Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Ireland one of the highest users of cocaine in Europe

  

An image of a cocaine seizure above left.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in Europe, according to the findings of a new report.

The State has also been identified by international law enforcement agencies as a gateway for cannabis smuggled from Morocco into the rest of Europe.

The findings are contained in a Europol and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) overview of drug trafficking throughout the continent published today.

The report also found:

1 – Ireland is used by Vietnamese and Chinese organised crime gangs cultivating home-grown cannabis.

2 – The State has the highest rate of use of new drugs or so-called “legal highs”.

3 – Polish and Lithuanian gangs are reportedly trafficking drugs from the Netherlands into Ireland.

4 – In the study, Ireland is identified as among a “handful” of countries where cocaine use remains “relatively high”, particularly among young adults.

5 – Spain, the UK, Italy, and Denmark were also identified as having high rates of cocaine use.

Closing Garda stations will improve Irish policing ’claims Minister Shatter’

    

The closure of 95 garda stations will be carried out to meet today’s policing needs, and not because of the tightening of public purse strings, it was claimed.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter defended his decision, which he claimed will improve the quality of policing in communities and not deprive them of resources.

The minister said garda stations manned for a couple of hours a day do not act as a deterrent to burglars, adding that the spike in crime in 2011 was before any closures.

“Clearly you can’t operate on the basis of a garda station network designed by the British Government, somewhere between 1850 and 1900, for the policing of the rebellious Irish, which was the perception of the location of some of these stations,” he said.

Mr Shatter hit out at critics who said the closures will save only small amounts of money.

“I am afraid that completely misses the point,” he added.

“The objective is to maximise the time that our well-trained and highly skilled gardai spend on operational duties.

“This means increasing garda visibility, improving garda mobility and using limited resources better.”

The mainly rural stations shutting today include 10 across Co Galway, nine in Co Kerry and in the district of Sligo/Leitrim, eight in Co Clare and four stations in Co Donegal where several elderly people have been burgled and assaulted in recent weeks.

Another five stations will also close in the coming months under plans approved by the minister, on top of 39 closed last year.

Some 28 garda districts are to be amalgamated to form 14.

Protests are being held at several stations nationwide, including at Stepaside, south Dublin, and in Longford.

Yesterday the priest who celebrated the funeral of murdered Detective Adrian Donohoe, Father Michael Cusack, publicly called for the Government to reflect on the huge cuts affecting the Garda force.

Mr Shatter said Ireland’s 4.5 million population will still have 564 stations, compared to 83 in Northern Ireland for 1.4 million residents and 340 stations in Scotland for 5.2 million people.

Elsewhere, there were 213 new vehicles in 2012 with another €5m available for garda cars this year.

“Modern policing is no longer about bricks and mortar,” he continued, adding there would be 61,000 additional patrol hours.

“It is about freeing up gardai from behind the desk, so they are out and about in our communities engaging in frontline policing – preventing, detecting and disrupting crime.”

Mr Shatter spoke out at the launch of garda community crime prevention programmes and the signing of a new memorandum of understanding between gardai and Muintir na Tire, a rural organisation.

The group supports the operation of more than 1,300 community alert groups around the country.

He condemned “the appalling and cowardly attacks on the homes of elderly people in recent times”, adding that gardai have his full support in tackling the evil perpetrators.

“The attacks on elderly persons underline the need for community vigilance and partnership with local gardai,” he added.

Dungloe Donegal School evacuated in chemical alert

  

A Donegal Community school was evacuated this morning after chemicals used in a lab were found to have become unstable.

Some 495 pupils and 40 teaching staff at Rosses Community School in Dungloe were forced to leave the building.

Principal John Gorman said chemistry teacher Michelle Gallagher had discovered the large canisters of lithium and potassium, stored in a fume cupboard, had crystallised when she carried out an inspection before her first class this morning. She had extensive experience of dealing with chemicals and took immediate steps to deal with the matter, Mr Gorman said.

He said the school was quickly evacuated and the fire service was called. Units from Dungloe and Gweedore attended, along with the chief fire officer based in Letterkenny.

Some students were taking mock exams this morning. The business and maths exams have been rescheduled to next Thursday.

Cigarette packets in Ireland to come with graphic warnings from tomorrow

      

All cigarette packets produced for the Irish market from tomorrow will carry graphic pictures of the damage smoking can do to your health.

Health Minister James Reilly today revealed the images, which included photographs of rotten teeth, blackened lungs, and throat tumours.

Dr Reilly says research shows one in four smokers wants to kick the habit after seeing the graphic shots.

It will take up to a year for all existing cigarette stock to be cleared from shops and replaced with the new packs. The minister also said the introduction of entirely unbranded packets is his next priority.

Brave USA shooting victim Gabby Giffords makes emotional plea to Congress lawmakers over guns

 

Gabby Giffords appeared as the first person to testify before the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the December 14th incident in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, grievously wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, made an emotional plea today for Congress to take action to curb gun violence in the aftermath of last month’s Connecticut school massacre, urging lawmakers to “be bold, be courageous.”

Wearing a red outfit and speaking haltingly, Ms Giffords appeared as the first person to testify before the first congressional hearing on gun violence since the December 14th incident in which a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

“This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans,” Ms Giffords, who survived a head wound in an assassination attempt last year in Tucson, Arizona, said, speaking haltingly. Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the incident.

“Speaking is difficult. But I need to say something important,” she told the senators. “Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying – too many children. We must do something. It will be hard. But the time is now.”

Accompanied by her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, she concluded: “You must act. Be bold, be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you.” She did not take questions from the committee.

Responding to outrage across the country following the Connecticut massacre, president Barack Obama and other Democrats are seeking the largest gun-control package in decades.

Witnesses and lawmakers at the hearing agreed on the constitutional right to own guns but clashed over Mr Obama’s proposals, particularly the call for universal background checks for all gun buyers. That is seen as the most likely restriction to gain bipartisan support in a sharply divided Congress.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president and CEO of the powerful gun rights lobbying group the National Rifle Association, dismissed Obama’s plan to close loopholes in the background check law.

“Let’s be honest, background checks will never be universal because criminals will never submit to them,” LaPierre said.

Mr Kelly also testified. The couple recently founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, a group intended to combat gun violence.

Mr Obama’s proposals to curb gun violence include reinstating the US ban on military-style “assault” weapons, limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines, and more extensive background checks of prospective gun buyers, largely to verify whether they have a history of crime or mental illness.

Republicans and some pro-gun Democrats envision a more modest package. It is unclear whether there is sufficient support in the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House of Representatives to pass any gun restrictions beyond improved background checks.

The calls for gun control – so prominent during the emotional days following the shootings in Connecticut – will face political reality in Congress.

The committee chairman, Senator Patrick Leahey, made clear whatever measures would be considered to rein in gun violence, there would be no move to erode the fundamental right of Americans to own a gun, which is protected under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

“Americans have the right to have guns in their home to protect their family,” he said.

Americans must come together on the issue, Mr Leahey, a Vermont Democrat, added.

Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress favor gun rights and represent constituents who do as well. The NRA has called any attempt to restrict weapon sales an assault on Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.

Chimps learn the use of tools by watching others

   

Chimpanzees can learn to use tools more efficiently by watching how others use them, new research suggests. The findings help illuminate ways that culture could evolve in non-human animals.

“Social learning is very important to maintaining a culture,” study researcher Shinya Yamamoto, of Kyoto University in Japan, told LiveScience. “For example, in humans, we can develop technologies based on previous techniques, and other people can learn the more efficient techniques by accumulating cultural knowledge.” The new research provides insight into how cultural evolution might occur in chimpanzees.

In the study, nine captive chimpanzees at the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University were presented with a straw-tube they could use to obtain juice from a bottle through a small hole. Of their own accord, the chimps used one of two techniques to get the juice: “dipping” and “straw-sucking.” The dipping technique involved inserting the straw into the juice and removing it to suck on the end, whereas straw-sucking entailed sipping the juice through the straw. Straw-sucking was a much more efficient means of getting juice than dipping.

Five of the chimps initially used the dipping method and four used the straw-sucking method. The researchers then paired each of the five chimps who used dipping with a chimp who was a straw-sucker. Four of the dippers switched to straw-sucking after observing the other animal using the more effective technique. The fifth dipper switched too, but only after watching a human using it.

Chimps who paid the most attention to the straw-sucking demonstrator switched to the new method more rapidly. After switching, the animals never reverted to the dipping method.

The apes’ adoption of the straw-sucking technique shows social learning, the researchers say. The chimpanzees who were dippers “didn’t learn the sucking technique by themselves, only when they are paired with the sucking individual,” Yamamoto said. The one chimp that didn’t adopt the new technique right away may have been subordinate to her partner chimp, Yamamoto said. As soon as Yamamoto demonstrated the technique, however, the chimp started using it.

The results contrast with the findings of previous studies, which have shown that chimpanzees don’t always adopt an improved technique used by others. One explanation may be that unlike in previous studies, the better technique (straw-sucking) was no more physically or mentally difficult to perform than the original technique (dipping), the researchers said. Additionally, the chimpanzees in previous studies seemed satisfied with using their original technique, whereas these chimps may not have been content with their method’s efficiency, the researchers added.

This study and others like it “add to the idea that the apes are very well capable of social learning,” primatologist Frans de Waal, of Emory University in Atlanta, told LiveScience.

Scientists have debated for decades about whether or not animals have culture. “We cannot hold chimpanzees against the standard of modern-day human culture,” de Waal, who was not involved with the research, said, but “the border is much grayer than we thought.”

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Irish home-owners to be hit with water charge based on the size of their house

  

Irish homeowners face the controversial prospect of paying for their water based on the size of their home, rather than their estimated usage.

People with bigger houses face paying a higher temporary water charge than those with smaller homes from next year.

The Irish Independent has now learnt an “assessed charge” – which will have to be paid until water meters are installed – is likely to be based on the physical size of a home, rather than the number of people in it.

Sources involved in establishing the water tax say this is because it will be “impossible to police” the number of people living in a home, and it said “it is moving the way of property type”.

The charge could be as much as €400 a year, but “nobody will pay a flat rate”, one source said. Information on properties – and the initial tax to be paid – could be gleaned from databases that exist from the €100 household charge and the property tax, once it has been fully established from this summer.

Irish Water, the new body set up to collect the charges, will have access to records held by the Revenue Commissioners and the Local Government Management Agency.

However, the exact cost of the assessed charge and water metering will be decided independently by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

The bailout agreement with the troika compels the Government to bring in water charges next year. But the process of installing the meters only gets under way this summer, and will not be complete for three years.

To meet the terms of the bailout, the Government will have to bring in the assessed charge – but sources say this will almost certainly be pushed back until after the local elections, not scheduled to take place until mid-2014.

“It is a matter for the Government to decide the date it will be introduced,” one source said.

It is hoped as many as 500,000 meters will be installed by the summer of 2014.

The Irish Independent has also learnt a “lead-in time” for metering is being considered.

Under this proposal, being discussed in the Department of the Environment, homeowners will be able to monitor their water usage on a meter for a few months before paying the metered charge.

“That way, people could see what they’d be paying, and might be shocked by their bills,” a source said.

Irish Water will also be allowed access to the Department of Social Protection records, and it is understood certain welfare recipients, as well as people with acute medical needs, will not pay the full amount of the charge.

And it is now thought apartment blocks complexes will have one meter installed which will measure the usage of all occupants in the complexes and then the charges will be divided up by apartment.

Over 64% of Irish properties have registered their septic tanks

   

About 64% of Irish properties have registered their septic tanks.

With the deadline for registering looming the vast majority of the county’s estimated 6,922 septic tanks have been registered and the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, expects even more to finalise their registration by February 1, 2013.

72% of Co Leitrim residents living in properties served by a septic tank have registered their waste disposal systems. Neighbouring counties have returned similarly high registration rates with compliance running at 73.3 percent in Co Cavan; 70.3 percent in Co Sligo and 67 percent in Co Longford. However, Co Donegal has returned quite low registration rates like the household tax with just 49.3 percent an estimated 32,359 households served by septic tanks paying the charge.

Co Kerry has the highest rate of compliance with 90.6 percent of properties registering their septic tanks while Dublin city has the lowest with just 88 of homeowners (that’s just 4.7%) actually registering for the charge.

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Agriculture Éamon Ó Cuív has called for an extension of the registration deadline.

“The Minister has imposed a deadline of February 1 st for septic tank registration. In my view it is completely unfair of the Minister to force the hand of septic tank owners in this way while so much confusion remains about the legislation and the inspection standards in particular. I and my party have appealed to Minister Hogan extend the registration deadline to end of April so that the new inspection standards can be published and scrutinised in full.”

Deputy Ó Cuív welcomed the fact the Government had made the grant aid available but said the €4,000 cap was disappointing in light of the actual costs of upgrading systems.

Ireland’s live register in December 2012 at 430,100; Jobless rate still at 14.6%

  

Irish Economy: The standardised unemployment rate (SUR) in January 2013 was 14.6%, unchanged from December 2012, the CSO said today. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate from the most recent Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) was 14.8% in the third quarter of 2012. On a seasonally adjusted basis the Live Register total recorded a monthly decrease of 900 in January 2013, bringing the seasonally adjusted total to 430,100.

In unadjusted terms there were 429,396 people signing on the Live Register in January 2013. This represents an annual decrease of 10,193 (-2.3%).

Other features include: On a seasonally adjusted basis the Live Register showed a monthly decrease of 1,500 males in January 2013, while females increased by 600 over the same period. The number of male claimants decreased by 10,266 (-3.6%) to 273,627 over the year and female claimants increased slightly by 73 to 155,769. This compares with a decrease of 8,110 (-2.8%) to 283,893 for males and an increase of 5,022 (+3.3%) to 155,696 for females in the year to January 2012.

The CSO says Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers (those who work up to three days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseeker’s Benefit or Allowance. Unemployment is measured by the Quarterly National Household Survey and the latest estimated number of persons unemployed as of the third quarter of 2012 was 324,500.

Live Register duration of continuous registration: The number of long term claimants (12 months or more continuous unemployment) on the Live Register in January 2013 was 189,857.  The number of male long term claimants increased by 922 (+0.7%) in the year to January 2013, while the comparable increase for females was 5,086 (+10.0%) giving an overall annual increase of 6,008 (+3.3%) in the number of long term claimants.

In January 55.8% (239,539) of all claimants on the Live Register were short term claimants. The comparable figure for January 2012 was 58.2% (255,740). The annual fall of 16,201 (-6.3%) in the number of short term claimants consisted of a decrease of 11,188 (-7.4%) in the number of male short term claimants and a decrease of 5,013 (-4.8%) in female short term claimants.

Live Register casual and part-time workers: There were 87,924 casual and part-time workers on the Live Register in January, which represents 20.5% of the total Live Register. This compares with 19.8% one year earlier when there were 87,029 casual and part-time workers on the Live Register. In the year to January 2013 the number of casual and part-time workers increased by 895 (+1.0%), with the number of males increasing by 1,573 (+3.4%) and the number of females decreasing by 678 (-1.7%).

Live Register age groups: In the year to January 2013 the number of persons aged 25 and over on the Live Register decreased by 3,212 (-0.9%), and the number of persons aged under 25 decreased by 6,981 (-9.3%). Annual decreases in persons aged under 25 have occurred in all months since July 2010. The percentage of persons aged under 25 on the Live Register now stands at 15.9% for January 2013, down from 17.1% in January 2012 and 18.6% in January 2011.

Live Register new registrants: There were 37,516 new registrants on the Live Register in January 2013, consisting of 18,781 JB (job benefit)  claims, 16,811 JA 9job allowance) claims and 1,924 ‘Other Registrants’. Males accounted for 54.9% (20,579) and females 45.1% (16,937) of all new registrants. On average 5,145 male and 4,234 female new registrants joined the Live Register each week of the month. The difference between the number of new registrants on the Live Register and the change in the total number on the Live Register is accounted for by closed claims and movements between schemes.

Irish food and drink mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity up 32% last year

 

Irish food companies must continue to invest in ensuring a robust and safe supply chain, new report urges

The value of mergers and acquisitions in the Irish food and beverage sector rose by 32% to a total of €726m last year, a new report shows.

The report, from Grant Thornton, said that US companies are increasingly interested in investing in high quality Irish food and drink companies with strong brands and authentic products.

US acquisitions of Irish businesses last year included Hain Celestial’s €10m deal for Cork based Cully & Sully, while whiskey giant Beam completed its purchase of Cooley Distillery in January 2012.

Irish firms were also major investors in the US last year, with Kerry Group, Glanbia, Greencore and C&C all announcing major deals. The report noted that C&C’s €235m acquisition of the Vermont Hard Cider company was the biggest Irish deal in the US last year.

Grant Thornton also said that Asia is becoming a growing market for Irish food products, with exports up 25% on last year. ”Cash-rich Asian companies are potential investors in Irish food businesses whose operations may be thriving, but where balance sheets are stretched by ill-judged property investments made in the boom,” commented Ciara Jackson, head of food at Grant Thornton.

Today’s report says that Irish food companies must continue to invest in ensuring a robust and safe supply chain in order to protect the reputation of an industry that has contributed billions in exports last year.

Ms Jackson said the recent horse meat controversy is a cause of concern, adding that the reputation of Irish produce has its foundation in high standards of regulation and food safety, and the country’s natural green environment.

”It is vital that the industry collaborates to create a resilient supply chain that can minimise costs whilst ensuring Irish produce maintains its international standing,” she added.

If you want to shed weight, Could an earlier lunchtime help?

  

Want to lose weight? Eating lunch earlier rather than later may help you out.

Dieters who ate early lunches tended to lose more weight than those who had their midday meal on the later side, according to a Spanish study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

The finding doesn’t prove that bumping up your lunch hour will help you shed that extra weight, but it is possible that eating times play a role in how the body regulates its weight, researchers said.

“We should now seriously start to consider the timing of food – not just what we eat, but also when we eat,” said study co-author Frank Scheer, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

His group’s research included 420 people attending nutrition clinics in southeast Spain. Along with going to regular group therapy sessions with nutrition and exercise counseling, dieters measured, weighed and recorded their food and reported on their daily physical activity.

Study participants were on a so-called Mediterranean diet, in which about 40 percent of each day’s calories are consumed at lunch. About half of the people said they ate lunch before 3:00 p.m. and half after.

Over 20 weeks of counseling, early and late lunchers ate a similar amount of food, based on their food journals, and burned a similar amount of calories through daily activities.

However, early eaters lost an average of 10 kilograms ( 22 lbs) – just over 11 percent of their starting weight – while late eaters dropped 7.7 kg (17 lb), or nine percent of their initial weight.

What time dieters ate breakfast or dinner wasn’t linked to their ultimate weight loss.

One limitation of the study is that the researchers didn’t randomly assign people to eat early or late, so it’s possible there were other underlying differences between dieters with different mealtimes. Certain gene variants that have been linked to obesity were more common in late lunchers, for example.

People who eat later may have extra food in their stomach when they go to sleep, which could mean more of it isn’t burned and ends up being stored as fat, said Yunsheng Ma, a nutrition researcher from the University of MassachusettsMedical School in Worcester.

How often people eat during the day and whether they bring food from home or eat out may also contribute to weight loss, added Ma, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

He said any implications of late eating could be exacerbated among people in the United States.

“The pattern of consumption of meals is very different in the U.S.,” Ma told Reuters Health. Many people skip breakfast or lunch, then end up overdoing it on calories at dinner.

Scheer said that in the United States, where dinner is typically the biggest meal, researchers would expect people who eat later dinners to have more trouble losing weight based on his team’s findings.

Regardless of exact mealtimes, Ma said it’s important for people to spread their calories out through the day.

“Have a good breakfast and a good lunch, and at dinner, people should eat lightly,” he said

Your cuddly pussy cat is deadlier than you think

   

A domestic cat with a European rabbit. Domestic and feral cats are significant predators of a wide range of prey species, including rabbits.

For all the adorable images of cats that play the piano, flush the toilet, mew melodiously and find their way back home over hundreds of miles, scientists have identified a shocking new truth: cats are far deadlier than anyone realized.

In a report that scaled up local surveys and pilot studies to national dimensions, scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic cats in the United States — both the pet Fluffies that spend part of the day outdoors and the unnamed strays and ferals that never leave it — kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year, most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles rather than introduced pests like the Norway rat.

The estimated kill rates are two to four times higher than mortality figures previously bandied about, and position the domestic cat as one of the single greatest human-linked threats to wildlife in the nation. More birds and mammals die at the mouths of cats, the report said, than from automobile strikes, pesticides and poisons, collisions with skyscrapers and windmills and other so-called anthropogenic causes.

Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and an author of the report, said the mortality figures that emerge from the new model “are shockingly high.”

“When we ran the model, we didn’t know what to expect,” said Dr. Marra, who performed the analysis with a colleague, Scott R. Loss, and Tom Will of the Fish and Wildlife Service. “We were absolutely stunned by the results.” The study appeared Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

The findings are the first serious estimate of just how much wildlife America’s vast population of free-roaming domestic cats manages to kill each year.

“We’ve been discussing this problem of cats and wildlife for years and years, and now we finally have some good science to start nailing down the numbers,” said George H. Fenwick, the president and chief executive of the American Bird Conservancy. “This is a great leap forward over the quality of research we had before.”

In devising their mathematical model, the researchers systematically sifted through the existing scientific literature on cat-wildlife interactions, eliminated studies in which the sample size was too small or the results too extreme, and then extracted and standardized the findings from the 21 most rigorous studies. The results admittedly come with wide ranges and uncertainties.

Nevertheless, the new report is likely to fuel the sometimes vitriolic debate between environmentalists who see free-roaming domestic cats as an invasive species — superpredators whose numbers are growing globally even as the songbirds and many other animals the cats prey on are in decline — and animal welfare advocates who are appalled by the millions of unwanted cats (and dogs) euthanized in animal shelters each year.

All concur that pet cats should not be allowed to prowl around the neighborhood at will, any more than should a pet dog, horse or potbellied pig, and that cat owners who insist their felines “deserve” a bit of freedom are being irresponsible and ultimately not very cat friendly. Through recent projects like Kitty Cams at the University of Georgia, in which cameras are attached to the collars of indoor-outdoor pet cats to track their activities, not only have cats been filmed preying on cardinals, frogs and field mice, they have also been shown lapping up antifreeze and sewer sludge, dodging under moving cars and sparring violently with much bigger dogs.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into trying to educate people that they should not let their cats outside, that it’s bad for the cats and can shorten the cats’ lives,” said Danielle Bays, the manager of the community cat programs at the Washington Humane Society.

Yet the new study estimates that free-roaming pets account for only about 29 percent of the birds and 11 percent of the mammals killed by domestic cats each year, and the real problem arises over how to manage the 80 million or so stray or feral cats that commit the bulk of the wildlife slaughter.

The Washington Humane Society and many other animal welfare organizations support the use of increasingly popular trap-neuter-return programs, in which unowned cats are caught, vaccinated, spayed and, if no home can be found for them, returned to the outdoor colony from which they came. Proponents see this approach as a humane alternative to large-scale euthanasia, and they insist that a colony of neutered cats can’t reproduce and thus will eventually disappear.

Conservationists say that, far from diminishing the population of unowned cats, trap and release programs may be making it worse, by encouraging people to abandon their pets to outdoor colonies that volunteers often keep lovingly fed.

“The number of free roaming cats is definitively growing,” Dr. Fenwick of the bird conservancy said. “It’s estimated that there are now more than 500 T.N.R. colonies in Austin alone.”

They are colonies of subsidized predators, he said, able to survive in far greater concentrations than do wild carnivores by dint of their people-pleasing appeal. “They’re not like coyotes, having to make their way in the world,” he said.

Yet even fed cats are profoundly tuned to the hunt, and when they see something flutter, they can’t help but move in for the kill. Dr. Fenwick argues that far more effort should be put into animal adoption. “For the great majority of healthy cats,” he said, “homes can be found.” Any outdoor colonies that remain should be enclosed, he said. “Cats don’t need to wander hundred of miles to be happy,” he said.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Alan Shatter taking Ireland’s policing policy down the wrong direction

   

The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is taking our policing policy down a wrong direction? According to Fianna Fail, who will tonight table a private members motion opposing the cuts to Garda resources.

The Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is taking policing in a “wrong direction” according to Fianna Fáil, which will tonight table a private members’ motion opposing cuts to Garda resources.

Speaking outside Leinster House this morning, the party’s Justice Spokesman Niall Collins commented on the closure of 100 Garda stations by Thursday.

“If we are to have a true community policing model it is not the way to go. Minister Shatter is taking policing in the wrong direction.”

His motion would call on Government to review the closures, to halt the reduction in Garda numbers and to reopen the Garda training college at Templemore.

“He also hasn’t given a proper budget to Garda management to pay the full complement of members in the force. They are estimating they only have a budget now to pay up to 12,000 members. Now if the complement of the serving force drops below 13,000 members the rostering system which the Minister is heralding at every opportunity as such a success, will collapse.

“We know there is (sic) just under 13,500 in the force and with retirements it will drop below 13,000 and without a proper budget to pay the payroll for the next 12 months. I think people are right to be very worried. We have seen the upsurge in burglaries across the country. We’ve seen the upsurge in gangland activity. We’ve seen the upsurge in crimes against the person, muggings, and the Minister seems to be oblivious to it. He’s completely out of touch with how communities are feeling particularly about the Garda station issue,” he said.

“The Garda stations are a hub within our communities. Some of them are part-time. We recognise that but they offer a service to the communities they operate out of. People are hurting out there when they see the Minister for Justice who has overall responsibility for protecting them, their property and their lives, is taking this form of direction.”

Irish banks warn lenders on mortgage arrears crisis

  

Ireland’s central bank has told the country’s lenders it could force them to raise more capital if they fail to tackle a growing mortgage crisis that threatens the country’s exit from its international bail out programme.

The blunt warning comes amid frustration in Dublin at the failure of its bailed out banks to live up to repeated commitments to engage with the one in five mortgage holders currently in arrears.

“There is huge uncertainty about this, which may be a problem for Ireland when exiting the programme because the capital needs are uncertain,” said Lars Frisell, chief economist at the Central Bank of Ireland.

Stubbornly high unemployment and a 50 per cent fall in Irish house prices since 2007 has left hundreds of thousands of Irish borrowers trapped in negative equity. By the end of September 2012 some 86,146 residential mortgage holders and 26,770 buy to let mortgage holders were in arrears of more than 90 days.

Mr Frisell made the comments at the publication of the bank’s quarterly bulletin, which cut Ireland’s growth forecast to 1.3 per cent from 1.7 per cent for 2013 due to slowing export growth.

He said Irish banks should have enough capital to absorb mortgage losses but that the central bank was considering options for putting pressure on lenders to act, including raising capital.

“There is a wide range of tools that the regulator can use. Capital leverage is the ultimate stick that the regulator controls,” said Mr Frisell.

The central bank says the main banks have been slow to appoint dedicated personnel to manage the arrears process and to make provisions for unsustainable mortgages.

Banks say they are introducing a wide range of complex loan modification and resolution options. They also claim delays in passing new insolvency legislation have hampered their efforts.

Forcing Ireland’s mainly state controlled banks to raise extra capital would pose a headache for a financial sector that is struggling to wean itself off government support. It would also prove politically toxic if taxpayers, who have already spent €64bn shoring up Ireland’s banks, were forced to inject yet more capital.

At the end of 2011 Ireland’s three main lenders – Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB – had made €5.1bn in provisions to cover mortgage book loses. Davy Stockbrokers forecasts mortgage losses could peak at €10.5bn-€11.5bn. This is higher than the €9bn losses forecast in a 2011 stress test on Ireland’s banks. But the banks should have enough capital to absorb these additional losses, according to Davy.

“With private sector employment flat since 2011, stabilising labour market conditions point to a natural reduction in arrears formation,” said Conall MacCoille, Davy chief economist.

Felix O’Regan, director of public affairs at the Irish Banking Federation, said banks had committed significant resources to working with customers in arrears. New legislation would also enable lenders to “enforce their security in situations where all re-mediation measures have failed and the mortgage is deemed unsustainable,” he said.

But the continued increase in arrears is causing significant uncertainty and risks undermining improved investor sentiment towards Ireland. In a note published on Tuesday, Moody’s, the credit rating agency, cited poor mortgage loan performance as one of the key reasons for maintaining a negative outlook on Ireland’s banking system.

Moody’s has expressed concern that new insolvency legislation that shortens the bankruptcy term to three years from 12 years could lead to some strategic default by mortgage holders.

It forecasts Irish banks will remain under pressure for 12-18 months.

The merits and pitfalls of self-medication need to be understood fully

      

Dr Colin Bradley, professor of general practice at University College Cork

Are you the person that gets fed up having to go to your doctor for a prescription for something relatively minor? Let’s say you have been diagnosed with migraine and there is a drug that has been prescribed for you in the past that works and doesn’t cause you side effects. And yet the medication is available on prescription only and at the very least you have to call the surgery to get the prescription left out for you.

The issue of self-care in Ireland has seen a working group beavering away in an effort to find ways to change the culture of self-care here.

Today they will be presenting their findings to a Dublin meeting of European Medicines Agencies and representatives of the self-medication industry in Europe.

One of their conclusions is that there is a need for a culture change in how we assess medication safety and involve patients to a greater degree in the decision-making process.

Paradigm shift: Dr Colin Bradley, professor of general practice at University College Cork, is a member of the working group. He believes there is a need for a paradigm shift for the management of minor illness. As primary care focuses more on chronic illness management, minor illness would ideally move out of general practice and into the realm of self-care.

A big part of such change will be the provision of appropriate and accessible information to the public, Bradley says. “It’s about equipping patients with access to both information and medicines. For some illnesses we need to move away from a doctor-centred model to a system of self-care.

“ While I am broadly in favour of allowing over-the-counter access for appropriate medicines, I feel their safe use can only be assured by adequate and accessible information and that regulation alone does not protect patients from the risks associated with medicines – regardless of whether they are OTC or restricted to prescription only,” he says.

European study: Meanwhile, a study of attitudes to minor ailments in Europe found that Irish people, more than other nationalities, were guided by their confidence in the safety of an OTC product in deciding whether to self-treat.

In the view of the working group this makes consumers here ideal candidates for a different kind of engagement with health services.

I would like to add some constructive scepticism to the mix. Looking to the list of medicines that moved from prescription-only to OTC in the UK in 2007, I would have personal doubts about some of the choices.

For example, the acid suppressant drug omeprazole is available “for the relief of reflux-like symptoms such as heartburn in adults age 18 years and over for a maximum period of four weeks”.

Regulator warnings: On the face of it, the drug sounds safe, and limiting the period of treatment probably covers the concern that someone with these symptoms could continue to harbour a gastrointestinal malignancy.

But the drug and others in its class have attracted a number of warnings from drug regulators in recent years concerning some interactions with other medications.

My understanding, however, is that the UK authorities have not detected any safety issues as a result of their policy change.

A major consideration also must be the quality of the information given to patients who make self-management choices.

Their interaction with pharmacists will clearly be to a high professional standard. But if the person given written information has literacy issues and cannot absorb some of the safety warnings attached to taking a particular medication, how does that impact patient safety?

Paternalistic approach: I am certainly not in favour of a paternalistic approach to healthcare. And I agree that a black-and-white approach which says medicines are either safe or unsafe is overly rigid.

But I do care passionately about patient safety and I remain to be convinced that moving medicines from prescription to OTC availability is an entirely safe thing to do.

Irish Teachers to log cases of bullying in schools

   

Minister Ruairi Quinn said schools need to take action and that policy alone is no longer enough.

    Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said recent suicides among young victims of bullying highlighted a need for a comprehensive action plan

All teachers will have to keep log books recording individual cases of bullying under new Government plans to tackle the “scourge” of Ireland’s schools.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said recent suicides among young victims of bullying highlighted a need for a comprehensive action plan.

He said schools need to take action and that policy alone is no longer enough.

“For some children, bullying is a scourge that can violate these nurturing environments and in the process obliterate their happiness,” Mr Quinn said.

All teachers by this September will be required to follow a template outlined by the Government for recording incidents of bullying at primary and secondary levels.

Teachers will receive training under the new 12-point Action Plan on Bullying to help them identify cases in the classroom.

“You could actually measure what the incidents were and taking professional advice, decide whether the problem was above normal, or required a particular kind of response. But if it’s not recorded, it’s not there,” Mr Quinn said.

The action plan also includes a pledge to tackle homophobic bullying and to ensure teachers recognise when a child might be targeted based on his or her sexuality.

Ireland’s national LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) youth service BeLonG To hailed the commitment as a breakthrough.

Executive director Michael Barron said: “This action plan is a critical breakthrough and marks a historic recognition by government that homophobic and transphobic bullying are urgent issues that have serious impacts on young people’s mental health.”

GALWAY CITY MARCH AGAINST IRISH DEBT on Saturday 9th Feb.

       

A major protest will take place in the city on Saturday week, February 9th to demand a resolution to Ireland’s bank debt problem.

It’s one of 6 protests that will take place in other cities across the country on the same day.

The protest is organised by Irish trade unions and the theme is ‘Lift the Burden – Jobs not Debt’.

The Galway march will depart from Galway Cathedral carpark at 1.30p.m on February 9th.

It’ll make its way through the city culminating in a rally in the city centre.

Scientists build the one million Dollar man

 

Scientists have built a man from artificial limbs, and while he might not be a bionic superhero, he cost a lot less to create than The Six Million Dollar Man.

One million dollar Rex – short for robotic exoskeletons – was built using the most advanced artificial limbs and organs from across the world.

And he shows that from bionic arms and legs to artificial organs, science is beginning to catch up with science fiction in the race to replace body parts with man-made alternatives.

In the 70s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man astronaut Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors, was left horribly injured after his craft crashed and was given a bionic arm and legs and an artificial zoom-lens eye.

6ft Rex also raises ethical dilemmas, as research on advanced prosthetic arms and legs, as well as artificial eyes, hearts, lungs – and even hybrids between computer chips and living brains – means that scientists can not only replace body parts but may even be able to improve on human abilities.

This has led scientists to warn against creating a modern Frankenstein.

Rex was created for C4 show How to Build a Bionic Man which follows social psychologist Bertolt Meyer, who lost his left hand as a child, as he meets scientists working at the cutting edge.

Leading UK roboticists Richard Walker and Matthew Godden build Rex using $1 million-worth of state of the art limbs and organs – the products of billions of dollars of research – borrowed from some of these world leading laboratories and manufacturers.

Dr Meyer, whose £30,000 bionic hand is the most advanced on the market, said he had a “personal interest” in the “explosion of innovation” which has occurred in the last six years.

“I think we are now at a point where we can build a body that is great and beautiful in its own special way.”

“When I was growing up I hated wearing artificial hands. The plastic hands always looked fake and the metal hooks were useful in some circumstances, but they just looked scary and frightened people. Now that I have this one I feel that the hand is a part of me. If I don’t wear it I feel that there is something missing.”

Technology is advancing so fast his bionic hand will soon be obsolete.

Rex’s components include an arm with 26 degrees of movement, one less than a human arm, which teaches itself to work, glasses which send images to a microchip in the retina which then sends electrical impulses to the brain, and a battery powered heart which is currently being used for temporary donors.

Rex also has bionic ankles, which use a motor and spring system to mimic the actions of the human calf muscle and Achilles tendon, invented by Professor Hugh Herr who lost both legs to frostbite.

“I was climbing better with artificial limbs than I achieved before my accident with biological limbs,” he said.”Technology has this extraordinary capacity to heal, to rehabilitate and even to extend human capability beyond what nature intended.

“I think having normal bodies is boring…I have legs, you have shoes. If a fairy came and tapped on my shoulder and granted me a wish, would I wish my legs back? Absolutely not.”

One organ that science cannot yet match is the human brain. Made up of a hundred billion neurons, it is the most complex structure in the known universe.

But scientists at the University of Southern California are studying the electrical signals in rats’ brains to develop microchips that may one day be able to restore memory and even cure Alzheimer’s by working with living brains.

While Dr Meyer’s search shows just how far science has come, it also asks questions about what it means to be human and where this technology could lead in the future.

“The things I have seen have left me with kind of a weird mix of feelings,” he said.

“There’s optimism that I might live to get an arm that is far more advanced than this one, but then you get developments that augment the healthy human body which I still find it a little bit scary.

“We might be at a point in science and technology where we see first glimpses of the possibilities to go beyond the limits of evolution. I think that really is a double-edged sword.”

George Annas, Professor of Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University agrees: “I think when it comes to our bodies, the danger is we might change what it is to be human.

“Create a new species that may turn around to bite us, similar to the Frankenstein myth, where your creature let loose in the world becomes destructive and uncontrollable. That’s when you go too far.”