anywhere between €1.60 and €1.70 (and sometimes more) depending on where people buy their fill. 

People who travel long distances to and from work each day face even bigger monthly fuel charges, on top of possible tolls and parking charges, even before they take into account the cost of taxing and insuring their car, and the repayments to the bank if they’ve taken out a loan to buy their vehicle. (Those loan repayments, because they are made over a short period, can be like an extra small mortgage in themselves).

Many people are struggling as a result. Yet motorists seem to be an easy target for any government that is seeking to raise extra cash. Since Brian Lenihan’s emergency budget in 2008 there have been five tax increases that impacted on motorists. These have included raised VAT, the introduction of carbon tax and three excise duty increases. All together it is estimated that these have added 21 cent to the price of a litre of fuel. It adds up.

It has been estimated that drivers pay over 10% (or close to €4bn) of all tax revenues collected by the State. This total is reached through a combination of excise duty, VAT, and annual motor tax, as well as vehicle registration tax (VRT) when a new car is purchased (a source of revenue that very obviously has diminished greatly as new car sales have collapsed from their peak in 2008).

Not all of the increase in fuel prices can be blamed on the Government, of course. Some of the increase in prices can be attributed to the weaker euro against the dollar (the latter being the benchmark currency for trading in energy supplies) and increased oil prices themselves. But that does not absolve the government from blame. 54% of the price you pay for petrol goes to the Government and almost 50% of what you pay for diesel goes directly to the State coffers.

In Jul 2008, when oil on international markets peaked at $147, the average price of a litre of petrol in Irish forecourts cost €1.36. That is well short of what it costs today. The tax makes up the difference. Yet back then, when he was leader of the opposition, Enda Kenny asked the then government to ensure that excise duties and VAT “are not used as a further battering ram against the hard pressed consumer”.

The AA’s Conor Faughnan has expressed amazement that there has not been more fuss about it, given that the costs to motorists are a multiple of the much criticised €100 household charge introduced recently. He reckons the typical motorist spends at least €1,600 on fuel each year. He compares the rising cost of fuel to a pay cut and says that it is impacting directly on people’s ability to spend in their local economies.

Fianna Fáil has spotted an opportunity to make political mischief here, almost oblivious to the fact that essentially all of this is its fault. It wants excise duties on petrol and auto diesel to be cut by 4 cent, but the Government has said no.

It may seem like a small amount but John Perry, the Minister of State for Small Business, claimed this week that this would cost the Exchequer €178m in lost revenue in a full year. He said this loss of money “would have a negative impact on the performance of our public finances, which is vital to our economic wellbeing and to our exiting the EU-IMF programme”.

His Minister for Finance Michael Noonan waded in by accusing Fianna Fáil of living in an “economic dream land” because of the party’s call for a cut in fuel taxes.

This didn’t stop Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley from warning Noonan that he “should be careful of accusing others of losing touch with reality at a time when his Government is heaping new charges upon families and is apparently clueless about the effect this is having on people”.

This is a major issue for many people in many parts of the country. Rising house prices in the last decade persuaded many people to purchase seemingly affordable houses in more remote and previously rural areas because they appeared cheap relative to prices in the main cities. Many are in negative equity as a result, living far from their original homes and now suffering additional and unexpected costs.

On radio this week Kiera Lambe told me how she and her husband Peter get up at 5.30 each morning to prepare for 32 mile trip to Dublin to make work at 8am (having dropped their four year-old child at the crèche at 7am).

THEY bought their house in Rathdrum in 2005 because it was more affordable than houses in the south Dublin suburbs of Sallynoggin or Dalkey where they had grown up. Kiera has since lost her job and found a new one, but despite the early start for their little girl she has had to arrange with her employer for an early start, simply so she and her husband can use one car instead of two. The second car now sits largely unused in the driveway. She and her husband have to fill the tank at least once a week — solely for the work/crèche drives — and it costs them about €350 per month.

Their annual spend on petrol now equates to about four monthly mortgage payments and that’s before other motoring costs are taken into account.

As I discovered from listeners after the broadcast of the interview the problem is widespread throughout the country; the Lambes story is typical. Faughnan of the AA has been told by some motorists that have, or are considering, quitting their jobs because the rising cost of fuel wipes out the benefit of going to work. The Government is apparently considering changes to the motor tax regime in the next budget to raise more money.

Just how much more can many motorists bear though? And is there an argument for reducing the burden so that hardpressed motorists have more money to spend in other areas of the economy?

Ireland’s census 2011 reveals the fastest growing towns and counties in the country

        

A full list of population growth by county, city and province is included in the gallery below.

The south Dublin town of Saggart has been unveiled as Ireland’s fastest-growing town, in new figures published by the Central Statistics Office.

The town’s population grew from 868 in the 2006 census to 2,144 - a change of 147 per cent in the intervening five years.

Courtown Harbour in Wexford had the second-highest growth, rising up to 2,857last year from 1,421 in 2006 – a rise of 101 per cent.

Another town in the South Dublin jurisdiction is the third fastest-growing town – Newcastle’s population has grown by 77 per cent in the five years between censuses; its population of 2,659 in last April’s census is up from the 1,506 it had recorded six years ago.

Carrigtwohill is fourth, and the fastest-growing town in Munster: the Co Cork town has seen its population spike from 2,782 to 4,551 in five years, a boost of 64 per cent. Ballymahon, Co Longford, is fifth with a rise from 963 to 1,563 - an increase of 62 per cent.

Drogheda remains Ireland’s most populous town, with 38,578 inhabitants, ahead of Dundalk at 37,816. Swords has a population of 36,924, ahead of Bray (31,872) and Navan (28,559).

Density: Dublin areas rank highly in the most densely populated towns, with towns in the Fingal jurisdiction occupying the top three places. Kinsealy-Drinan is the most densely populated, at 5,101 per square kilometre, ahead of Lusk and Swords.

Sallins in Kildare has the highest density outside the capital, at 3,596, while Donabate, the overall Dublin city area, and Bray also rank highly among the most densely-populated areas.

By comparison, Leitrim has the most rural population in the country: fewer than one-in-ten people in the county live in an urban area.

The population of all five of Ireland’s cities has risen since 2006: the population of Dublin city and its suburbs now stands at 1,110,627, up by 6.2 per cent on the 2006 census. 39 per cent of Ireland’s urban population lives in the capital’s environs.

Cork’s population is up by 4.3 per cent, to 198,582, while the population of Limerick is up by a relatively modest 0.2 per cent to 91,454.

The numbers living in Galway are up by 5.6 per cent to 76,778, while the numbers in Waterford are up by 4.7 per cent to 51,519.

In all of the above examples, the figures include the inhabitants in city suburbs outside of city council areas.

County by County

Laois has the highest-growing population of any county in Ireland, with growth of some 20.1 per cent – up from 67,059 in 2006 to 80,559 between censuses. Cavan andFingal are next, with growth of 14.3 per cent (to 73,183) and 14.2 per cent (to273,991) respectively.

Indeed, most of Leinster has seen the highest population growth, with Longford, Meath, Kildare and Louth next on the list, before Cork County’s 10.5 per cent breaks the eastern stranglehold.

Only two jurisdictions have seen their population fall: the territory of Cork City Council is down down by a mere 188 people, or 0.2 per cent, to 119,230, while Limerick City Council’s population is down by 4.5 per cent (2,684 people) to 57,106.

In both of those cases, however, stats elsewhere show that the population of the overall city and its suburbs have increased, so the figures indicate that people are simply choosing to live in more suburban areas of those two cities.

Bar sales down 6% in Ireland as the consumption of alcohol falls

   

Public bar sales in Ireland is down, and adult consumption of alcohol has also fallen, and the prospects for the hospitality sector “remain weak”, according to a new drinks industry report.

Drinks Market Performance 2011, a report released by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI), was put together by Anthony Foley of DCU Business School. It shows that the overall drinks market and alcohol consumption levels in Ireland were “essentially static” last year due to the recession and changing consumption patterns.

In 2011, the total value of bar sales declined by 7.2 per cent, with a 5.5 per cent fall in sales volumes, the report showed.

Ireland’s pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants are therefore continuing to suffer major declines with a knock-on effect on local businesses and revenues.

In particular, the declines in bar sales are having a significant impact on jobs in this employment-intensive sector, where over 5,000 pub jobs have been lost in the last two years.

The declines in the on-trade were offset by a 5 per cent increase in off-sales, the majority of which were generated through large retail multiples. Off sales now account for almost 60 per cent of all alcohol consumed in Ireland. DIGI said that this continues the shift towards consumers purchasing alcohol to drink at home – and showed that independent retailers were experiencing a diminishing share of sales.

The overall alcohol market increased marginally by 0.17 per cent in 2011, but with the increase in adult population average consumption levels decreased to 11.7 litres of alcohol. DIGIT said this is a level last seen in the mid-1990s.

DIGI said that the prospects for the drinks market in general and the hospitality sector in particular 2012 remain weak, as a result of low levels of economic growth and with consumer expenditure declining.

Chairman of DIGI, Kieran Tobin, said: From 2008-2011 alcohol sales in Ireland fell dramatically through the onset of the recession and downturn, and as a result of cross-border trade. The on-trade in Ireland is currently operating at only 70 per cent of its 2007 level. The situation remains fragile with pubs, bars, nightclubs, hotels, restaurants and independent off-licences continuing to close as a result of consumers not spending. This has obvious consequences for the 62,000 jobs across the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol, as well as for businesses and communities throughout Ireland.

The Government reduction in alcohol excise by 20 per cent in December 2009 “helped to stabilise the market”, said the report, adding that the  reduction in VAT on tourism-related activities also had a tangible positive impact on the hospitality sector and on reducing prices.

The report concluded that while Irish drinks exports continue to perform strongly on international markets, “this success is founded on a solid domestic base”.

DIGI said it looks forward to working with the Government

to find ways to assist our industry at home by incentivising consumers to go out, socialise, and spend money in the wider hospitality sector, while simultaneously identifying new markets for our products abroad.

Donegal driver with dog on her lap is convicted of drink driving

       

A woman who was observed driving with a dog on her lap was convicted of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant at last week’s sitting of Glenties District Court.

Garda Dylan Conroy told the court that he observed Anne Glackin of Ballykilduff, Portnoo driving in an erratic manner and swerving from one side of the road to the other at Narin, Portnoo on June 19 last.

In direct evidence Garda Dylan Conry said “I observed the vehicle swerving from one side of the road to the other and clipping the hedges on a few occasions.

“I also noticed a dog jumping all over the vehicle and then jumping into the front of the vehicle where it sat on the driver’s lap with its head out the window.

“I activated the sirens and blue lights and brought he car to a stop.

“The drivers was not wearing a seat belt, was smoking and had the dog sitting on her lap. While speaking to her I noticed that her eyes were glazed, her speech was slurred: there was a strong smell of alcohol of her breath and she was slumped back in the seat.

“I formed the opinion that the defendant was unfit to drive and informed her that I was arresting her on suspicion of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.

The Garda further told the court that he conveyed the defendant back to Glenties Garda Station and Introduced her to Garda Catherine Henry who took up as member in charge.

The court was told that during the required 20 minutes of observation, Garda Conry noticed that the defendant was chewing gum and that he informed the member in charge and stopped the observation.

Once he was satisfied that the defendant had nothing in her mouth he then recommenced the period of observation and then requested her to give breath samples by using the intoxilliser.

Garda Conry said that the defendant fully co-operated by providing the breath samples.

Garda Catherine Henry who had assumed the role of member in charge on the evening concurred with Garda Conroy’s evidence.

The solicitor for the defence Donnacha O Baoighill in his submission questioned the suitability of the member in charge as she was the Garda who was with the arresting Garda at the tome.

He also added that the Garda had driven the defendant home and had given her the keys of her vehicle back on the way.

“If the Garda felt that the defendant was unfit to drive he would not have given her the keys back.”

Mr. O’Baoighill also added that there was no law allowing the Garda to stop the 20 minutes observation period.

Judge Paul Kelly replied saying, “I admire your courage in putting forward these submissions bit I do not hold with them.

The Garda has given clear evidence and legally would not have been entitled to hold on to the keys.

“In relation to the suitability of Garda Henry assuming the role of member in charge, this duty was discharged carefully.

“Finally it would make a nonsense of the observation period if a Garda had noticed something in a defendant’s mouth and was not able to turn the clock back to nought.”

Judge Kelly convicted the defendant fining her €300 and disqualifying her from driving for three years.

Irish study reveals cause of ‘brain freeze’ when eating your ice cream

The study authors believe the findings could help migraine sufferers

   

Results may also help chronic migraine sufferers say the experts

Almost everyone has experienced it, sooner or later: that immobilizing brain freeze you get when eating an ice cream too quickly.

But this week scientists have revealed why they think it happens, and the new information could possibly help chronic migraine sufferers.

It happens when cold drinks and ice cream cause pain due to prolonged contact with the roof of the mouth, hey presto you have brain freeze. The discomfort vanishes when the palate warms up again.

Now, according to a report in the Irish Times, the National University of Ireland Galway has focused on the pain induced by brain freeze as a proxy for other types of headache including migraine. The study has examined local changes in brain blood flow as a trigger for pain.

Professor Jorge Serrador of Harvard Medical School led the study with assistance from Galway’s professor of electrical engineering Professor Gearoid O Laighin and PhD student Brian Deegan.

The common experience of brain freeze proved ideal for studying the onset and completion of localized pain given the shortness of symptoms, O Laighin said.

Subjects in the study were asked to sip iced water to induce brain freeze and then the researchers used ultrasound to measure the velocity of blood flowing through blood vessels in the brain as the pain persisted and faded.

The researchers found that one blood vessel in particular, the anterior cerebral artery, dilated as brain freeze arose, flooding the brain with extra blood. The pain then receded as this artery closed back to its normal state.

The Irish researchers have speculated that this could be an important self defence for the brain, stopping it from cooling too much. The flood of extra blood warms the brain but simultaneously causes higher, pain-inducing pressure inside the skull that diminishes when the blood flow reduces to its normal state.

Professor Serrador and his researchers have speculated that similar changes in blood flow patterns could be at work in migraines and other types of headache. The professor presented presenting his research findings during the San Diego Experimental Biology 2012 meeting this week.