A BODY HAS been recovered during the search for a fisherman who went missing off the west coast of the country yesterday. The Valencia Coast Guard confirmed that the body of a man had been recovered by the Aran Island Lifeboat team near Mace Head just after midday. The body was brought to University College Galway.
Search teams had already recovered the currach which the 43-year-old man was last seen rowing in at around 5pm yesterday. The currach has been taken to Salthill Garda Station to be examined.
The search continues for missing fisherman off the West coast of Ireland
Both the Sligo and Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopters were involved in the overnight operation, which resumed at first light this morning.
A major air and sea search is under way for a fisherman missing off the west coast.
The 43-year-old was last seen rowing a 5.5m (18 foot) currach from the Mace Head area of Co Galway at about 5pm yesterday.
The alarm was raised late last night. A currach was discovered in the area this morning.
Both the Sligo and Shannon-based Coast Guard helicopters were involved in the overnight operation, which resumed at first light.
The Air Corps Casa maritime patrol aircraft is also searching the area, with the Aran Islands RNLI and Coast Guard crew from Costello Bay due to rejoin search teams. Valentia Coast Guard is co-ordinating the operation.
A RNLI spokeswoman said conditions for searching overnight were good, with a slight swell.
Up to 2,000 protesters take part in Sligo’s silent protest over the Cregg House budget cuts
Up to 2,000 people took part in a silent walk through Sligo this evening in protest at budget cuts at Cregg House which cares for 214 people with intellectual disabilities.
The Daughters of Wisdom have said they may have to withdraw from Cregg House, Wisdom Services, which runs the centre, has said its budget is €1.3m less than that needed to keep services at 2011 levels, a situation which is unacceptable.
At present, it says Cregg House is working without a psychology service and its social work and speech and language services are most inadequate.
Some of its residential accommodaiton is also not fit for purpose.
Wisdom says it cannot enter into a further service level agreement with the Health Service Executive on the terms offered.
The HSE has said it is disappointed that an agreement has not been signed, but that the budget cut is consistent with other disability services in the region, and it unfortunately does not have the additional funding needed to meet the deficit.
The executice has said it will, however, work with Wisdom Services to ensure that the serivce users will continue to receive the care and support they need.
This evening, Sr Jean Quinn, Provincial of the Daughters of Wisdom, said that there had been no contact from the HSE since last week and she feared the Daughters of Wisdom would have to withdraw from Cregg House, where they have been for 57 years, on safety grounds because of cuts in staff and services.
WINNING! Men set to outlive women for the first time ever
Well done lads, we’ve had a bit of a win today as researchers now believe that men will outlive women for the first time since records began. We’ll see you down the local for a celebratory tipple.
Before now, women folk have been enjoying up to six extra years on this beautiful earth, mainly because their sense of cop on is a bit better than ours, but mostly because they have fancy female hormones, which help protect their health. Sadly for women, that’s not the case anymore.
Thanks to ‘Girls Nights Out’, half priced Ben and Jerry’s and the high rate of male immigration, a role reversal could be on the cards for the next generation of Irish males that will see them living longer. In all seriousness, smoking, binge drinking and over eating are shortening the female population’s life span.
So basically, all the twelve-year-old boys in the country could end up outliving their future wives – that’s if they’re foolish enough to get married.
Statistics now show that the 12-year-old males of today will live to see their 87th birthday. This will see them match the lifespan of their female peers. However, this also means that younger male kids could eventually outlive females.
“There has been a huge decline in the numbers working in heavy industry; far fewer males smoke than before and there is much better treatment for heart disease, which tends to affect more males than females,” said Professor Leslie Mayhew of the City University, London.
Woman will still live longer than men for the foreseeable future. But ladies… we’re slowly catching up.
EU Authorities have expressed concerns about elements of Ireland’s banking bailout programme
Eurostat, the European Statistical Agency, has published a report on the Irish economy today.
It raises questions about the fact that the restructuring of AIB and Irish Life and Permanent has not yet been completed. It is also expressing concerns about the ownership of NAMA.
Today’s report from Eurostat is the first official analysis of last year’s government deficit and debt position to come from Europe.
The report refers to 2011 so we are already familiar with a lot of the information. The deficit to GDP ratio, which is the tool used to measure government finances, has come in at 13.1%. However when you strip out the cost of bailing out the banks that figure falls to 9.4% which is lower than expected and better than the target agreed as part of our EU/IMF bailout.
The Minister for Finance has issued a statement today welcoming the figures and pointing out the fact that the deficit figure has fallen into single digits is a very positive development.
However Eurostat has raised some concerns over Ireland’s financial position. It questions the fact that the restructuring plans for AIB and Irish Life and Permanent have not yet been finalised.
In response the Department of Finance has issued a statement saying the reason for the delay is because the future structure of IL&P still hasn’t been worked out and is the subject of negotiations with the EU/IMF bailout team and that it is expected to be resolved in the coming weeks.
The other concern highlighted today is about the ownership structure of NAMA. In order to keep NAMA debts off the government’s balance sheet a special type of private company had to be set up called the NAMA SPV or Special Purpose Vehicle. That entity had a number of private investors and one of them was Irish Life – the insurance company. Recently the Government took Irish Life under state control after being unable to sell it on.
Eurostat has therefor raised a concern about the fact that one of the investors in what should be a private company is now state owned. The government has confirmed today that a deal has been done to sell Irish Life’s stake in NAMA to private investors and that the transaction will be completed in the coming weeks.
Mark Feehily launches the ISPCC Irish anti-bullying week from 23rd to 30th April
Westlife’s Mark Feehily has launched the ISPCC’s anti-bullying week which is running from April 23rd-30th.
To mark anti-bullying week, the ISPCC are urging the people of Ireland to join the fight against bullying and child abuse by wearing the ISPCC shield.
A number of well-known celebrities including Olly Murs, Cher Lloyd, The Wanted, Colin Farrell, Westlife, Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip, Jedward, Louis Walsh, Laura Whitmore, Mrs Brown, Keith Barry and Saoirse Ronan, along with Mark, are supporting the campaign by being photographed with the ISPCC Blue Shield.
Speaking at the launch today Mark said: “Having experienced bullying at first hand I know how devastating it can be and how much it can affect not only your childhood but your adulthood too. I am still dealing with issues that occurred years ago on a school corridor in Sligo.”
The organisation will be running a 24-hour helpline contactable on 1800 66 66 77 throughout the week for anyone who needs advice on tackling bullying.
Shield badges will sell for €2 with all funds raised from the sale being used to fund our services to children and their families, Childline, ChildFocus, TeenFocus & Leanbh.
A welcome rethink on the Fair Deal nursing home scheme by Minister Kathleen Lynch
Age Action has welcomed the fact that Minister for Older People Kathleen Lynch has questioned the feasibility of continuing with a charge on an older person’s home as part of the Fair Deal Nursing home funding scheme.
Minister Lynch has the setting of a contribution of 15% of the value of a home towards the cost of elderly care six years ago was an entirely different scenario to the value of a home today.
The Minister questioned whether depending on the property market for funding for the Fair Deal scheme was viable.
Age Action said it also agreed with the Minister’s analysis that the review needed to look at other ways of keeping people in their communities and the options for other types of accommodation, apart from nursing homes.
It said the planned review of Fair Deal must also examining how effective the scheme has been in meeting the needs of nursing home residents.
“Despite the considerable financial commitment made by nursing home residents and their families as part of the Fair Deal, some have found that the scheme does not cover issues such as incontinence wear, specialised wheelchairs or physiotherapy,” Mr Timmins said.
“The review needs to address this so that the scheme at least meets the basic needs of residents.”
Big delay in Ireland’s diabetes eye screening programme plan for 2012
Fears are growing about a major delay in the launch of a new diabetes eye screening programme aimed at preventing blindness in those with the condition.
According to the campaign group Diabetes Action and Ireland’s national sight loss agency, the NCBI, 18 months after the HSE announced plans to develop a €4 million national eye screening programme to identify diabetic retinopathy, little progress has been made and patients are unlikely to be screened until mid-2013.
Over 18,000 people in Ireland are estimated to have diabetic retinopathy (DR) which causes on average one person with diabetes to go blind each year.
The two campaign groups say the screening programme is likely to be delayed from a projected start date of late 2012 until the middle of 2013.
They say the delay increases the chance of thousands more people developing sight-threatening retinopathy.
“Sight loss is a preventable complication of diabetes, and we need to get the screening process started as soon as possible in order to prevent more patients unnecessarily developing visual impairment,” said Dr Kevin Moore of the Irish Endocrine Society and Chair of Diabetes Action.
“Clinicians want people with diabetes to be offered eye-screening annually to detect DR and to ensure early diagnosis and treatment – it is one of the most important goals for diabetes care in Ireland and will impact on the quality of life for thousands of people living with diabetes”, Dr Moore added.
Progress on the screening programme has been stalled because key personnel are not in place, according to Diabetes Action and the NCBI.
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