Standard & Poor’s upgrades Ireland’s credit rating to an A
Well done Minister, Pierre Moscovici the French finance minister seems to be saying to Michael Noonan the Irish finance minister,
THE CREDIT RATING AGENCY SAID IT HAD REVISED ITS 2014-2016 AVERAGE GDP GROWTH RATE TO 2.7% FROM 2%.
Standard & Poor’s has upgraded Ireland’s credit rating and predicted the economy will grow faster than it expected on average over the next two years.
The credit rating agency said it was raising its long-term sovereign credit rating to A- from BBB+.
It comes just weeks after Moody’s lifted the country’s rating by two notches in a better than expected assessment.
S&P said it had revised its 2014-2016 average GDP growth rate for Ireland to 2.7% from 2%..
It said this reflected its expectation of a continued strong external performance and a sustained recovery in the domestic economy.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the upgrade highlighted the continued improvement in Ireland’s credit worthiness.
“I am particularly pleased that this upgrade is being driven by S&P’s view on the improved prospects for the domestic economy,” Mr Noonan said.
“This is a view I share and with thousands of jobs being created each month, strong exchequer performance and with positive high-frequency indicators, I am confident that we are moving in the right direction.”
The state’s debt management agency, the National Treasuruy Management Agency (NTMA) said it was the first A rating of any of the major credit rating agencies since it returned to the international money markets on a full-time basis.
“It represents a further confirmation of the continuing positive assessment of Ireland by the major credit rating agencies.,” NTMA chief executive John Corrigan said.
“It also underpins the already strong investor sentiment towards Ireland and provides a very supportive backdrop for the remainder of the NTMA’s funding programme in 2014.
“It is gratifying to note that the bond market access achieved by Ireland and the progress made by NAMA are among the positive factors cited by S&P.”
S&P said it believes the domestic recovery is broadening and has gathered pace in the first three months of the year.
Irish Government needs to act now over its failure to cut greenhouse gasses
The Irish Government’s Green Paper on Energy Policy in Ireland, which is out to public consultation until the end of July, reads like a manuscript from the past discovered during an archaeological dig.
Who is this Minister Rabbitte smiling up from the introduction of a document which talks about “transforming Ireland into one of the most energy efficient economies in Europe by 2020?”
As Pat Rabbitte himself prepares to hop to another hutch, many of the claims of the energy paper have already been discredited. The “National Low Carbon Roadmap” which is meant to magically reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions by 80% to 95% by 2050 is years off schedule and will seemingly have no targets except for 2050 when everyone in positions of power in this government may be dead and gone.
And while there is much posturing in the paper about the impact of home retrofits on energy consumption, with SEAI’s figures showing energy consumption per household dropping by 18% between 2006 and 2011, the rate of retro-fitting has halved in the three years this government has been in power. The Environmental Protection Agency predicts that energy efficiency in houses may be just 5% better by 2020 if no additional measures are taken.
The need for “grid-strengthening and reinforcement” is highlighted but opposition to pylons seems a bit understated in the expression, “such infrastructure has proved divisive in the past, with communities and developers finding themselves in opposition” because there is no indication the present or future will be any different. And the commitment to explore the export of renewable energy to the UK looks out of date considering the collapse of recent negotiations on the issue between the two governments.
While the Green Paper highlights the changes in VRT to reflect the emission rates of vehicles and highlights the fact that the CO2 emissions of new private cars fell by 22% from 2008 to 2011, it does not say that the current government has diluted the measure. And while the paper calls for “carbon capture and storage” to be explored if coal-fired energy generation is to continue at Moneypoint, the EPA takes the view that this is not going to happen and has adjusted its greenhouse gas projections for Ireland until 2020 accordingly.
These projections, published by the EPA this week, are a damning indictment of our response to the threat of climate change. While the Green Paper whistles a happy tune, the EPA’s projections say we will breach the EU’s legally binding targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction in that much-trumpeted date of 1916 and face massive fines.
While cows and cars are the main culprits in our greenhouse gas emission crime, it is hard to believe that the Government is even trying to reduce our emissions when you see the buildings they themselves control gaily burning our money to pump pollution into the atmosphere.
What’s most frustrating about this is that simple behaviour change can lead to energy savings of up to 20% as an Office of Public Works pilot project has shown. Now the OPW is partnering with Tallaght Hospital to reduce energy use by 18% over three years with a target saving of €4.3 million, enough to fund 18 acute hospital beds.
I suppose the reason the Public Accounts Committee has never taken an interest in the scandalous waste of energy in public buildings is that there is no easily identifiable “baddie” to haul in for questioning. The issue has been left to a tiny group of volunteers, Dublin Friends of the Earth, and they got their first hearing in the Dáil yesterday when they addressed the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection.
The National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (2013) has a target of 33% reduction in energy use in public buildings by 2020, to show the rest of us in our bog-standard houses how it’s done.
But while the Green Paper says the Sustainable Energy Association of Ireland has signed partnerships with bodies and agencies which account for more than 60% of the public sector energy spend, DFOE reports that we have no national data for energy use in the public sector for the last three years and therefore no idea whether use is decreasing or increasing. Not even the figures for 2011, the first year in which reporting energy use became a legal requirement for public bodies, have been published, although SEAI told DFOE this February that the report was with the designers.
You would never think we were attempting to emerge from a serious recession which has hammered public services from the way we burn energy in our public buildings.
This is perhaps most clearly shown in the case of our schools who pay for their energy use out of that precious capitation grant for each pupil which has recently been cut by 3.5%.
A quarter to a third of this scarce resource is spent on energy in our 4,000-plus schools, and this adds up to between €50 million and €80m a year. And yet the Government has not required schools to demonstrate any effort to save energy. The Department’s position is that it is up to school boards what they do with their money.
The most it has done is partner with SEAI to produce a website,http://www.energyineducation.ie, but they neglected to tell the schools about it so it is hardly surprising that only 6% of schools have engaged with it.
The depressing thing about all of this is that cutting energy use through behaviour change is relatively easy and close to cost-free. Under the guidance of An Taisce’s Green Schools initiative, some schools have reported massive savings from simple behaviour change, such as the special school in Co. Wicklow with 20 pupils who saved €4,000 by switching off equipment after school, removing electric heaters and opening blinds; or the secondary school in Mayo which saved €10,000 by turning off the electricity at night, putting timers on PCs and using energy efficient lighting.
By 2016 Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil might have finally called off the Civil War or Sinn Féin might be in power on both sides of the border. But it will also be remembered as the year in which we break our legal commitments to the EU on greenhouse gas emissions and officially become climate criminals.
We will threaten our economic survival, not to mention our future on the planet, if we don’t see 2016 as a wake-up call to radicaly reduce emissions by 2020, 2030 and beyond. And that should start today with a plan to stop blowing good money through the roof of public buildings.
How should the Irish driving test be changed?
ASKS THE ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY
THE ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY WANTS YOUR INPUT.
The Road Safety Authority has called on members of the public to share their thoughts on the driving test.
The test turns 50 this year and the RSA are marking the milestone by seeking people’s views on how it should be changed.
If you’re stuck for ideas at the minute, you’ve got a few weeks to come up with something as the deadline for submissions is Friday, 18 July.
Some 140,000 driving tests take place in Ireland each year, with 1,800 approved instructors nationwide.
In 1964, the year the test was introduced, 341 people died on Irish roads, compared with 190 road deaths in 2014. There are currently 2.4 million vehicles on our roads, up from 400,000 50 years ago.
The RSA is currently hosting the 46th General Assembly of CIECA, the international driver testing commission, at Dublin Castle.
SAFER ROADS
Moyagh Murdock, the RSA’s CEO, said that every development made to driver training and testing leads to our roads “becoming a safer place”.
Driver education is absolutely key to safety on the roads. We are delighted to mark the 50th anniversary of the test this year, and look forward to the next 50 years when driver education and training will make the roads an even safer space for us all to share.
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said that the driving test has saved thousands of lives over the years.
The public consultation launched today will help members of the public, and interested parties to shape the future of the driving test.
He noted that one of the proposals being considered is a hazard perception test, where the driver is asked to identify potential hazards in photographs or videos.
“The ability to spot hazards is a vital skill and marks out a really competent driver, and its inclusion in training and testing would help to focus attention on this skill at an early stage,” he stated.
It’s up to Gardai on whether there should be a criminal investigation in Tuam mass babies grave
SAYS JUSTICE MINISTER FRANCES FITZGERALD
Gardai will decide on whether there should be a criminal investigation into why and how the bodies of an estimated 800 infants ended up in a septic tank at the site of a former ‘mother and baby’ home.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald made the comment after confirming she is now seeking a full report from the interim garda commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan on the information available on the deaths of babies at a ‘Mother and baby’ home in Tuam, Co Galway.
Today is the first time gardai have been asked to gather all information they have available on the matter.
In a statement issued this evening, the minister said it was up to gardai to decide whether or not to proceed with a criminal investigation, sealing off a crime scene and conduct a forensic examination.
Gardai have said they will provide any information and assistance it can to government’s inter-departmental group
Meanwhile an inter-departmental body comprising of officials from the departments of justice, children, education and social protection has been set up to look at the matter.
They are expected to report back to the minister at the end of the month.
Once the government studies their full report, they will then decide on how they should proceed with the matter, M/s Fitzgerald said.
New evidence of another world discovered on the moon
A new analysis of three lunar rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts in the ’60s breathes new life into an old theory some thought too simple: that the moon was created when another planet, Theia, crashed into Earth billions of years ago, leaving behind molten debris that eventually cooled and moved into a stable orbit around our planet.
The problem is that, after numerous inspections of the rocks, no one could find any trace of another planet. Until now. Previous analysis of the samples found they were identical to samples from Earth, when they should have shown some difference to indicate they also came from Theia.
But now, “we have … discovered small differences between the Earth and the moon,” the lead researcher tells the BBC. “This confirms the giant impact hypothesis.” The difference detected is tiny indeed—the lunar samples carry a barely detectable abundance of oxygen-17, a form of oxygen that has nine neutrons in its atoms instead of the typical eight.
In fact, the lunar samples have just 0.012% more oxygen-17 than is found on Earth, but it’s enough to suggest the involvement of another planet that also featured more of the element.
Scientists spotted the difference using a novel technique, explains Time: They sealed the rocks in a chamber of fluorine gas, vaporized a small portion of the rocks with a laser beam, and drained out the gas and vapor, which were then sent through a device called a chromatograph to separate oxygen from the other gases.
This also enabled them to spot the same difference in samples previous researchers had looked at and found no difference. (In other cool space news, astronomers recently discovered a planet with an 8-hour day.)
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