Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Enterprise Ireland firms commit to creating over 3,750 jobs

  

Julie Sinnamon, (right picture) chief executive of the State agency charged with helping Irish businesses grow their exports. 

AGENCY CLIENTS EXPORTED PRODUCTS WORTH €17.1 BILLION LAST YEAR, UP 8%.

Companies supported by Enterprise Ireland have committed to creating 3,755 jobs so far this year, many of them in the food sector, it emerged yesterday. The commitments over the first six months, which were up 20% on the same period of 2013, were made within business plans submitted to Enterprise Ireland, with such plans usually covering a three-year period.

Julie Sinnamon, chief executive of the State agency charged with helping Irish businesses to grow their exports, said the food sector is in expansion mode as it pre-empts the end of the milk quota system next year. She said this meant the “brakes were off” for many companies in the area, with a boost in activity also rooted in the likely impact of forthcoming changes to state aid rules.

M/s Sinnamon was speaking at the launch of Enterprise Ireland’s annual report for 2013, which showed that the agency’s client companies grew exports by 8% to €17.1 billion last year, with the strongest increase (20%) recorded in sales to the Asia/Pacific region.

Food accounted for 55% of total exports in 2013, growing by 9.6%, or €830 million, over the 12 months.

M/s Sinnamon described last year’s performance by Enterprise Ireland companies as “tremendous” and said Purchasing Managers’ Index data pointed to a positive outcome for this year too. The PMI was the first indicator that had suggested “things were going south” as the economy headed into recession, she said.

The 2013 report also confirmed earlier data showing that Enterprise Ireland companies created a net 5,442 jobs during 2013, the biggest increase in a decade. At the end of the year, according to the agency, its clients were supporting more than 300,000 jobs, either directly or indirectly, in the economy.

“These figures are really impressive,” said Richard Bruton, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the launch, adding that the 2013 performance was “well ahead of what was happening in world markets”.

Enterprise Ireland took in dividends of €3 million from companies in which it held investments over 2103, marking a 65% increase on 2012. The agency had also been due to collect €2.2 million in dividends from companies that were liquidated or dissolved during the year, while some €11 million was written off on such ventures.

“As a development agency, you have to accept there will always be a level of failure in start-up,” said Ms Sinnamon, describing the total as “a low level of write-offs”. Many would argue the agency should be prepared to take greater risks with “disruptive” investments that could win or lose to a greater extent, she said.

She also said the State needs to grow its population of middle-sized companies to allow more firms to achieve scale internationally.

Enterprise Ireland data suggests that for every 10 jobs created in an Irish exporting company, 13 additional jobs are created elsewhere in the economy, through supply or service relationships. These Irish firms account for €20.28 billion in domestic spending, according to the same analysis.

The annual report details 18 minister-led trade missions organised by Enterprise Ireland last year and attendance at a further 67 international events, with more than 1,000 client companies involved. The agency opened offices in Istanbul in Turkey and in the US city of Austin, Texas.

It also brought more than 1,100 “targeted” international buyers to Ireland to meet client companies and established a new sourcing team to help clients to win a greater share of the procurement spends of multinationals operating here.

New Tanaiste Joan Burton wants the Jobs Ministry from Fine Gael

  

Joan Burton celebrates becoming Labour Party leader with her daughter Aoife Carroll after the count at the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday. 

NEW Tanaiste Joan Burton will demand concessions for low-paid working families when she goes into fresh coalition talks with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Ms Burton will also trade off the European Commissioner’s post in negotiations on the carve-up of cabinet posts.

The new Labour leader wants her party to secure the jobs portfolio, currently held by Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton, and will fight hard for it.

Fine Gael wants the EU position, with Environment Minister Phil Hogan strongly indicating last night that he will be leaving his department in the reshuffle.

JOAN BURTON ELECTED AS NEW LABOUR PARTY LEADER

Joan Burton won the Labour leadership by a huge margin, gaining 77.5% of the vote compared with the 22.5% secured by her only rival Alex White.

With a cabinet reshuffle now just days away, speculation about new faces is intensifying. Labour senator Ivana Bacik is being linked with a dramatic elevation to the Cabinet.

Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe is being tipped to take over the high-profile junior finance ministry.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is said to be keen to have him in his department.

And defeated Labour leadership candidate Alex White is uncertain of a full Cabinet post, but is viewed as a possible super junior minister, who sits at the Cabinet table.

Labour’s new deputy leader Alan Kelly is a certainty for Cabinet, possibly in the Jobs, Education or Communications portfolio.

Labour’s Kathleen Lynch is also a favourite for promotion to Cabinet level.

After securing a huge mandate in the Labour leadership race, taking more than three-quarters of the votes, Ms Burton will meet with Taoiseach Enda Kenny on Monday to discuss the new shape of the Coalition.

Alongside the reshuffle, the Government is expected to relaunch the Programme for Government.

Ms Burton immediately insisted on the setting up of an independent body, which would make recommendations to the Government on pay for lower earners.

The Low Pay Commission would examine whether the minimum wage should be increased and other related issues.

She indicated that wage changes will form part of a “renewed set of policy priorities” which she will present to the Taoiseach.

Ms Burton also renewed her calls for the introduction of a ‘living wage’ – a system that operates in London and aims to ensure that workers can afford to cover basic needs such as food and housing.

Fine Gael ministers have voiced their opposition to prioritising wage increases as they will create a barrier to job creation and damage competitiveness.

Ms Burton also said the issue of housing will form the basis of a major focus now that she is Tanaiste.

Over the weekend, advisers to Mr Kenny and Ms Burton are expected to be in contact on the new Coalition deal.

Mr Kenny’s staff and Ms Burton’s aides were already using back-channels over recent weeks to tease out each other’s positions.

The parties have identified housing, mortgage arrears, political reform, including the justice sector, and tax, including low pay, as the priorities as well as jobs.

After her comprehensive victory, Ms Burton said the Coalition had in the past governed “too much with the head and not enough with the heart”.

Meanwhile, Mr Kelly said Labour wanted to pick Ireland’s next European Commissioner.

He said everything was up for grabs in terms of the looming reshuffle of senior Cabinet and ministerial posts, but also the position of commissioner.

Outgoing Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has increasingly been linked with the post in recent weeks.

But Mr Hogan is the long- believed frontrunner for the post and party colleagues say he appears to be increasingly confident.

Last night his officials said “the general feeling is that he will not return to this department either way” after the reshuffle.

Mr Kelly said he expected to be in Cabinet, where he would be an outspoken defender of “Labour values”.

Ms Burton said her predecessor, Eamon Gilmore, was “eminently well qualified” for Ireland’s EU Commissioner post. She refused to accept Fine Gael’s claims that the job will go to Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

Elderly people in Ireland ‘die’ waiting for home care funding

 

Older people have died while waiting for financial support under the Nursing Home Support Scheme, a study claims.

A survey of private and voluntary nursing homes by Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) found that the delays were causing a deterioration in older people’s health.

The survey of 122 private and voluntary nursing homes, conducted earlier this month, involved the extraction of information on typical waiting times for Fair Deal applications. NHI said it showed there was a crisis in older person care that must be a priority for the Minister for Health. There were 96 homes that were collectively aware of 364 successful applicants awaiting financial support — about four persons for each facility. Over half of the nursing homes (51.6%) said waiting time exceeded 10 weeks and almost half (48.1%) said waiting time was 12 weeks or more.

One home in Leinster said it was aware of 29 successful Fair Deal applicants awaiting financial support.

A nursing home in the south said up to 20 persons were awaiting funding, while other nursing homes were aware of between seven and nine persons. The delays, according to the survey participants, is leading to extended, unnecessary hospital stays — some people had died waiting for financial support.

A nursing home in the west is aware of a family of a 92-year-old that had Fair Deal approval but opted to avail of the HSE’s home help scheme so the person could remain at home.

A year later, when the person needed to be in a nursing home, the family were told to make a fresh application for Fair Deal financial support.

The family now feels penalised for opting to provide care at home for a full year.

NHI chief executive, Tadhg Daly said their fears over the Budget 2014 cut in Fair Deal funding were being realised.

Shannon Airport records a 15% increase in passengers in first half of this year

  

SHANNON AIRPORT RECORDS 15% INCREASE IN PASSENGERS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR.

Shannon Airport has recorded a 15% increase in terminal passenger numbers in the first half of the year, according to figures revealed at a joint Shannon Aiport-Ryanair Travel Clinic.

Passenger numbers on European routes have enjoyed a 54% uplift in the year to date.

This was partly driven by nine new Ryanair routes to Munich, Paris, Faro, Warsaw, Krakow, Nice, Poitiers, Berlin and Fuerteventura launched in April.

Overall, passenger numbers through the Shannon terminal in the first six months of the year were 653,894, up from 568,133 in the same period last year.

UK passengers are also showing a return to growth with a 5% increase, while transatlantic passengers increased by 11%.

“We are really happy with the passenger numbers so far this year,” Shannon Airport’s chief commercial officer Andrew Murphy said.

“We worked hard with our airline partners to secure the new services and there has been a really positive response from the public,” Mr Murphy added.

Irish-linked merger deals up 18.5% for 1sthalf of year

  

A spate of takeover activity in the pharmaceutical sector pushed Irish-related acquisition values to a 20-year high in the first half of 2014 and saw the country account for nearly 18% of European merger activity, in value terms.

New merger and acquisition & figures from global information Services Company, Experian show that the volume of Irish-related deals grew by 18.5%, year-on-year, in the first half, with 147 transactions agreed or concluded.

While the volume growth was seen as “steady progress”, the rise in combined deal value  from just €14.8bn in the first half of 2013 to €97.4bn this year — ranked as the highest half-yearly total recorded in the Republic since Experian’s survey began in 1993.

According to Declan Murphy, commercial director at Experian Ireland, the new figures make welcome reading for Irish deal-makers.

“The first half of the year saw encouraging activity across a wide range of sectors and value segments with pharmaceutical, IT and resource deals returning particularly strong results,” he added.

The two big pharma deals that drove first-half activity were Dublin firm, Actavis’s €18bn takeover of US company, Forest Laboratories and US firm, Medtronic’s agreed purchase of Dublin firm, Covidien for over €30bn.

The number of large deals — measured as being over €120m in value terms — grew by 83.3%, year-on-year, to 22.

Mid-market deals, or ones in the €12m-€120m price bracket, rose from 26 to 35. Meanwhile, there was a 63.2% increase in the number of small deals (with a value of less than €12m) to 31.

Every one of the three categories saw significant combined value increases, also.

Activity in the large deal category represented the busiest period in a decade.

In all, Ireland represented approximately 3.3% of the total volume of European merger and acquisition & activity during the first half of 2014 and accounted for 17.7% of total value.

The manufacturing sector represented more than 30% of all Irish-related deals in the first half, but still saw a 33% annualised decline in its volume of deals.

Offsetting this, transaction activity grew in areas like financial services, IT, mining and pharmaceuticals.

Chimpanzees raised by humans no cleverer than those raised by their mother’s

   

CHIMPS RAISED BY HUMANS ARE NO MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THOSE RAISED BY THEIR PRIMATE MOTHERS, RESEARCH SHOWS

Chimpanzees raised by humans turn out to be no cleverer than those given an ape upbringing, research has shown.

Genes largely determine a chimp’s intelligence, a study has shown – and human intervention makes no difference to it at all.

Research into chimp intelligence could help scientists get a better handle on human IQ, say scientists.

This is because while genes also play a major role in human intelligence, factors such as schooling, home life, economic status, and the culture a person is born in complicate the picture.

Previous studies have suggested that genetics account for around a quarter to a half of variations in human intelligence.

The new research involving 99 chimpanzees from a wide range of ages showed that genes explained about 50% of the differences seen in their intelligence test scores.

Chimps raised by human caretakers did no better in the tasks than individuals brought up by their chimpanzee mothers.

Study leader Dr William Hopkins, from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, US, said: ”Chimps offer a really simple way of thinking about how genes might influence intelligence without, in essence, the baggage of these other mechanisms that are confounded with genes in research on human intelligence.

”What specific genes underlie the observed individual differences in cognition is not clear, but pursuing this question may lead to candidate genes that changed in human evolution and allowed for the emergence of some human-specific specialisations in cognition.

”It is also intriguing to consider what changes in cortical organisation might be associated with individual differences in cognition and whether common genes might explain their common variance.”