Social Welfare payments ‘not linked to household non-payment tax charge’
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton: her department has confirmed payment of household charge is not a requirement for payment of a Social Welfare entitlement.
Failure to pay the household charge will not put social welfare payments at risk, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed.
The letter asks that social welfare claimants attend an appointment to register for the new card which will replace the current Social Services Card.
Claimants must bring evidence of their address to the appointment, the letter lists “Receipt for payment of Household Charge” as one acceptable proof of address.
Gisela Schubert, from Arklow Co Wicklow, who received one of the letters, said it appeared from the way it was worded that if one was a homeowner, and not a tenant, one must present proof of household charge payment.
“The letter states that you can produce either a property lease, tenancy agreement, or the household charge receipt, but if you own your house you won’t have the first two.”
Another point in the letter suggests a bill showing the claimants current address should be brought, but Ms Schubert said “they don’t ask for proof I’ve paid the bill”.
Niamh McDonald of the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes said the letter was a “sneaky underhand tactic” to frighten people into paying the charge.
“This is another example of the Government preying on the most vulnerable in our society, and it shows their desperation that they have not been able to get the information they need to introduce a property tax.”
In a statement, the department said receipt for payment of the household charge is “not a pre-condition to secure a Social Welfare payment”.
A utility bill in the person’s own name was an acceptable alternative proof of address.
“The Department of Social Protection wishes to reassure it customers that payment of household charge is not a requirement for payment of a Social Welfare entitlement or registration for a Public Services Card.”
Health Minister James Reilly under fire again
Health Minister James Reilly said that he stands over his decision to add sites to a HSE list of planned primary care centres, including two in his own constituency.
At the end of a week a week in which he survived a confidence motion and came under fire over health spending and waiting lists, the Minister defended his decision to add locations to the list of chosen sites.
These locations inclidued two in his own constituency of Dublin North, the Irish Times reported today.
Dr Reilly said that he would have been ‘negligent in his duty’ as Minister for Health to exclusively use the urban deprivation criteria for choosing sites and ignore other factors.
The Minister said that in adding new sites to the list of centres he also took into consideration competition, GP co-operation, existing health facilities in the area already and accessibility.
Dr Reilly said he added 15 locations to the list of 20 ito create competition and to put pressure on GPs to make the best case possible to get the primary care centres.
He was aware that Minister of State Roisin Shortall disagreed with that his decision, but if he had to make it again tomorrow he would.
Ms Shortall, who is in charge of primary care, had said she would like to hear what criteria Dr Reilly used when adding the locations, which had not been identified as priority locations.
There have been tensions between the senior and junior Health Minsiters for over a year, and they have clashed on a number of policy issues.
Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Billy Kelleher said that there needed to be clarity on whether or not Dr Reilly interfered with what was supposed to be a transparent selection process.
Shame on Ireland’s 360,000 hospital waiting lists
The latest Health Service Executive figures on waiting-lists are a shocking indictment of our crumbling health system.
The number of patients waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic for the first time has almost doubled to 340,000, compared with figures released in April.
The figures relate to 37 hospitals and do not include all acute hospitals. The HSE admits that the total is higher, possibly around 360,000, according to Health Minister James Reilly.
Incredibly, over 16,000 patients have been waiting four years or more to be seen at a clinic. People will most likely die waiting to be seen.
The report also shows some hospitals in severe financial crisis.
A vast amount of the resources spent on the health service during the boom years has failed to sort out its problems. Now hospitals are in danger of running out of cash.
We are facing a major health crisis and major change must be made.
Ryanair receives offers for their Aer Lingus shares
Ryanair, the low-cost airline, said yesterday that it had received a number of approaches to buy its 30 per cent stake in Aer Lingus.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary told shareholders at the annual meeting that the approaches were from other airlines and from financial institutions who wanted to break up Aer Lingus.
Ryanair’s €700m (£560m) hostile takeover bid was put on hold last month when European regulators decided to launch a full-scale probe. Ryanair’s stake in Aer Lingus is also being investigated by the UK’s Competition Commission.
O’Leary said the airline has recently offered new remedies to the European Commission. He said somewhere between 30 and 35 rival airlines had shown an interest in taking over routes which both Ryanair and Aer Lingus currently fly.
He added that if the European Commission turns down the bid he would “seriously consider” selling its Aer Lingus stake. Middle East Airline Etihad, which owns a 3 per cent stake in Aer Lingus, has already said it might buy Ryanair’s shareholding.
A Blend of Sesame and Oil, or Yogurt Helps Blood Pressure
A blend of sesame and rice bran oil, or making low-fat yogurt a small part of your diet, may help your blood pressure and boost heart health, according to two new studies.
The first study showed a sesame and rice bran oil blend reduced blood pressure almost as well as a commonly used medication. And the second study found that people who routinely eat yogurt are less likely to develop high blood pressure.
The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s (AHA) High Blood Pressure Research 2012 meeting in Washington, D.C.
“Taken together, the two studies are very supportive of the DASH eating plan,” says Rachel Johnson, PhD, RD. She is the Bickford Green and Gold professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont in Burlington and an AHA spokeswoman. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet is loaded with fruits and vegetables, and is low in saturated fat and salt.
“DASH recommends two or three servings of heart-healthy fats a day, and that is where sesame and rice oil fit in,” she says. DASH also calls for two to three servings a day of fat-free or low-fat dairy products, including yogurt.
AHA: HEALTHY FAT IS IN, LOW FAT IS OUT
The new studies “strengthen what we already know about diet and blood pressure,” Johnson says.
In the first study of 300 people with high blood pressure, participants either took medication to control their blood pressure, incorporated 35 grams of the blended sesame and rice bran oil each day into their diets, or did both for 60 days. The oil blend lowered the top number of the blood pressure reading by 14 and the bottom reading by 10.8; the medication lowered the top number by 16.2 and bottom number by 12. People who took medication and used the oil had more than twice the drop in blood pressure compared to those who did one or the other.
The oil blend used in the new study is called Vivo and is not yet commercially available. Both types of oil are available commercially on their own, though.
Johnson adds that judicious use of other heart-healthy fats — including olive oil, avocado, nut butters, fatty fish, and flaxseed — may have similar benefits. (The AHA recommends limiting the total amount of fat you eat to less than 25% to 35% of your daily calories.)
In the yogurt study, about 2,000 adults without high blood pressure were followed for 14 years. The researchers found that participants were 31% less likely to develop high blood pressure if more than 2% of their daily calories came from yogurt.
They also had lower increases in the top blood pressure reading compared to people who didn’t eat yogurt.
The new findings are very much in line with what many dietitians recommend, says Despina Hyde, RD. She is a registered dietitian at New York University Langone Medical Center.
Africa’s bushmen & the Khoe-San tribe were first to split from other humans
Southern Africa’s bushmen, and their relatives the Khoe, veered off on their own path of genetic development 100,000 years ago, according to a new study this week.
The split, gleaned from an analysis of genetic data, is the earliest divergence scientists have discovered in the evolution of modern humans.
The Khoe and the San peoples — who speak click languages, and live across a wide swath of southern Africa from Namibia to Mozambique to South Africa — have long fascinated scientists.
The San, in particular, were one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies, living well into the 20th century in a style anthropologists think was similar to humans’ most ancient ancestors.
The study published in the journal Science on Thursday analyzes the genes of 220 members of the Khoe and San groups. Researchers looked at 2.3 million genetic variations for each participant, an unprecedented number, learning important information about the Khoe-San and, more generally, the origins of modern humans.
The analysis made it clear that there is not a “coherent picture” of where the cradle of modern man was located.
Archeological data would point to East Africa, while other studies suggest it was in southern Africa.
But according to their analysis, “different parts of Africa show up as potentially being the origin of anatomically modern humans,” said Mattias Jakobsson, of Sweden’s Uppsala University.
Based on the genetic variations they saw in their subjects, “different groups of humans contributed genes to this pool that then later on became anatomically modern humans,” he said in a telephone press conference.
The study also gave new evidence for how and when the practice of raising livestock, known as pastoralism, started spreading to southern Africa.
The Nama, a Khoe group in Namibia who lived as herders, was genetically very similar to their cousins among the southern San, who traditionally lived as hunter-gatherers.
However, “a small but very distinct” component of Nama genes are similar to a group of East Africans, also traditionally herders, who likely were the incomers that introduced the Khoe to pastoralism, explained co-author Carina Schlebusch in a statement.
The study also showed evidence of local adaptation among the different Khoe and San groups.
Researchers discovered indications that natural selection among the ancient populations led to gene variations involved in muscular function, immune response and skin protection against ultraviolet rays.
“Although all humans today carry similar variants in these genes, the early divergence between Khoe-San and other human groups allowed us to zoom-in on genes that have been fast-evolving in the ancestors of all of us living on the planet today,” said Pontus Skoglund, another co-author
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