Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Irish taxpayer being forced ‘to plug €58m hole in regulatory bill’

 

Noonan pledges to establish working group to examine costs to State of financial regulation

Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty said this was an unacceptable way for such an important and profitable industry to be regulated.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is to establish a special working group to examine the costs to the State of financial regulation.

This comes in the wake of revelations that the Irish taxpayer is being forced to plug a €58 million hole in the State’s annual regulatory bill.

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Central Bank confirmed to him that €57.9 million of the State’s €136 million bill for overseeing the sector in 2013 went “unrecovered”.

Mr Doherty had raised the question of regulatory costs with Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan at a recent finance committee meeting.

In a written reply to the Donegal TD, Prof Honohan confirmed that just under 50 per cent of the regulatory costs were still being funded by the State.

“This effectively means the taxpayer is picking up the tab for regulating the financial industry. That is an unacceptable way for such an important and profitable industry to be regulated,” Mr Doherty said.

“The time has come for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to tell the financial services industry that it must pay for its upkeep,” he said.

In a statement, the Department of Finance said Mr Noonan planned to establish a working group in the new year to examine the issue on foot of a request from the Central Bank.

The group is to be made up of personnel from the department and the Central Bank and would feed into a consultation process aimed at shifting the entire cost of regulation onto the industry itself, the department said.

Currently, banks and other financial institutions pay only half the costs of the State’s financial regulatory budget, albeit with some sectoral variations, an arrangement that was agreed back in 2010.

Most of the regulation costs stem from the introduction of new EU banking rules imposed on the sector after the financial crash.

Prof Honohan is, however, keen to move to 100 per cent funding by the industry prior to the introduction of new rules connected with the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), which will increase the costs of the regulation further.

The department said: “The [proposed consultation] process would also take into consideration issues such as; the fee model proposed under the SSM; the use of 100 per cent industry funding by Irish regulators in other sectors; the disparate sectoral complexities within the financial services industry; affordability; and the impact on Ireland’s competitiveness vis-à-vis competing jurisdictions in the area of financial services.”

In his letter to Mr Doherty, Prof Honohan listed the sectors that only contributed 50 per cent of their regulatory costs. These included insurance undertakings, securities and investment firms, investment funds and investment fund service providers and moneylenders.

“We are talking about some businesses with turnovers in the millions if not billions,” Mr Doherty said.

In 2010, the Government established an annual industry funding levy to fund approximately 50 per cent of the cost of the annual budget for financial regulation.

Following a consultation process last year, the Central Bank introduced a revised approach to the levy calculation process designed to more closely align the funding of the costs of financial regulation with its supervisory resources.

40% of us vow to get fit in the New Year

 

Two in five 40% of people are aiming to get fit in the New Year and three quarters of people asked for workout gear for Christmas, a survey has found.

In the age of computer games and electronic gadgets, people are more than ever pledging to beat the sedentary life.

The New Year has traditionally been the favoured time for new resolutions and a survey of 2,500 people found that even before the Christmas holidays, 85% had already decided what they would change for 2015.

The survey asked how many people has split their pants in the gym, with 8pc admitting that this had happened to them while 10pc admitted to a treadmill tumble.

It also found that music was a must for working out at the gym with and that one in four four had a gym crush.

When questioned about a “gym idol,” two names were outright winners, actress Jessica Alba and wrestler and actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Technology has also changed the way that people train, with three out of four runners saying that they now track their runs using GPS devices, such as a phone app.

The survey also asked how far each respondent thought that they could run with two in five claiming to be able to travel at least 5km and one in five saying at least 10km.

The survey was carried out by Irish sports chain Life Style Sports. It also found that 50% of people were exercising at least three times a week.

Tracking

“This is the first running and fitness survey that we have conducted and it made for some fascinating reading.

“It’s inspiring to see that people are running or working out at least three times a week, even during these cold winter months,” Debbie Byrne, marketing manager, said.

HSE to launch new supports to help smokers quit

  

The HSE is today launching new additional supports as part of its QUIT programme to help people who want to give up smoking.

The QUIT service provides a support team of counsellors over the phone, by email, live web-chat or via Twitter and Facebook.

It also features a new interactive website with an online QUIT plan.

People who sign up to the standard treatment programme will be tracked and supported for 12 months.

More information is available on the website QUIT.IE. More than 7,200 people signed up to the QUIT programme in 2014.

Dr. Stephanie O’Keeffe outlined how the HSE will promote the new QUIT service.

“On this day last year, our QUIT campaign launched its powerful advertising featuring Gerry Collins from Greystones in Co. Wicklow, who died earlier this year from lung cancer caused by smoking,” she said.

“Gerry’s trio of unique adverts have prompted a remarkable response from smokers trying to quit since they first aired in January 2014, and his family have generously committed to allowing the HSE to continue to use these adverts to lead the QUIT campaign.

“We will continue to show Gerry’s ads – giving people a chance to reflect on why they should quit.

“From now on, they’ll be matched by a call to contact the new QUIT support service – helping smokers know how to quit. We aim to add to the fantastic total of over 500,000 quit attempts prompted by our campaign since 2011.

“We want to continue to reduce the number of smokers, preventable deaths and many thousands of disabilities caused by tobacco that devastate families across the nation each year.”

‘I’m struck by the green every time I fly back to Ireland’

 

‘Ireland and Me: by Margaret O’Donnell, San Diego, California. 

‘On our approach into Dublin, once we have lurched our way through several layers of those dark, threatening clouds, there it is, in all of its verdant shades.

It’s been eleven years since I left. I did not intend to stay this long. The original plan was to leave after seven years, taking husband and cats with me, and move back to my apartment in Dublin.

Then, I became used to my life on a small island across the bay from San Diego. The weather is perfect here. Most days, I need no longer rush to the window to pull back the curtains to see if there’s an aqua blue sky outside. It’s usually there and, if not, it will be back shortly. No living under low, threatening, dark clouds for me. “Ah, but that’s what makes Ireland so green” I’m told here.

Yet, I’m struck by that green every time I fly back to Ireland. On our approach into Dublin, once we have lurched our way through several layers of those dark, threatening clouds, there it is, in all of its verdant shades. It speaks to me as if my very blood were green.

I feel a childlike delight when I listen to the announcements (in Irish and in English), that I’m back in Dublin again. My spirit veritably jumps up and down, listening to people who speak like I do. It is through the people at home (and I still call it “home”) that I again find my own identity. Strangers, family, good friends. All of them help me knit myself back together again.

The people in Southern California are, in the main, kind and well-meaning. Most of them rejoice in my Irishness and that still fills me with wonder. Being Irish here is like having that extra passport that lets you pass by the normal borders people have with strangers.

I sometimes get away with things because it is put down to my Irish “quirkiness”. It is even said I am some people’s favourite Irish person. That possibly would be because I’m the only Irish person they know. In some instances, my role as an “ambassador” makes me want to present the best me possible, so that we don’t all get a bad name. I strive to be better in all kinds of ways which, of course, has to be a good thing.

But no matter how well received I am here, I feel like I’m getting into a comfortable suit of clothes when I go home. I never feel that in San Diego. I’m too watchful, alert to the very high sense of “political correctness” I find here sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with being careful about others’ feelings, but when you have to watch your Ps and Qs because someone might take umbrage against my saying the word “Christmas” for instance.

And sometimes I just don’t care what I say. Not in a bad way, but I just have to let go of the constraints for a moment. There is also the dichotomy of what I hear and the behaviours I see that really confuse me sometimes. At home, everything tends to be more overt.

There’s an ache in my heart when I think of family and friends that an annual two-week holiday never fills. Yet I know I have an incredibly good life here in so many ways and should feel thankful. I do feel thankful. I just want it all. The Irish and the American. I will have to just be content with what I have. And it is indeed a good life.

UK scientists plan to grow lettuce on Mars

 

Photos of the lettuce are to be transmitted to Earth so the public and scientists would be able to watch the lettuce mature

Scientists could soon be enjoying out of this world lettuces 

A team of scientists have created a plan to grow lettuce on Mars, and it has been short-listed to be included in a future space flight to the red planet.

The project, being run at the University of Southampton, aims to put the first life on Mars by growing the salad vegetable in a greenhouse which will use the atmosphere and sunlight to help it grow.

The plan is one of 10 short-listed university projects, and the only one from the UK, to be selected for potential inclusion in the payload for the Mars One landing in 2018.

Project leader Suzanna Lucarotti said: “To live on other planets we need to grow food there. No-one has ever actually done this and we intend to be the first.

“This plan is both technically feasible and incredibly ambitious in its scope, for we will be bringing the first complex life to another planet.

“Growing plants on other planets is something that needs to be done, and will lead to a wealth of research and industrial opportunities that our plan aims to bring to the University of Southampton.

“We have tackled diverse sets of engineering challenges, including aeroponic systems, bio filters, low-power gas pressurisation systems and fail-safe planetary protection systems and then integrated them all into one payload on a tight mass, power and cost budget.”

For the project called £LettuceOnMars, the greenhouse would be launched from Earth with lettuce seeds, water, nutrients, and systems for atmospheric processing and electronic monitoring.

On the way to Mars, it would be powered down and inactive whilst the lettuce seeds are frozen.

Following a safe landing, the Mars One lander will start to supply power and heating elements to maintain a temperature between 21C to 24C.

Carbon dioxide, which is essential for plant life, would be extracted from the Martian atmosphere and processed before entering the growth chamber.

The lettuce would then be grown without soil and would be regularly sprayed with water and nutrients (aeroponically).

Once the environment had reached suitable conditions, the plant would start growing.

The aim is then for photos of the lettuce to be transmitted to Earth, so the public and scientists would be able to watch the lettuce mature from seed to full plant. Once the mission is completed, the heaters would switch to full power, exterminating all life in the payload.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG.

President Higgins signs Water Services Bill into law

 

Áras an Uachtaráin says requests were received to refer legislation to the people.

President Michael D Higgins signed the Water Services Bill into law after giving it careful consideration, a statement said.

President Higgins has today signed into law the Water Services Bill which will allow the water charges to come into effect from next week.

A statement issued from Áras an Uachtaráin today said:

“President Michael D Higgins, having given careful consideration to all aspects of the Bill and the submissions he received, today signed the Water Services Bill 2014.”

The statement added that the President had received a number of submissions about the Bill including a number of requests to refer the Bill to the people for decision under Article 27 of Bunreacht na hÉireann.

However, the statement added: “Article 27 of Bunreacht na hÉireann applies only where Bills have been deemed by virtue of Article 23 of Bunreacht na hÉireann to have been passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas.

“Article 27 of Bunreacht na hÉireann therefore did not apply in this case. The President gave consideration to the Bill, taking into account Bunreacht na hÉireann including Article 26 and the submissions received.”

Unions say- Nurses will be struck off register if €150 fee is not paid

  

NURSES MUST PAY THE NEW €150 REGISTRATION FEE.

Nurses and midwives have been warned they will be working illegally if they fail to pay a new €150 registration fee, due on January 1.

A row between the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland and nursing unions over a 50% hike in the annual charge that allows them to practice has deepened, after the board accused unions of “misleading” their members.

In a strongly-worded statement, the board said nurses who refuse to pay the tariff will be struck off its register in February or March after receiving a 28-day reminder notice.

It said employers, including the HSE, have confirmed they will not employ nurses and midwives who were removed from the register.

The board said unions were misleading members by advising them that it was still acceptable to pay last year’s rate of €100.

It said a badge unions were distributing in relation to the €100 payment had no legal standing, and was not an alternative to the registration certificate they were legally obliged to obtain.

More than 1,000 nurses hold protest over registration fee00:00 / 02:11

The board denied the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s claim that talks were under way between it, the unions and Department of Health on the charge, known as the Annual Retention Fee.

“The board would like to unequivocally state that the board has to be self-funding, which means that registration fees for 2015, due on January 1, must remain €150,” it said. “For unions to advise otherwise to registrants is misleading.”

It said it confirmed at its last meeting this year that full payment of the €150 fee was required for registrants to get a valid 2015 certificate.

In a letter to directors of nursing, INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said the annual retention fee did not have to be paid by January 1.

He said a further reminder would be sent around February 2, allowing another 28 days for payment, and no employer could interfere with nurses’ employment arrangements during this period. Mr Doran advised members to pay the existing fee of €100 after January 5, or when their “personal circumstances allow”, and claimed the board would accept it as an interim payment.

Nurses say they cannot afford the fee hike, which the board says is necessary mainly due to a rise in its legal costs. More than a thousand nurses and midwives protested at the fee hike outside its Blackrock office during a meeting of the nursing board last month.

More people die in Ireland from heart disease and stroke related illness

THAN ANY OTHER CAUSE OF DEATH

 

The Irish Heart Foundation has launched a new On The Dry initiative. 

More people die in Ireland today from heart and stroke related illnesses than from any other cause of death.

That’s despte the fact that 80% of cardiovascualr disease is preventable.

The Irish Heart Foundation has launched a new On The Dry initiative aimed at encouraging people to give up alcohol for the month of January.

Barry Dempsey is CEO of the Irish Heart Foundation. 

He says the idea is to help people have a healthier start to the New Year while also raising funds for the charity.

Meanwhile:-

Irish Heart Foundation urging adults to learn how to take their own pulse

  

Accordingly more than 40,000 people over 50 years old in Ireland suffer from Atrial Fibrillation

This winter the Irish Heart Foundation is urging adults to learn how to take their own pulse regularly to detect the most common heart rhythm disorder, Atrial Fibrillation, which carries a five-fold additional risk of stroke.

According to the charity, more than 40,000 people over 50 years old in Ireland suffer from Atrial Fibrillation, but the vast majority are unaware of it. In fact, just 26% of the population have heard of the condition.

Atrial Fibrillation often has no symptoms, so most people don’t know they have it. However, there can be warning signs, including: palpitations, tiredness, shortness of breath, dizziness, or feeling faint.

According to the Foundation, the causes of Atrial Fibrillation are not always clear, but the chance of developing it can go up if a person has one or more medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Atrial Fibrillation can affect adults of any age, but it is more common as people get older.

Dr Angie Brown, Medical Director of the Irish Heart Foundation, said: “Although Atrial Fibrillation is generally not life-threatening, it is a serious condition and can lead to serious complications such as stroke and other heart problems.

“By knowing how to take your own pulse or by having it regularly checked, you can detect the condition. The recommended normal heart rate is between 60 and 100 heartbeats per minute, but some people can have heart rates over 100. You should see your doctor if you have a persistent heart rate above 120 beats per minute or below 40 beats.”

“Atrial Fibrillation is a very common cause of disabling stroke in Ireland and by raising awareness of a condition that affects tens of thousands of people in Ireland, and the need for checking your heart rate; we can prevent more strokes and ultimately save lives.”

According to the Foundation, about 10,000 people suffer strokes in Ireland annually and around 2,000 die as a result. Atrial Fibrillation is a major factor in one third of strokes. The average stroke destroys two million brain cells every minute and it can result in death or disability if people don’t Act F.A.S.T. and call 999.

 F.A.S.T. warning signs:

• Face – has their face fallen on one side?  Can they smile?
• Arms – can they raise both arms and keep them there?
• Speech – is their speech slurred?
• Time – time to call 999 if you see any one of these signs.

Cut price pub Wetherspoon’s to open 200 new bars across Ireland and UK

  

The company will shortly open new pubs in Cork City and Swords, Blanchardstown and Camden St in Dublin

UK pub chain JD Wetherspoon plans to open 200 new pubs across Ireland and the UK over the next five years.

The company, which will shortly open new pubs in Cork City and Swords, Blanchardstown and Camden St in Dublin, said it will invest £400m (€510m) in developing the new pubs.

“We are looking forward to opening the new pubs, many of which will be in areas where Wetherspoon is not yet represented,” Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said.

Wetherspoon currently operates 931 pubs and employs more than 34,000 staff.

It recently made headlines for dropping Heineken products from its offering after a dispute over supply for its Irish pubs.

Wetherspoons opened its new pub, the Forty Foot, overlooking Dun Laoghaire Harbour, with neither Guinness or Murphy’s stout on tap nor Heineken or Foster’s lager.

Kegs of two English-brewed stouts were on sale at the rock bottom price of €2.50 a pint – undercutting average Dublin prices by at least €2 a pint. A selection of Irish craft beers were also on sale, including the highly rated O’Hara’s.

A selection of Irish, Czech, American and English lagers were also on offer at either €2.50 or €2.95 a pint – again a €2 or €2.50 discount on standard city prices.

And in a further blow to the established pub trade, Wetherspoons’ two Irish pubs, the Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire and the Three Tun Tavern in Blackrock, have slashed the price of vodka, gin, whiskey and other spirits.

Premium brand Absolut vodka is selling at €3.95 with a free mixer. An extra measure costs €2 so a double vodka and tonic costs €5.95 at the Forty Foot.

Even in the notably cheap Pavillion bar at Trinity a single vodka and tonic costs €5.60. In a trendy Temple Bar pub, admittedly among the most expensive pubs in the country, a standard spirit and baby mixer costs just shy of €10.

The pub chain insisted that the decision not to sell Guinness and other Diageo-supplied beers including Budweiser, Smithwick’s and Carlsberg at the Three Tun Tavern in Blackrock, which opened in July, has not had a negative impact.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover spots alien coffin on Mars

   

NASA’s Curiosity Rover has found an alien coffin on Mars. The stone picture object above looks like a coffin,

The ‘coffin’ was discovered by Will Farrar from WhatsUpintheSky37as he trawled through a library of pictures sent back by the Mars rover Curiosity.

The hunters of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) have spotted an object that looks strangely like a coffin on the Martian surface.

It looks to be about 3.2 ft (one metre) across and 1.5ft (0.4 metres) wide and high, reported Daily Mail.

“This stone object looks like a coffin,” researcher Scott Waring of the UFO Sightings Daily was quoted as saying.

According to Waring, the object may simply be a stone formation but wonders if NASA could turn the Curiosity rover around and take a closer look at the “coffin”.

The object that looks like a coffin can be a figment of imagination of the UFO watchers but if not, science will take another leap into the unknown, getting much closer this time.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Politicians and Irish developers will be paid up to €100m?

ITS A SCANDAL?

  

Enda Kenny admits little hope of a return of AIB €17bn; USC cut for ‘squeezed middle’ will be just 1%

  George Redmond, (90), former assistant Dublin city and county manager leaving court after the hearing. 

The taxpayer will now pay up to €100m in third-party legal costs resulting from the Mahon Tribunal to developers and politicians because of the George Redmond judgment, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Substantial and previously unforeseen legal costs, running to “tens of millions” will now have to be met by the taxpayer as the full impact of the December 19 Redmond High Court judgment emerges.

A number of politicians and developers – including former Justice Minister Ray Burke, developer Michael Bailey and businessman Joseph Murphy Junior – were previously found to have not cooperated with the tribunal.

In a number of cases, those findings have now been “quashed” on foot of the Redmond judgement. The Sunday Independent has learned that in the days before Christmas, the Mahon Tribunal wrote to parties named in its report informing them that adverse findings against them have been withdrawn “with immediate effect.”

Previous rulings refusing the paying of legal costs for those individuals, who include prominent developers and former politicians, have also been overturned. One affected developer alone is known to have amassed legal costs of at least €11m, which will now have to be paid for by the taxpayer.

While the Government had expected to spend €64m on third-party legal costs, that figure could now top €100m, senior Government sources have conceded.

The news comes as Taoiseach Enda Kenny has strongly indicated that Ireland will not receive any retrospective bank bailout from Europe for the 2008 saving of our banks.

Mr Kenny, speaking at a Christmas briefing for political correspondents, ruled out any potential return on the €32bn poured into Anglo Irish Bank and strongly indicated that Government will seek to sell AIB rather than continue to seek EU funds.

“Clearly our banks were in a very different position then, than they are now. The Government’s target here is to find out how can you get the best return for the taxpayer?” Mr Kenny said.

“So you have two options here; one is an application for recapitalisation, and that is where Ireland is mentioned specifically in that decision (June 2012), and the other is the second option that has grown now because of the improvement in the bank situation.”

The taxpayer is now facing a monumental additional legal bill after the Mahon Tribunal withdrew all adverse findings against Mr Redmond, a former assistant Dublin City manager, in the High Court on December 19.

The withdrawal arose from a settlement in the High Court of his long-running action against the inquiry. Mr Redmond was awarded his costs, which are estimated to run into several million euro.

“Arising from the settlement of proceedings between the tribunal and Mr George Redmond concerning the third interim report the findings have been quashed. Current members of the Tribunal have completed a review of those findings. Accordingly, it is their decision that the said findings of hindrance and obstruction be withdrawn with immediate effect,” the December 22 letter from Tribunal solicitor Susan Gilvarry states.

Given the tribunal has withdrawn its 2002 third interim report, which dealt primarily with Mr Redmond, people who previously had costs applications rejected by the tribunal will now have their costs paid by the State.

The latest development also follows Mr Murphy’s 2010 Supreme Court challenge which found the Tribunal was not entitled to refuse costs on the basis of findings of obstruction and hindrance made by it against him.

Among those believed to been contacted by the tribunal include some former politicians, Bovale developers Michael and Tom Bailey and Hollystown Golf Club owner Oliver Barry. The Sunday Independent understands more than half a dozen letters were sent out by the Tribunal to affected parties.

The Tribunal letter added that an “order providing for the payment of your costs subject to taxation by the Taxing Master of the High Court has been made”. Political concern is growing that the decision may now open the door for a number of other high-profile tribunal figures to recoup the entirety of their legal costs.

Mr Burke’s 2004 submission for costs of €10m was rejected in its entirety by the tribunal on the grounds that the level of his non-cooperation with the tribunal had been in breach of his legal obligation to cooperate with and assist the tribunal.

The Department of the Environment said: “The decision of the courts in respect of Mr Redmond is a matter for the Tribunal in the first place. The full findings of the decision will be examined by the department.

There is already a provision in the 2015 estimates for the department in respect of the ongoing costs in respect of the Mahon Tribunal.”

Two leading members of the Dail’s spending watchdog have said they will demand answers from the Department of the Environment as to the potential costs facing the taxpayer.

John McGuinness, PAC Chairman, said Department of the Environment officials will be called before the committee to explain their response to the fall-out of the Redmond judgment.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Mr McGuinness said: “Now that this has been stated by the tribunal, I would be concerned from a public accounts perspective, that we need to now examine the full scale of this. We need to bring in the accounting officer, who is the Secretary-General of the Department of the Environment, and discuss with him the issues and the potential exposure to the State.”

PAC vice-chairman and Government TD John Deasy said: “I think the taxpayer wants to see the end of costs in relation to tribunals. The department needs to be asked for an update as to the impact of recent court cases. It needs to be discussed as to how it will minimise costs to the taxpayer. The very least we need to find out what the liability is going to be and where the money is going to come from.”

Meanwhile, the Government is considering reducing the 7pc Universal Social Charge (USC) rate for all those earning over €17,000. There is a growing desire to reduce the “penal impact” on those low-to-middle-income earners of between €17,000 and €70,000.

Fine Gael and Labour backbench TDs have increasingly raised their concerns about the need to further reduce the impact of the hated charge ahead of the general election.

The Government is set to use a ‘spring statement’ to outline its USC plan for Budget 2016, which will then be unveiled next October.

THE 30 YEAR SECRET DOCUMENT REVELATIONS?

Border rethink raised during 1984 NI talks

 

Secret government documents from 1984 reveal Margaret Thatcher proposed “simply” moving the border in a bid to resolve the crisis enveloping Northern Ireland.

The talks preceded the signing of the Anglo Irish Agreement. However, the then Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald warned the radical change would be a “fatal mistake”, adding that they had managed to lower expectations of unifying Ireland and the move could reignite the public’s hopes of a 32-county state.

The revelation is contained in secret government files released in Dublin’s National Archive under the 30 year rule.

During heated exchanges at a critical summit in the run up to the Anglo Irish Agreement, Mrs. Thatcher argued that giving Dublin an official role in the governing of the region would plunge it into civil war.

Venting fears that Northern Ireland was heading toward a Marxist state, the Conservative Party leader told her Irish counterpart in the November 1984 talks that resolving the crisis could mean altering the border.

“She wondered if a possible answer to the problem might not simply be a redrawing of boundaries,” records an official note of the top-level meeting.

But Taoiseach Mr. FitzGerald immediately rejected the apparent offer.

“What we have achieved at present is a lowering of expectations,” he said.

Mr FitzGerald said the Irish government had worked on dampening down hopes among some for an end to Northern Ireland, as it was constituted.

Most people had accepted “unity was not on” in the short term.

The Taoiseach, and Fine Gael leader, pressed Mrs Thatcher for a new “system” of governing Northern Ireland, based on agreed policies between Britain’s secretary of state and an Irish Government minister.

Where they could not agree, decisions would be appealed to the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach, he said.

The unionists would say you are giving up your Constitutional claims but you are coming across the border and don’t really need the claim. That would put us well on the way to civil war.

Margaret Thatcher’s reaction:-

  But Mrs Thatcher “reacted strongly” to the plan, according to the Dublin government files. “No, no – that is a joint authority,” she said.

The Prime Minister said Catholics in Northern Ireland, who made up 40% of the population, argued that they owed no allegiance to London “but they took the government’s money”.

They thought they were different to any other minority and were “drawing on resources which the Republic did not provide,” she told Mr FitzGerald.

“The nationalists feel that all they have to do is to wait.”

She accepted there were problems with Catholics getting jobs and admitted some areas – pointing to Lisburn as an example – “would not accept Catholics”.

Mr FitzGerald said there had been agreement on an Irish Government role in running the region, adding that he could not ask the nation to give up its territorial claim over Northern Ireland without such a deal.

But Mrs. Thatcher insisted: “It smacks too much of joint authority. That was definitely out.”

During one sharp exchange, as she argued that Westminster was answerable for Northern Ireland, Mr FitzGerald retorted that “for 50 years they had not regarded themselves as being answerable”.

“That was partly the reason for the present trouble,” he said.

On a suggestion from the Taoiseach of a Belgium-style solution – a federal arrangement under a monarchy- Mrs Thatcher said she “had not ruled it out, even though it would be attacked by unionists as an effective repartition.”

She added: “History shows that the Irish, whether the Scottish-Irish or the Irish-Irish, don’t like to move. However, they all seem to be terribly happy to move to Britain.”

Mrs Thatcher also complained that there was too much public sector in Northern Ireland that was costing London £2bn a year – with no wealth creation.

Later that day, in a press conference, Mrs Thatcher gave her infamous “out, out, out” declaration, when she rejected three options put forward from the Irish for a solution to Northern Ireland – Irish unity; a two-state federation; or joint authority.

It was later reported that Mr FitzGerald thought her behaviour was “gratuitously offensive”.

Also revealed in the secret papers?

Ireland’s entry into the European Union was delayed by half an hour in the last days of 1972. A delay meant the official ratification papers for the EEC – as it was then – only arrived with President Eamon De Valera 30 minutes before the official signing ceremony. The documents were found to be drawn up in a manner that was “repugnant to the Constitution” and needed to be re-written. The country’s European status technically remains open to question.

In 1984 Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald wanted a national lottery set up to end the Irish State’s involvement in illegal activities overseas. Paddy McGrath – who ran the Irish Sweepstakes which operated on the black markets in the US, UK and Canada – offered to set up a lottery and end his internationally notorious gambling operation. The Irish Government took donations from the Sweep to help fund the country’s cash-strapped hospitals.

During talks in November 1984 the papers reveal Margaret Thatcher’s “incomprehension” as to what exactly Irish nationalists wanted. Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald urged Mrs Thatcher to tackle alienation of nationalists in Northern Ireland. He said there was “hard evidence” of bias in the justice, security and policing systems in Northern Ireland while the guns of the British Army’s controversial Ulster Defence Regiment were being used to “bully” Catholics. “They cannot fly the flag of their own nation in their own country” he said.

Also during those talks in November the Taoiseach proposed having different local police services across Northern Ireland to tackle the “policing problem”. He cited the example of Brussels having 46 different forces. He also foresaw “Provisional Sinn Féin” emerging as the “legitimate voice of nationalist Ireland” if constitutional nationalism was seen to be getting nowhere.

The Irish Government lavished Zimbabwean premier Robert Mugabe with gifts worth thousands of punts during his visit to Dublin in 1983. Among the centrepiece offerings from the then Taoiseach to Mr Mugabe and his first wife Sally Hayfron were a Waterford Crystal bowl, a vase, Irish linen and flowers. Gifts were also presented to President George Bush Senior and his wife Barbara during their visit.

And during a state visit to Washington, Garret FitzGerald presented the then US President Ronald Regan a book about Irish plants. Curiously it was exactly the same book he then later gifted to President Regan during his state visit to Ireland.

The lunatics world have taken over the social media asylum

 

Twitter and Facebook have become playthings of the authoritarian left, and they’re welcome to both of those suppositions?

Anna Stoehr drew national attention in the US after her attempt to create a Facebook account

It feels as if the world has gone mad lately. Everyone’s angry about everything all the time. Not just a bit cross, but palpably, blisteringly furious, and any spark can set it off.

Some would blame the recession – but it can’t be that, because we’ve been poor before, much poorer than we are right now, and we didn’t go utterly crazy as a result. Though perhaps the only reason we managed to stay sane back then was because we didn’t have social media.

In the same way there’s a theory that no two countries ever go to war when both have a McDonald’s restaurant, it may well be discovered in future that a country’s mental well-being is directly linked to the proportion of its population which is on Twitter. The more tweeters there are, the more messed up a country becomes.

Because there’s no getting away from it. Tweeting does strange things to people.

There was another illustration of that last week when, after the awful crash in Glasgow which left six people dead, a young man in England posted a tasteless joke about it.

What was worrying was not the joke; sick humour will always be with us. Far more disturbing was the reaction which followed, as the man became the target of other social media users, who not only circulated his photograph and address online, but wished that he would “get done in”, or that someone would “shove a knife up your fat a*******”, or “smack him with a cricket bat”.

Curiously, it was the joker himself who ended up being investigated by police, rather than those calling for his murder. The result is that another young person’s life has potentially been ruined for one small act of stupidity, but no one cares because they’re too filled with righteous anger to see their own intolerance.

Of course, there are always limits to free speech, and it’s extraordinary how so many still don’t seem to understand that things said online are public not private statements.

Otherwise normal people, who presumably hold down respectable jobs and have friends and families, suddenly become monsters when they go online, sending hundreds of abusive and defamatory tweets to, or about, other people. Here they are, with all this astonishing technology at their fingertips, and all they can think to do with it is to act like raging morons.

That each tweet must be shorter than 140 characters probably encourages them to do so, by forcing users to reduce their thoughts to the crudest caricatures. Subtlety dies from lack of space.

Add alcohol to the equation, and trouble’s bound to follow. People may say hateful things when drunk, but they don’t usually have a megaphone on hand through which to shout, and Twitter is the ultimate megaphone. There’s no filter. Just type, then send.

The young woman jailed in England for sending abusive messages to feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez had generally been drinking when she lost the lost the run of herself.

In fact, she even admitted that she’d done it again one night after being released. She came in from the pub, turned on the laptop, and was soon embroiled in a spat with some randomer who’d annoyed her, presumably involving LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS, because that’s a feature of these exchanges too.

In the past, when you rolled home the worse for wear from the pub in the early hours, the most embarrassing thing you could do was drunk text your ex. Now the whole world beckons on Twitter. It’s like having your own private media organisation. It’s compulsive.

There have been studies done on this, which suggest there’s something addictive about social media. Each time someone “likes” a post on Facebook, or retweets your comment on Twitter, it’s the equivalent of a little shot of adrenalin into your bloodstream. You feel empowered and validated. You become like Sally Field, gushing as she wins an Oscar: “You like me, right now, you really like me.”

Or hate you. It’s all the same to the needy. Each provides a quasi-narcotic kick of delight.

And when that addiction goes political, it makes for an even more toxic cocktail.

Eoghan Harris recently wrote a prescient piece on groupthink, in which he described the process whereby mobs begin to think and act as one person, and outsiders are demonised and hounded.

That’s as near perfect a description of Twitter as it’s possible to find, and this year was flanked by two textbook examples.

The first was Pantigate, when anyone who expressed the slightest reservations about same-sex marriage was howled down as a homophobe and pelted with hashtags and slogans until they either submitted to the mob or were driven offline.

The second was the mass trolling of IRA rape victim Mairia Cahill. Some of that came from pathetic individuals, drinking too much, their lives out of control, who are able to misuse Twitter and Facebook and convince themselves that sending hundreds of messages insulting a rape victim counts as iconoclasm or, more laughably, fearless investigative journalism. These are on a level with the misfits who think it’s funny to taunt Madeleine McCann’s parents about their missing child.

Far too much of it, however, was cruelly organised by supporters of Sinn Fein/IRA, which, like the hard left in general, have a social media presence hugely out of proportion to its actual support in the country, which it uses to intimidate opponents into silence.

Consider it a lesson in what life will be like if they ever do get an actual, as opposed to a Twitter, majority.

In their hands, social media has become a plaything of the authoritarian left, as they casually disseminate libels which, were they repeated in print, would have those who wrote them fired whilst likely bankrupting any publication foolish enough to reprint the lies. On social media, it doesn’t matter, because there are no consequences.

Unlike mainstream media, Twitter doesn’t accept responsibility for what its users say and do, and you can’t sue every paranoid loser with a smartphone and nothing better to do with his time than use it to stalk those against whom he has a grudge. The lack of consequences has coarsened public discourse and brought something ugly into the political landscape.

There’s nothing that can be done about that. Censorship doesn’t work online, and, even if it did, it would be wrong to throw away the anarchic, democratic openness of social media simply in order to put manners on a few socially inadequate dingbats. Whether there’s any point engaging with it is the real question.

Increasingly it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the lunatics have taken over the asylum and should be left to squat there in their own filth. They may mistake it for the real world, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to share the same sad delusion.

Making a trip to Mars is cheaper & easier than ever

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE “BALLISTIC CAPTURE” METHOD

   

When sending spacecraft to Mars, the current, preferred method involves shooting spacecraft towards Mars at full-speed, then performing a braking maneuver once the ship is close enough to slow it down and bring it into orbit.

Known as the “Hohmann Transfer” method, this type of maneuver is known to be effective. But it is also quite expensive and relies very heavily on timing. Hence why a new idea is being proposed which would involve sending the spacecraft out ahead of Mars’ orbital path and then waiting for Mars to come on by and scoop it up.

This is what is known as “Ballistic Capture”, a new technique proposed by Professor Francesco Topputo of the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and Edward Belbruno, a visiting associated researcher at Princeton University and former member of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

In their research paper, which was published in arXiv Astrophysics in late October, they outlined the benefits of this method versus traditional ones. In addition to cutting fuel costs, ballistic capture would also provide some flexibility when it comes to launch windows.

Currently, launches between Earth and Mars are limited to period where the rotation between the two planets is just right. Miss this window, and you have to wait another 26 months for a new one to come along.

At the same time, sending a rocket into space, through the vast gulf that separates Earth’s and Mars’ orbit, and then firing thrusters in the opposite direction to slow down, requires a great deal of fuel. This in turn means that the spacecraft responsible for transporting satellites, rovers, and (one day) astronauts need to be larger and more complicated, and hence more expensive.

As Belbruno told Universe Today via email: “This new class of transfers is very promising for giving a new approach to future Mars missions that should lower cost and risk. This new class of transfers should be applicable to all the planets. This should give all sorts of new possibilities for missions.”

The idea was first proposed by Belbruno while he was working for JPL, where he was trying to come up with numerical models for low-energy trajectories. “I first came up with the idea of ballistic capture in early 1986 when working on a JPL study called LGAS (Lunar Get Away Special),” he said. “This study involved putting a tiny 100 kg solar electric spacecraft in orbit around the Moon that was first ejected from a Get Away Special Canister on the Space Shuttle.”

The test of the LGAS was not a resounding success, as it would be two years before it got to the Moon. But in 1990, when Japan was looking to rescue their failed lunar orbiter, Hiten, he submitted proposals for a ballistic capture attempt that were quickly incorporated into the mission.

“The time of flight for this one was 5 months,” he said. “It was successfully used in 1991 to get Hiten to the Moon.” And since that time, the LGAS design has been used for other lunar missions, including the ESA’s SMART-1 mission in 2004 and NASA’s GRAIL mission in 2011.

But it is in future missions, which involve much greater distances and expenditures of fuel, that Belbruno felt would most benefit from this method. Unfortunately, the idea met with some resistance, as no missions appeared well-suited to the technique.

“Ever since 1991 when Japan’s Hiten used the new ballistic capture transfer to the Moon, it was felt that finding a useful one for Mars was not possible due to Mars much longer distance and its high orbital velocity about the Sun. However, I was able to find one in early 2014 with my colleague Francesco Topputo.”

Granted, there are some drawbacks to the new method. For one, a spacecraft sent out ahead of Mars’ orbital path would take longer to get into orbit than one that slows itself down to establish orbit.

In addition, the Hohmann Transfer method is a time-tested and reliable one. One of the most successful applications of this maneuver took place back in September, when the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) made its historic orbit around the Red Planet. This not only constituted the first time an Asian nation reached Mars, it was also the first time that any space agency had achieved a Mars orbit on the first try.

Nevertheless, the possibilities for improvements over the current method of sending craft to Mars has people at NASA excited. As James Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, said in an interview with Scientific American: “It’s an eye-opener. This [ballistic capture technique] could not only apply here to the robotic end of it but also the human exploration end.”

Don’t be surprised then if upcoming missions to Mars or the outer Solar System are performed with greater flexibility, and on a tighter budget.