Government must put pressure on Irish banks to open their books
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) has today called on the Government to demand that bailed-out banks open their books after a study claimed Ireland is second only to Greece in terms of refusing loans to small firms.
Business groups maintained the Central Bank survey backs their long-standing argument that access to finance is being denied to viable but vulnerable companies.
The report revealed more than one in four small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have been turned down for a loan or overdraft in the six months to March – double the eurozone average.
ISME’s Mark Fielding called on Government to demand full and complete disclosure from bailed-out banks on lending.
“While Irish banks have been recapitalised with enormous fiscal injections, the truth of the matter is the bailed-out banks are not fixed, rescued bankers continue to utter untruths, banking reform is delayed and banking policy is turning good business bad,” said Mr Fielding.
“This present administration must stop their current love affair with the banks, demand changes in bank operations and insist that they partake in a positive way in the recovery.”
However, the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) rejected the report’s findings and accused the Central Bank of pursuing a populous line.
IBF chief executive Pat Farrell said: “I can understand why sentiment towards banks is very negative because of the circumstance we find ourselves, but I would have expected more than a populous line from the Central Bank.
“I would reject the findings of the report because the definitive report on this area is the Mazars Report.”
He said the Mazars Report – which was commissioned by the Department of Finance and examined 1,500 SMEs in the same period – established banks were meeting the demand from small businesses.
Less than 500 firms were surveyed for the Central Bank study, which also found Ireland had the second highest number of firms afraid or discouraged from borrowing, while changes in terms and conditions linked with new bank credit were among the least favourable in the euro area.
Co-author and economist, Fergal McCann, denied the study was spin.
“The Central Bank is an independent institution and all we have done in this report is place Ireland in a ranking of European countries using two useful and valuable data sources,” he added.
New lending to SMEs amounted to €407m at the start of 2012, a 29.6% drop from three months earlier and down from more than €700m since the end of 2010.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) said hotels continue to face unjustifiable difficulties in accessing appropriate levels of credit from financial institutions.
John Whelan, of the Exporters Association, added: “The simple fact of the matter is that many exporting firms are still unable to get adequate finance to sustain their existing business and to grow their export markets.”
Elsewhere, Chambers Ireland raised concerns at the high level of businesses not applying for loans for fear of rejection.
However, Allied Irish Banks (AIB) maintained it exceeded its SME lending target of €3bn in 2011 and was 17% ahead of its €3.5bn target for 2012.
“We fully recognise that today’s credit process is more extensive than it was in previous times,” it said.
“We believe this is appropriate and is in no way meant to be an obstacle to obtaining credit
Green tea extract ‘eradicates skin cancer with no side-effects’
BUT DRINKING IT DOES NOT WORK
A green tea extract has a potent effect on cancer cells in the lab
A chemical found in green tea has been used to treat two types of skin cancer, scientists say.
The extract is too weak to make an impact when consumed in tea. However, when applied to cancer cells in the lab it made two-thirds of tumours shrink or disappear.
Scientists at the universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, who carried out the research, found the extract, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), had no side-effects on other cells or tissue.
They created a cell with EGCg and transferrin, a protein that naturally targets and latches on to the surface of cancer cells, and applied it to tumours.
Tests were done on two types of skin cancer: epidermoid carcinoma which forms scales on the surface of the skin and melanoma which often develops in people who have moles on their skin.
In both studies, 40 per cent of tumours vanished, while 30 per cent of tumours in carcinoma cases and 20 per cent in melanoma cases shrank. A further 10 per cent of melanoma tumours were stabilised, so did not grow or shrink.
Around 10,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with melanoma each year, with the majority women, according to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.
Anti-cancer properties of EGCg were established in earlier laboratory tests elsewhere. Scientists at other universities around the world have experimented with it to treat prostate cancer and leukaemia.
Lead researcher Dr Christine Dufes, from the University of Strathclyde, said: ‘These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments.
‘When we used our method, the green tea extract reduced the size of many of the tumours every day, in some cases removing them altogether. By contrast, the extract had no effect at all when it was delivered by other means, as every one of these tumours continued to grow.
‘This research could open doors to new treatments for what is still one of the biggest killer diseases in many countries.’
The research is published in the medical journal Nanomedicine.
Lovely roses of Tralee are in full bloom right now
The lovely Girls Rose’s have hit Tralee — and none of my fellow red-blooded Kerrymen are complaining.
It has its critics and sniggerers but year after year the Rose of Tralee proves a huge public, and TV, draw.
Who needs bikinis when you have a twinkle in the eye and a bit of Daithi O’Se’s Dingle patter?
It might be 2012 outside but in the Dome it’s still DeValera’s dream of comely maidens riverdancing at the crossroads. Or attempting to.
Excess weight & Obesity leads to diabetes
Lifestyle changes is the key to tackling Diabetes among lower socio-economic groups in our society, say researchers who found that excess weight is the most important single contributing factor for developing the condition among these disadvantaged groups.
The burden of type 2 diabetes disproportionally affects these groups. Lifestyle related risk factors are thought to play a key role, but previous studies have tended to underestimate their effect.
So an international team of researchers set out to measure the contribution of several major risk factors for type 2 diabetes to socio-economic differences across society.
They assessed health behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity), body mass index, and biological risk markers (blood pressure and lipid levels) in 7,237 middle-aged adults without diabetes, measuring these risk factors repeatedly over an average of 14 years.
They assessed health behaviours (smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity), body mass index, and biological risk markers (blood pressure and lipid levels) in 7,237 middle-aged adults without diabetes, measuring these risk factors repeatedly over an average of 14 years.
All the study participants were taking part in the Whitehall II study, which is evaluating the impact of social and economic factors on the long-term health of around 10,000 British civil servants, aged between 35 and 55 in 1985.
Socio-economic status was assessed through occupational position and reflected education, salary, social status, and level of responsibility at work.
Over the average follow-up of 14 years, 818 cases of diabetes were identified. Participants in the lowest occupational category had a 1.86-fold greater risk of developing diabetes relative to those in the highest occupational category.
Over the average follow-up of 14 years, 818 cases of diabetes were identified. Participants in the lowest occupational category had a 1.86-fold greater risk of developing diabetes relative to those in the highest occupational category.
Health behaviours and body mass index explained up to 45 percent of this socio-economic differential in both men and women when changes over time and long-term exposure were accounted for. With additional adjustments for biological risk markers, a total of 53 percent of the socio-economic differential was explained.
Body mass index was the most important single contributing factor, explaining about 20 percent of socio-economic differences.
This finding is not surprising, said the researchers, as weight gain is strongly socially patterned.
This finding is not surprising, said the researchers, as weight gain is strongly socially patterned.
However, the effects of diet and physical activity were smaller than expected, given that these behaviours are also strongly socially patterned, they added. The contribution of smoking and alcohol consumption was also modest.
“Given the increasing burden of type 2 diabetes and the observed increase in social inequalities in prevalence of type 2 diabetes, further efforts to tackle these factors are urgently needed,” they concluded.
Footage emerges of massive blaze engulfing closed Donegal hotel
The huge blaze took control of the disused Lough Swilly Hotel in Buncrana Co Donegal last night Wednesday.
The blaze at the old Lough Swilly Hotel in Buncrana
THE video footage (click above link) of a huge blaze which gutted a landmark Donegal hotel last night click above link to see the 42 second footage.
Lough Swilly Hotel on fire, Buncrana, Inishowen, County Donegal. Burning down on the 22nd August 2012
The former Lough Swilly Hotel in Buncrana, which was around 150 years old, had closed in the 1970s, and had been used as a music venue and a warehouse since then, Local company Flanagans took the building over several years ago, but it had been under the control of Deloitte and Touche since Flanagans went into receivership last year. Brian Flanagan told Highland Radio that there had been some issues with vandalism at the site when it was in their control, leading to increased security.
In 2010 An Bord Pleanála had given the go ahead for the hotel to be knocked down to make way for a new development, but the work never went ahead.
Gardaí are launching an investigation into the cause of the blaze, which has now been extinguished. Roads in the area have reopened and Visit Inishowen has tweeted that the local ferry service is back in operation.
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