Donie's Ireland news Blog Thursday

New figures show increased demand for MS Ireland services ‘A reflection of our difficult times’

        

New and recent figures issued from MS Ireland show increased demand for the organisation’s services in the first quarter of this year.

MS Ireland is calling on the  government to improve access to treatments for people with MS such as Tysabri and Gilenya. The organisation says that the drugs are “widely available” to MS sufferers in other EU countries and are used to treat relapsing-remitting MS.

Tarragh Donohoe of MS Ireland said that both drugs are considered ‘second-line’ treatment and that if people with MS are not taking those, then it’s likely they’re not getting any treatment at all.

“Tysabri is currently available on hospital budgets, but most don’t stretch to actually cover it,” Donohoe said. Meanwhile, Gilenya has been on the HSE reimbursement list “for months” but has not yet been approved for the scheme.

Donohoe said that MS Ireland believes “people should have as much choice as possible when it comes to their treatment”, but that people with MS should talk to their neurologist before starting any new treatment as the drugs have side effects.

Support: According to its report for the first quarter of 2012, the organisation provided a home visit service to 1,757 people with MS around Ireland (up from 1,524 in Q1 2011).

Over the first three months of this year, 89 people who were recently diagnosed with MS requested a home visit from MS Ireland – up from 72 for the same period of last year. The organisation also provided 234 individual physiotherapy and exercise classes, and 63 counselling and personal development sessions.

MSI’s chief executive Ava Battles says that the increased demand for services “reflects the difficult times people with MS face”.

“In addition to the nationwide impact of reduced income and cuts, people with MS also have to cope with the added expenses of living with a disability, reduced care packages, cuts in housing grants and denial of vital services, benefits and treatments.”

Battles also appealed to the public to help the organisation fundraise for the continued provision of services: “The extra demand on services means we need to fight harder for appropriate funding from the government and work harder to fundraise.”

New vomiting bug restrictions at Sligo General Hospital

  

Sligo General Hospital is restricting visitors in an attempt to stop the spread of the winter vomiting bug.

The Health Service Executive said more patients than usual were presenting with vomiting and diarrhoea, and this led to increased pressure on beds.

The HSE said visiting was permitted only in exceptional circumstances by immediate relatives and only during designated visiting times.

The vomiting bug, while rarely causing severe problems, can be debilitating to small children or older people who are already ill or infirm.

Those affected should drink plenty of fluids, maintain strict hygiene and avoid visiting hospitals or nursing homes.

If symptoms persist, patients are advised to contact their GP by phone before attending the surgery to limit the spread of the virus.

Rising Irish temperatures and rainfall recorded in the past 30 years

 

Ireland’s average temperatures have risen by 0.75 degrees over the last two decades, according to new Met Éireann figures.

The rise has been described as “significant” and in line with projections of a 3-6 degree increase in world temperatures by the end of the century.

Met Éireann’s head of forecasting, Gerald Fleming, said the increases showed there was “no argument” that the weather was getting warmer, but he cautioned against seeing that as a trend.

He said the dispute was whether this was caused by man-made carbon dioxide emissions or simple variability in climate.

The spring and summer months are significantly warmer. The south Leinster and east Munster areas have recorded the greatest average rise in temperatures.

The Irish climate is also getting wetter. Valentia Observatory in Co Kerry recorded the equivalent of a month’s extra rainfall in the 30-year period between 1981 and 2010 compared to the equivalent period between 1961 and 1990.

The west of Ireland is on average 8 per cent wetter than it was in the previous 30-year period.

It will come as no surprise, given the wet summers of recent years, that the average increase in rainfall in July across the country is 15 per cent, a figure which Met Éireann senior climatologist Séamus Walsh described as the “most surprising” of all to emerge from the new data.

July is the warmest month, followed by August and June. The coldest month is January, followed closely by February and then December.

Autumn is warmer in Ireland than spring.

Met Éireann’s climate averages for Ireland are based on 10 million pieces of data collected over a 50-year period dating back to 1961.

The long-term average temperatures of the period 1981-2010 show a 0.5 degree increase in comparison to 1961-1990, which is the baseline for measuring climate averages.

However, when the overlapping years between 1981-1990 are discounted, the difference in temperatures between the periods 1961-1980 and 1991-2010 is 0.75 degrees.

“When you look at long-term averages, 0.5 of a degree is a lot,” Mr Fleming said.

“If you look at what is being said about a rise in temperature by the end of the century, an increase of 0.5 of a degree in a 20- to 30-year period is actually quite significant.”

Overall the country has had a 5 per cent increase in rainfall between the two 30-year periods.

While the amount of rainfall in Dublin has increased by just 2 per cent, there has been a rise of closer to 8-9 per cent in the west of Ireland, with a clear east-west split in a line stretching from Cavan to Waterford.

Mr Walsh said rainfall patterns were prone to variability.

The increases in rainfall may be the result of the wet summers of 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the flood conditions of 2009 which were a once-in-500-years event for many parts of the west of Ireland.

“There is huge year-to-year variability in rainfall,” he said.

“Where you get very wet summers in the noughties, they contributed to the increases in rainfall.

“There is no evidence that there is a change in the extreme values of rainfall. We have looked at that and there are no definite trends.”

Mr Walsh said temperature was a much more stable indicator of climate change.

He said there was a “definite trend” in a decreasing number of frosty days.

Sunshine levels have showed little variability by comparison, though the sunniest parts of the country, along the east and south coasts, have seen sunshine increases of more than 5 per cent in certain months.

Big Focus on eye dangers within diabetes & the lack of awareness?

       

Over 75% of people with diabetes are unaware of a common condition that causes blindness, diabetic macular edema (DME), according to research.

DME is a form of diabetic retinopathy (DR) that causes blindness in adults with diabetes. In Ireland, one person a week goes blind from DR.

Members of Diabetes Ireland took part in the study, and the results showed that 42% of people with diabetes are most worried about eyesight problems developing, over a quarter are concerned with kidney damage and a further quarter with heart conditions.

However, one in four people with diabetes do not go to their annual eye examination, despite the fact that 42% are worried about the development of eye problems. Dr has no symptoms in its early stages, emphasing the need to attend for eye tests.

A public information evening has been arranged for tonight to raise awareness about eyesight dangers for people with diabetes, available treatment for people with DR and highlighting the importance of full eye examinations today* (May 31).

In Ireland there are over 200,000 people living with diabetes and it is estimated that about 30,000 people are undiagnosed.

To reduce the risk of vision loss diabetes must be managed carefully and people should attend all their healthcare appointments including an annual full eye examination said Kieran O’Leary, CEO of Diabetes Ireland.

A number of organisations including; Diabetes Ireland, the Association of Optometrists Ireland (AOI), the National Council for the Blind in Ireland, Fighting Blindness and the Irish College of Ophthalmologists (ICO) are hosting the information evening.

*Information Evening: VisualEYES the Risks: Managing Your Diabetes and Diabetic Retinopathy at 6.30pm, May 31 at the O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dublin 2.

Chlamydia screening campaign not cost effective in Ireland ‘academics claim’

  

A National screening campaign for a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause infertility is not cost effective, academics found.

More than 6,000 men and women last year were diagnosed with chlamydia a silent infection with no symptoms that can remain undetected, untreated, and lead to complications like ectopic pregnancies.

But Ireland’s small population and the strain already on the health service means a screening programme would not be cost effective, researchers said.

Dr Emer O’Connell, consultant in public health medicine, said screening for chlamydia is available in many countries.

“However, some countries such as Australia are reviewing the effectiveness of this measure,” she said.

“In Ireland, due to our small population and the strain already on our health service, a screening programme for chlamydia would not be cost effective because it would be difficult to achieve the necessary coverage levels to reduce the level of infection.”

Chlamydia is the most commonly reported bacterial STI in Ireland, with highest numbers reported in patients in their 20s.

The number of cases has soared from 1,000 in 1997, to 3,353 in 2005, 5,781 in 2009 and 6,008 by 2011 – accounting for more than half of all STIs reported.

As it remains undetected it can spread easily and causes pelvic inflammatory disease in up to 30pc of infected women who are not treated, leading to ectopic pregnancy and infertility.

The chlamydia screening pilot study in Ireland found stigma was often a barrier that stopped young people seeking or accepting an STI test.

However, 95pc of professionals and 75pc of students would take a test if offered.

Eight out of 10 could inform their current partner if they tested positive for chlamydia, but this rate fell to 55-60pc in the case of telling previous partners.

More than 6,000 people took part in the study, funded by the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre and supported by the Health Research Board.

Dr Diarmuid O’Donovan, of NUI Galway, said the study shows how to protect the sexual health of young Irish people.

“Given these findings, a national sexual health plan should include primary prevention activities such as sex education, condom distribution and the provision of information on how to seek care for STIs,” he added.

“Therefore, we recommend the inclusion of primary care-delivered chlamydia detection and case management services as part of a national action plan to promote sexual health.”

Sunday's all Ireland news by Donie

Astronomers find a new planet capable of supporting life like ours, it is what they call the ‘holy grail’ 

A planet capable of supporting life outside our solar system.

     The planet lies in what they describe as a ‘habitable zone’, neither too near its sun to dry out or too far away which freezes it.

And the discovery could help answer the question of whether we are alone in the universe, which has been plagued astronomers and alien fanatics for years.

Scientists found the planet, Gliese 667Cc, orbiting around a red dwarf star, 22 light years away from the earth. 

For more on this click here: http://donieconwayaddress.wordpress.com/science/

Ireland’s Nursing homes and security sector among the targets for Revenue Audits this year

   

Josephine Feehily, chairwoman of the Revenue Commissioners, with commissioner Liam Irwin (left) and commissioner Niall Cody when announcing details of Revenue’s annual report yesterday at the Chester Beatty Library in DubLin

Couriers, the security sector industry, nursing homes and solid fuel merchants will be targeted for audits by the Revenue Commissioners this year, the organisation said yesterday.

Launching its annual report for 2011, the Revenue said it increased its rate of audit activity last year by almost 20 per cent, yielding €520 million in tax and penalties.

The Revenue focused its audits on “shadow economy” activity in the construction industry, where more than 1,800 audits yielded €58.8 million. More than 600 audits of bars and restaurants yielded €16.9 million, while “white collar” professionals and landlords were also targeted.

Cash businesses in those sectors remain “top of our list for 2012”, said Revenue chairwoman Josephine Feehily.

The Revenue would also continue to target the evading of excise duty on diesel.

“Streetscape” operations carried out by Revenue last year – visits to every business on a particular street or in a particular town – revealed “several hundred” cases of employees getting paid off the books. The Revenue will this year launch a programme of on-the-spot fines for employees who do not register for PAYE or keep an up-to-date register of employees.

The Revenue secured more than 1,000 convictions in 2011 for failure to file an income tax return. Some 55 custodial sentences were imposed last year for tax evasion, 21 of which were not suspended. So far in 2012 there have been 15 further custodial sentences, with 10 people going to jail.

The level of outstanding tax debt stabilised in 2011 and is now beginning to decrease, Ms Feehily said. The Revenue increased the number of staff dedicated to debt collection and recovery last year, redeploying them from other areas of the organisation.

“Overall I would say last year was a year of really solid performance in challenging circumstances,” Ms Feehily said.

While tax and duty receipts were €831 million below budget targets, net tax and duty receipts in 2011 were up 7 per cent to €34.2 billion, a reversal of three years of falling returns to the Exchequer.

Ms Feehily said the Revenue had looked at the cases of 2,500 pensioners who had income in excess of €50,000 in addition to their Department of Social Protection pensions. Some 800 of these were new cases where the tax was not yet payable.

The process of examining the rest individually was “extremely labour intensive” and the Revenue was now writing to some of the pensioners concerned “inviting them to self-review” their tax position within 30 days. “We do expect the majority of this group to owe us €2,000-€3,000 a year.”

The Revenue has paid back €2 million to 7,000 pensioners who have overpaid their tax. The question of tax liabilities owed by pensioners arose this year after the Department of Social Protection sent records pertaining to 560,000 cases to the Revenue.

The moment Ned O’Keeffe was released by gardaí after 11 hours of interrogation over his bogus expense claims

      

O’Keeffe released without charge

Former Cork East TD Ned O’Keeffe was released without charge from Cobh Garda station

Gardaí were preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions after last night releasing former Cork Fianna Fáil TD Ned O’Keeffe who was questioned over alleged fraudulent claiming of mobile phone expenses while a member of Dáil Éireann.

Mr O’Keeffe, who retired from the Dáil last year after representing Cork East for 29 years, was arrested at his home at Ballylough near Mitchelstown in north Cork and taken to Cobh Garda station for questioning about expense claims totalling about €2,000.

Mr O’Keeffe was arrested at 10.30am yesterday under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. He was questioned on suspicion of tendering a false instrument, namely an invoice to claim mobile phone expenses from the Oireachtas.

He was released from custody at 10.30pm and left the Garda station with his son Kevin a solicitor. Mr OKeeffe didn’t comment but his son said “obviously the dramatic events of the day have taken Mr O’Keeffe by surprise.

“However during the course of the day he cooperated fully with the gardaí and assisted them in their inquiries and we have nothing further to add at this time”.

Meanwhile, gardaí searched Mr O’Keeffe’s home at Ballylough, and it is understood that they seized documents and records relating to Mr O’Keeffe’s expenses claims while serving as a TD.

It is understood gardaí obtained warrants to arrest Mr O’Keeffe and search his home at Midleton District Court on Thursday when they swore evidence before Judge Brian Sheridan.

A source close to Mr O’Keeffe, said he was surprised by the arrest but was said to be in good form as he was taken to Cobh where he was later visited by his son Kieran. An outspoken member of Fianna Fáil, Mr O’Keeffe was first elected to the Dáil in 1982 and held his seat until retiring in 2011.

The investigation follows a complaint by the Irish Daily Mail and it is understood the newspaper submitted documentation to the Garda.

Mater Hospital take-off: adult patients at the new Dublin hospital to check in like airport passengers

The €284 million Mater hospital development has a glass entrance, transparent lifts and open spaces. The idea is that outpatients can use its services with the ease of a modern airport.

THE FIRST phase of the new €284 million Mater adult hospital in Dublin unveiled yesterday will involve visitors to outpatients checking in like passengers at the airport.

The hospital’s main entrance, on the North Circular Road, and its outpatients department were on display yesterday and will be open to the public in six weeks as part of the first phase of the development.

A new emergency department, underground car park, operating theatres, intensive care unit, radiology and 120 single ensuite rooms will be rolled out in the second phase, between July and December this year. And final works will be completed in May 2013.

The glass-fronted entrance, with its escalator, glass lifts and wide-open spaces, had more in common with a modern airport than with the 151-year-old hospital from which it has grown.

The escalator leads up to the first-floor level, the “hospital street” where patients can avail of the self-service outpatients check-in. This will allow patients signal their presence using a barcode system and then relax in the coffee bar while monitoring a TV screen to see if they are called.

Coin-operated wheelchairs, much like those used in supermarkets, will also be available for patients with reduced mobility.

Brian Conlan, chief executive of the Mater hospital, said if the self-check-in facility works for outpatients it will be extended to the emergency department.

“The airline industry has paved the way for a lot of this,” he said.

The light-filled outpatients department will accommodate the running of 13 clinics at any one time. And the hospital has been designed so that if the new children’s hospital goes ahead there, the floors will be connectable and each speciality will match.

A floor above outpatients, one of the 120 spacious single rooms, was on display complete with ensuite bathroom and pull-out couch for relatives. The self-contained rooms will also feature a person-to-person nurse-call system so that patients can make contact with individual nurses on duty instead of buzzing the nurses’ station. The rooms will “automatically cut the risk of transmission of infection”, assistant director of nursing Celine O’Carroll explained. It will also be ideal for cystic fibrosis patients.

On the same level, a meeting room with ceiling-to-floor window looks northward over the city and down onto a roof garden which will be available to patients. The building has also incorporated artworks as well as a series of courtyards that lend it a sense of calm and space.

Donie's Ireland news update Wednesday

Irish toddler Elie Madden returns home from the US after life-saving operation

THE GOVERNMENT JET & HSE TEAM TOGETHER EFFECTIVELY FOR ONCE WITH GOOD PURPOSE

    

Elie Madden along with her parents Esti and Eddie and member of the HSE medical team after arriving home on the Government jet flown last night from Boston.

The Dublin toddler twin who was treated successfully in Boston for a rare medical condition is recovering in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin, today.

Eighteen-month-old Elie Madden, who was flown out by Government jet to Boston five months ago, arrived with her family and a specialist medical team and Air Corps crew into Baldonnel last night.

She had not been able to breathe or swallow unaided when she left Ireland late last year, and was placed in a coma for 38 days in Boston Children’s Hospital to “grow” her oesophagus.

After seven operations, she took her first normal meal – vanilla pudding – a few days ago, and has been able to use her voice for the first time.

“She hadn’t been well before we left Boston, but she bounced back as she always does, slept most of the way, was monitored by a doctor and nurse and we’re on our way now to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin,” her father, Eddie Madden told The Irish Times, speaking at Baldonnel aerodrome.

“She’s got a great Irish appetite, ”US surgeon Dr Russell Jennings, who led the treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital, told said yesterday.

Elie was diagnosed with a rare digestive disorder at birth known as severe posterior tracheomalacia and long-gap oesophageal atresia.

A five-centimetre gap between her oesophagus and stomach prevented her from being able to eat, drink or swallow without medical equipment.

Dr Jennings and colleagues at Boston are world experts in an oesophagus “growing” procedure devised by Minnesota paediatric surgeon John Foker.

Dr Foker worked with Dr Jennings and team on Elie’s treatment, which was covered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and VHI.

Dr Jennings is also due to start treating a second Dublin twin with the same condition this week. 13-month Sergio O’Connor was flown to Boston on Monday by the Air Corps, which then took the Maddens home on the return flight.

Elie was accompanied by her parents Esti and Eddie, her healthy twin sister Emie, her grandmother Anita and a specialist Health Service Executive (HSE) team.

It is the first time that the State’s Gulfstream IV has been used for a transatlantic air ambulance mission of this type.

“We have been overwhelmed by the unbelievable support to her case, but we are ware that we have passed the first big hurdle of a long journey ahead, in order to provide Elie with a normal life,” her parents added.

As much as 40% of Galway Gardai receive a Gaeltacht allowance 'new figures show'

            

Almost 40 per cent of gardaí stationed in Galway are in receipt of a Gaeltacht Allowance, new figures released by the Department of Justice, Equality and Defence have shown.

The figures, which were released in response to a question by Galway Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, show that of the 585 gardaí in the Galway Division, 221 are in receipt of the allowance, which amounts to 7.5 per cent of basic salary. This is down slightly from 2007, when 235 Galway Gardaí received the allowance.

Unveiling the figures in the Seanad last week, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said there are a “substantial number” of garda personnel who continue to be paid the allowance to cater for areas where members of the force are required to be proficient in Irish.

He also indicated that the arrangements for the payment of Gaeltacht Allowances are being examined by the Garda Commissioner, but said that he was “not aware of any major event about to happen in the context of the allowance”.

Under current legislation, the Garda Commissioner must ensure that members of the organisation stationed in a district that includes a Gaeltacht area have “sufficient Irish competency” to perform their duties.

Speaking in the Seanad, Minister Shatter emphasised that conducting business through Irish is part of the language curriculum delivered to all Garda Trainees in the Garda College at Templemore.

“In addition, arrangements have been made to ensure that if a member of the Garda Síochána cannot provide an immediate service through Irish when a member of the public requests it, an Irish-proficient member of An Garda Síochána will be contacted and made available,” he said, adding that both the Government and An Garda Síochána “are, and will continue to be, strongly committed to the Irish language”.

Meanwhile, An Coimisinéir Teanga has singled out the stations in the Connemara Gaeltacht for their 100 per cent compliance with statutory obligations that require members of the force stationed in Gaeltacht areas to have the necessary competence in the language.

In his annual report, An Coimisinéir Teanga found that the garda station at An Bun Beag-Doirí Beaga in Co. Donegal had breached the legislation which imposes an obligation on the Garda Commissioner to ensure, to the extent practicable, that members stationed in a district which includes a Gaeltacht area are fluent in the Irish language.

Seán Ó Cuirreáin also found that there was a breach of a statutory commitment that requires members of the force stationed in Gaeltacht areas to have the necessary qualifications in Irish, following a complaint from a native Irish speaker who had been unable to conduct business in Irish at the Gaoth Dobhair station.

 Irish use in Gaeltacht areas:

- 68.5 per cent of the 96,628 people living in Gaeltacht areas nationally indicated that they could speak Irish in the 2011 Census.

- 24 per cent stated they spoke Irish daily outside the education system.

- Daily use of Irish is most common in the Galway Gaeltacht, with a total of 10,721 people – 10,085 in County Galway and 636 in Galway City – speaking Irish on a daily basis outside the education system.

Missing Madeline McCann picture released as a 9-year-old now

As almost 200 leads say she could still be alive

     

Pictured above Madeleine McCann in 2007 and as she might look now aged 9

English police (Scotland Yard) have urged Portuguese authorities to reopen the search for Madeleine McCann today as detectives said there were 195 potential leads to finding her alive.

The detective leading the Metropolitan Police review said the case could still be solved before officers released a picture of what she might now look like as a nine-year-old.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said he believed her disappearance was a stranger abduction, as he said there were 195 “investigative opportunities”.

Police refused to say what evidence they had uncovered to suggest Madeleine was alive.

Mr Redwood confirmed that his team of more than 30 officers involved in the case had been out to Portugal seven times, including a visit to the family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz.

It will be five years ago next week since the three-year-old went missing as her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann dined with friends nearby.

A spokesman for the McCanns said the family were pleased with the image.

Mr Redwood said his 37 officers had dealt with 40,000 pieces of information but the “primacy still sits in Portugal” in the attempt to find her.

Commander Simon Foy said: “Most significantly, the message we want to bring to you is that, on the evidence, there is a possibility that she is alive and we desperately need your help today to appeal directly to the public for information to support our investigation.”

Mr Redwood said “evidence that she is alive stems from the forensic view of the timeline” that there was the opportunity for her to be taken.

Investigations show “there do appear to be gaps”, he added.