Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG

Saturday/Sunday 8th & 9th March 2014.

Angela Merkel hints at debt bailout deal for Ireland

 

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cautiously indicated that Ireland could be in line for a deal on our bank debt which would have a positive knock-on for the taxpayer.

The most powerful leader in Europe hailed Ireland’s recovery as a “success” and said she was “positive” about moves to reduce the amount of money the country has to repay from the bank bailout.

And Chancellor Merkel said Ireland and Germany were two countries with a strong working relationship.

ADMIRATION: Attending the European People’s Party event at Dublin;s Convention Centre, a series of EU leaders praised Ireland’s exit from the bailout – not least Ms Merkel.

“I would like to use this opportunity of my bilateral visit to your country to pay you my respect and my admiration for what you have been able to achieve.

“This is thanks to the people of Ireland who were ready and willing to embark on this very difficult curse and I think once these first signs of success of the fact that Ireland was able to leave the Troika programme is obviously a success story,” Ms Merkel said.

Following a meeting with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the German leader said much work had to be done on putting the new banking supervisor in place.

“That’s a tremendous success story. You were able to emerge from this bailout,” she said.

The Chancellor appeared to suggest her support for a bank debt deal as she said a single supervisory mechanism had to be established before such issues can be examined. “All of that is currently in the consultation process,” she said.

“And I must say that I can only say I have a positive outlook on the possible outcome. We have achieved much but we are not at the end of the road yet.”

The Taoiseach interpreted the Chancellor’s comments as a sign she was “hopeful” there would be a debt deal.

Addressing a European political conference, hosted by Fine Gael in Dublin, Mr Kenny made specific reference to the more than €60bn injected by the taxpayer into the banking system.

PACKAGE: The Coalition is continuing to press for the debt deal as part of a package of measures to ease the burden in the wake of the bailout by the taxpayer of the banking system.

Mr Kenny said nothing can be done until the banking supervisor is in place.

He said the process was under way and meetings were happening.

“The Chancellor is hopeful there will be a good result about queries that will be made at that stage,” he said.

Ireland’s Grandparents could be forced to fill out child-minding tax forms

  

Grandparents of Ireland minding their offspring’s children may be targeted as Revenue begins a clampdown on child-minders.

It has been warned the new tax rules affecting all childminders could cause problems for parents and may not be in the best interests of children.

Child-minders who earn less than €15,000 a year are exempt from paying tax but they will now be obliged to fill in a 26-page tax return form for the first time.

The new rules even apply to grandparents who are minding their son’s or daughter’s children if they are being paid, Revenue confirmed.

Some child-minders last night told the Irish Independent the new rule could result in headaches for parents who discover fewer people in their locality willing to mind their children.

And some child-minders will be less inclined to register themselves for any regulation in order to avoid the extra red tape.

The spokeswoman for Revenue said just 450 people were claiming a tax exemption for minding children in their home, but it is thought that thousands more are looking after children without telling the authorities.

Child-minders warned the new rule would be counterproductive to efforts to encourage people to register as child-minders.

Teresa Heaney, chief executive of Early Childhood Ireland, said: “This move indicates to me that Revenue is aware there is an awful lot of unregulated childcare and they are trying to discover the extent of it.

“It could result in more people going into the black economy where childcare is not subject to inspection. That would be a poor outcome for any initiative and not in the best interests of children.”

And it has emerged that people minding children in their homes may be unaware that they are due to make pay related social insurance (PRSI) payments on the money they get for caring for children.

EXEMPT: People who mind children in their home are exempt from income tax if they register with the HSE, and if their income from child-minding does not exceed €15,000.

But a new briefing document issued by Revenue this week stresses that anyone claiming this relief must submit an annual tax return. This is known as Form 11 and runs to 26 pages.

Senior tax consultant with Taxback.com Christine Keily accused Revenue of clamping down on child-minders.

“The fact that Revenue issued this reminder would suggest that they do intend to clamp down on individuals who have been availing of this relief but not meeting their obligations under self-assessment. For any individual in these circumstances we would suggest that they reconcile their position without delay.”

She said there was a concern among the tax authorities that thousands of child-minders were availing of the income tax relief but failing to formalise this by filing an annual tax return.

Tax practitioner with PayLessTax.ie Cathal Maxwell said that thousands of child-minders, who avoid income tax under the income tax exemption rule, may be unaware that they are still supposed to pay PRSI.

He said anyone with child-minding income of greater than €5,000 has to pay a flat rate of PRSI of €500.

An exemption from income tax for earnings up to €15,000 has been in place since 2006.

A spokeswoman for Revenue said: “The relief is available only to individuals who provide child-minding services in their own homes within the State on a self-employed basis, and is not available to individuals who are employees of a child-minding service.”

Young Irish women are best educated in the European Union

  

Young Irish women are the best educated in Europe. New figures show that Ireland has the highest proportion with college degrees among all Europeans aged in their early thirties.

More than 50pc of all Irish people of that age have a third-level qualification, the highest in Europe.

But women here are increasingly juggling work, education and family demands, the figures from Eurostat reveal.

Irish women come out on top in the Eurostat survey which showed 57.9pc of Irish women aged 30 to 34 have a third-level education, compared with the EU average of 39.9pc.

And 44pc of Irish men of the same age have a third-level education, compared with the EU average for men of 31.5pc. The figures will give some encouragement to those wishing to claim Ireland, whatever about its saints, is an island of scholars.

The survey, released to mark International Women’s Day, showed that Irish women and French women share the title of being the most fertile women in Europe, having an average of 2.01 children each.

The EU average is 1.58 children with the lowest figure in Portugal at 1.28 and Poland 1.30.

And as well as the high fertility rate here, Ireland had a female employment rate close to the EU average. Other key findings included:

1.      In Ireland, almost 80% of health and welfare graduates are female, 76% of graduates in the education and training field are female, and only 16.9pc of females chose engineering as their area of study.

2.     8.2% of young Irish women (aged 18 to 24) are early school leavers, compared with 11.2% of Irish men. A total of 20.8% of Spanish women leave school early, while only 3.2% of Slovenian women do so.

3.     55.1% of Irish women are in employment (EU average 58.5%), compared with 62.7% of Irish men (EU average 69.6%).

4.     34.9% of Irish women are in part-time employment, compared with 13.3% of Irish men. Both of these are above the EU average with 32% of women and 8pc of men in part-time employment in the 28 EU countries.

The study showed that females are far better at remaining in full-time education than men.

DIFFERENCES: A total of 10.9% of females in the EU leave education and training early compared with 14.4% of males.

In the EU overall, a higher proportion of young women than men have a college degree.

The largest differences in the rates between women and men with third-level qualifications were observed in Estonia (50.4% for women and 28.1% for men), Latvia (48.1% and 26.2%), Slovenia (49.6% and 29.5%) and Denmark (52.6% and 33.7%).

However, while almost 80% of EU graduates in their early 30s in the field of education are women, just 27% of graduates in engineering are women.

FOUR OUT OF 10 SCIENCE AND MATHS GRADUATES ARE WOMEN.

WOMEN GRADUATES DOMINATE CERTAIN FIELDS.

In Romania, 95.1% of education and training graduates are women. In Latvia, 93.7% of graduates in health and welfare are women.

Tánaiste Gilmore calls on Fine Gael strategist to attend Rehab hearings

 

Eamon Gilmore says the pay of a senior Rehab executives should be revealed to the public of Ireland.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore wants him to attend a Public Accounts Committee hearing

The Tánaiste called in the Dáil yesterday on Rehab director and senior Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery to attend a public hearing with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Eamon Gilmore said it was a matter for the PAC to pursue the issue with Mr Flannery. “My view is very clear he should attend and I would encourage him to do so,’’ he added.

Mr Flannery, a former Rehab chief executive, declined to attend a PAC meeting last week, although he was present in Leinster House.

The PAC wants to question him on his pension and consultancy work he undertook on behalf of Rehab.

Public funds: Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said Rehab was in receipt of in excess of €83 million of public funds and enjoyed the benefit of charitable status in the State. The current chief executive, Angela Kerins, had refused to reveal to the PAC last week details of the pay levels of senior executives, she added.

“We find ourselves a week on and Ms Kerins and Rehab have failed to make that information public,’’ she said.

Ms McDonald revealed that a young woman on a rehabilitative training programme with Rehab had sent her a copy of her payslip.

“This young person receives an income of €31.80 per week and has travel expenses of €15 deducted, meaning the net income as reflected by the payslip is €16.80,’’ Ms McDonald added.

“This person has no difficulty with her income being known publicly.’’

Senior executives: Mr Gilmore said the pay of senior executives in Rehab, and any other organisation funded by the State through the HSE, should be made public.

Ms McDonald said it was clear that members of theOireachtas were of one mind on the issue, whether on Government or Opposition benches. Full details relating to payments to Rehab executives must be made public without any further delay.

She said an organisation in receipt of very substantial public money and enjoying charitable status had “thumbed its nose’’ at the general public and at its volunteers and donors.

Irish cars licensed for February 2014 increased by 23.1%

  

The number of new private cars licensed for the first time increased by 23.1% to11,906 in February 2014 compared to February 2013 – -  but from a low base. Used (imported) private cars licensed for the first time were up 22.1% to 4,537 for the same period.

The CSO said that in total, there were 27,881 new private cars licensed in the year to the end of February 2014, a rise of 36.6% compared to the same period in 2013. The corresponding figure for 2014 in respect of used (imported) private cars was 8,503 and this was up 32.9% from 2013.

The licensing figures also show that:

1.      The number of new goods vehicles licensed in February 2014 was 1,620, up 44.6% from February 2013;

2.     The total number of all new vehicles licensed during February 2014 was 14,547 compared with 11,518 during the same month in 2013 – an increase of 26.3%;

3.     In February 2014, of the 11,906 new private cars licensed, 2,902 (24.4%) were petrol and 8,850 (74.3%) were diesel;

4.     The highest number of new private cars licensed in February 2014, classified by make, was Volkswagen (1,432) followed by Toyota (1,262), Ford (1,135) and Opel (1,102);

5.     In February 2014, the total number of all vehicles licensed was 20,419 compared with 16,177 in the corresponding month last year – an increase of 26.2%. .

The licensing figures refer to vehicles taxed for road use only and classified by taxation class.

The CSO said licensing differs from registration in that a vehicle is licensed when a valid motor tax disc is issued for the first time. Registration occurs when a vehicle gets its licence plate (registration number) for the first time.

Great White shark swimming across Atlantic and heading for south of Ireland

  

A huge Great White ‘Lydia’ shark is ‘three days’ away from Cornish coast after being tracked in year-long research project and maybe heading towards the south of Ireland.

The 2,000lb shark has swum more the 19,000 miles after scientists caught her in Florida last year to fix a tracker to her fin.

And now the shark is just 1,000 miles from the Cornish Coast – which she could reach in three days’ time if she carries on her current route.

The shark was the first to be caught and fitted with a tracker as part of a major research project to track Great Whites’ movements around the Atlantic Ocean.

She was caught last year by being lured in with bait and lifted onto a platform above the sea so scientists from charity OCEARCH could fit a satellite tracker in her fin.

Now every time Lydia’s fin breaks the surface it sends a signal to a satellite – allowing researchers to plot her route.

In the last 72 hours the 4.4m shark has swum 380 miles – with scientists believing she is heading either for the UK, European mainland or North African coast.

Dr Gregory Skomal, senior fisheries biologist with Massachusetts Marine Fisheries, said Lydia is closer to Europe than North America: “She technically does not cross the Atlantic until she crosses the mid-Atlantic ridge, which she has yet to do.

“We have no idea how far she will go, but Europe, the Med, and the coast of Africa are all feasible.”

The shark’s route towards Cornwall would not be the first time Great Whites have been suspected of entering British waters – with scientists warning the species could become more common as sea temperatures rise with global warming.

Last year a fisherman moored off the Cornish coast saw a small blue shark on the end of his line come up with huge bite marks across it – suggesting it had been attacked by another shark the size of a Great White.  

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John Perry’s Bank problems & debts is indicative of many Irish business people’s difficulties

 

THE TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY SAYS HE HAS SPOKEN WITH JOHN PERRY ABOUT THE JUNIOR MINISTER’S FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. JOHN PERRY HAS SIX WEEKS TO FIND A MEANS OF PAYING ALMOST €2.5M IN DEBTS.

Speaking on Mid-West Radio in Mayo this morning, Mr Kenny said Mr Perry was committed to continuing his work as Small Business Minister.

“Obviously he has worked exceptionally hard in terms of his ministry. He’s got a court judgment to deal with here now in respect of the next five or six weeks,” he said.

Mr Kenny said Mr Perry’s case was “indicative” of a number of business people across the country who have got into difficulty.

“I don’t really want to say any more about John Perry’s particular problem. I spoke to him on Sunday and obviously they are working on that for the future,” he said.

On Monday, Mr Perry and his wife Marie consented to a judgment of €2.47m against them at the Commercial Court over unpaid loans.

Danske Bank issued the loans in October 2011, to be repaid by by November 2012, to restructure existing loans and an overdraft account and provide €25,000 towards tax affairs.

The loans were secured by first legal mortgages over property including Perry’s Hardware store and the Stone Park restaurant at Main Street, Ballymote, Co Sligo.

The judge entered judgment for €2.47m but granted the couple a stay to September 2 on its execution and registration.

Almost 90% of Irish homeowners have paid the property tax

   

Some 89% OF ELIGIBLE HOMEOWNERS in Ireland HAVE ALREADY PAID THEIR PROPERTY TAX. 

The high compliance rate means that €175m has been collected by Revenue. A further €60m has been committed in phased payments.

Dublin City and Louth have the lowest payment rates for the tax, at 85%.

The figures are based on Revenue’s estimates of 1.96 million properties being eligible for the tax.

Revenue will now begin writing to homeowners who have not paid the tax.

“They have 7 days from the date of the letter to file their return(s) on-line to prevent Revenue issuing instructions to their employer to deduct the LPT estimate from their wages or occupational pension,” it said in a statement.

Food industry calls on government to speed up introduction of grocery code

   

Lobby group Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII) is calling on the Government to speed up the introduction of a statutory code of practice for the grocery sector. 

The FDII will meet with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Simon Coveney today and the group hopes to stress the urgent need for the legislation.

The organisation says the code, which aims to bring balance and fairness between suppliers and retailers, has been promised by Government, but the required legislation has not yet been finalised.

“Across Europe, authorities are taking steps to better regulate trading relationships to stop large retailers making unfair demands of suppliers,” FDII director Paul Kelly said.

“The government said legislation to introduce an Irish code would be published in the final quarter of 2012, but we are still waiting.

“The introduction of this code is critical for the sustainability of the Irish agri-food and grocery sectors and its ability to provide high-quality Irish products, choice and convenience to the Irish consumer at fair prices,” he added.

“The code must be properly enforced by an objective adjudicator with powers of investigation.”

It’s time to tell Germans we have had enough of this austerity nonsense

   

The painful job of thinking is what makes the difference between doing the right thing and simply doing the thing that everyone else is doing just because the conventional view concludes that it is right despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

The great American economist JK Galbraith once said summing up why many people refuse to change their views, particularly if they have invested much time, effort and credibility into establishing that view. The following quotation from Galbraith sums up what’s happening in the policy making of the insiders in Ireland: “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”

The conventional view on the Irish economy is that we must stick with the programme and that we must continue to grind down wages and prices, squeeze demand and raise taxes. This we have been told for the past five years is the only way and if we stick to this approach, the economy will rebound vigorously.

This approach shows that the people who run the country have actually no idea about how a small economy works and also have an entirely invented narrative which has never been evidenced anywhere in the world. The same story is being spun to the people of Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Ultimately, the same will happen in France because it is a creditor’s view of the world imposed by the creditor nations of Europe against the debtor nations.

  The flaw is that for an economy to grow, aggressive budget cuts need to be offset by a simultaneous massive easing of monetary policy – as was seen in Reagan’s America of the early 1980s, Thatcher’s Britain in the mid 1980s or indeed Haughey’s Ireland of the late 1980s. Without massive monetary easing, the economy will seize up in the face of rising taxes, cutting expenditure and an overvalued exchange rate at a time when the banks are not lending.

This is the stuff the average honours student doing economics for theLeaving Cert should know. Not surprisingly, therefore, with broken banks, the Irish economy is not responding positively to the present policy, in fact it is going in the opposite way.

Income is falling, domestic retail sales are on the floor, unemployment and emigration are rising and now we realise that the debt to income ratio – the one statistic that the Government seems to focus on as a litmus test for the success of the policy – is going the wrong way. Ireland’s debt-to-income ratio has actually risen by 12pc this year to 125pc of national income.

The reason for the deterioration in this ratio is straightforward. If yourdebts are greater than 100pc of your income and the growth in your income is less that the annual rate of interest you have to pay on this debt, the ratio of debt to income has to rise. Either you need to get your growth rate up or your burden of debt down. So what’s it going to be?

Before we answer that question, it is crucial to disentangle cause and effect. At the moment the conventional wisdom is suggesting that if we can only get the budget deficit down to some level, we will be okay. The logical implication of this approach is that the budget deficit is the cause of our problems. Therefore, conventional wisdom indicates that reducing the deficit is the solution to Ireland’s woes.

But what if the budget deficit is the consequence – not the cause – of our distress? A much more persuasive angle is to see the deficit as the democratic consequence of a massive balance sheet recession, where the savings rate of Irish people and companies has risen massively due to the collapse of the property market, negative equity and the general slump in confidence.

As savings rise, demand falls. If the Government doesn’t spend in the economy, the slump in demand will cause unemployment to rise even faster.

Proponents of the present policy don’t dispute this but they claim that foreigners will buy Irish goods in sufficient bulk to make up for the collapse in local demand. The implication of this would be that the Irish current account surplus would have to expand at a rate quicker than the Government is cutting spending just for the economy to stand still.

But this is not happening. In truth, the budget deficit is the consequence not the cause of the present malaise.

Saying the budget deficit is the consequence is not the same as saying that the State should run a deficit into perpetuity. But when a country is suffering from a balance sheet recession, with an overvalued currency and a banking system that is dysfunctional, rapid tax increases and spending cuts will make the situation worse.

It is quite obvious that our policy makers and the EU bosses, who are simply looking to keep the entire EMU project alive though all sorts of monetary tricks and sleights of hand, are falling into the Galbraith trap of avoiding the painful job of thinking.

No one is saying that there is a quick fix, but we must entertain the idea of an alternative involving “parking” huge amounts of domestic debt, dealing with our creditors fairly and leaving this currency union which has brought only disaster to Ireland both in the upswing with far too much credit cascading into the country and in the downturn with far too little credit available to refinance the country.

Either we leave the euro and instill a new, much weaker Irish currency, which reflects the much weaker Irish economy or we seek common cause with the other debtor countries within the euro. A united coalition of debtor countries to say to Germany “enough of this nonsense we must mutualise debts now, you take a large haircut, let’s fix this problem right away and stop pussy footing around waiting for your election results”.

Europe’s economy is seizing up and the rest of the world is moving on. Are we to be sacrificed on the barbarous relic of yesterday’s monetary union and the whims of the German electorate just because we don’t want to involve ourselves in the painful job of thinking?

How much more evidence do we need to at least begin the process of doubting the conventional view?

Prostate cancer probe is world first for Irish Cancer Society

  

A world first in prostate cancer identification and treatment is being launched by the Irish Cancer Society in collaboration with awareness month next N/Movember.

The €1.75m project, which is the brainchild of cancer expert Prof John Fitzpatrick, will collect information about every man diagnosed with prostate cancer in this country, evaluate their treatment and include their opinion on the treatments.

The aim of Irish Prostate Cancer Outcomes Research (IPCOR) is to lead research that will improve the care and survival of patients.

Prostate cancer affects 3,000 new patients here each year and leads to 500 deaths annually. Ireland has the highest rate of 30 European countries.

COLLABORATION

The IPCOR is being run by the Irish Cancer Society in collaboration with the men’s health awareness group Movember and will be funded with €350,000 a year for up to five years.

Prof Fitzpatrick said the collaboration with Movember was particularly important.

  Movember campaigns are where men grow moustaches for the month of November to raise awareness and money for men’s health issues.

“For reasons that are not clear, the incidence of prostate cancer here is quite high”, says Prof Fitzpatrick, of the Irish Cancer Society.

“The beauty of Ireland is that it is small enough to do a countrywide study where everybody treated for prostate cancer in the country will be part of this.

“This is the first time this has been done anywhere in the world for any cancer.”

How to put a man on Mars by Professor Pike

 

Professor Tom Pike from Imperial College London says it is inconceivable that humans will not travel to the red planet in the future.

The Curiosity rover mission’s two-year investigatory mission to explore Mars has fired up interest in space travel and has come as a much-welcome success for a space agency beleaguered by budget cuts and the recent cancellation of its 30-year-old space shuttle programme.

“Since the 1970s we have gone no further than the earth orbit, in the meantime robotic exploration has gone to all regions to corner of the solar system,” said Professor Pike.

“There is a real contest between human exploration which is stuck in a rut and robotic exploration which is flourishing.

We wanted to combine the two, to have robots and humans working together.”

Prof Pike along with his colleagues at Imperial College London have explored the various scientific challenges that a mission to Mars might encounter and drew up plans for the best solutions for a new documentary for the BBC.

They propose sending a robotic team and return vehicle in advance of a manned mission. These robots could mine the Martian surface for water ice in the northern parts of the planet, which could then be split into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel.

This would mean the manned space flight would only have to carry have the fuel, making it lighter and easier to launch, and would enable the astronauts would have a fully fuelled spacecraft waiting on Mars for the return flight.

Water and food would have to be carried with them on the flight, but water would be constantly recycled and would used to reconstitute dried food.

Gravity is also a problem for any manned space flight since the astronauts would have to spend up to eight months on board the spacecraft as they travelled to Mars, during which time their muscles and bones would deteriorate due to weightlessness.

Prof Pike suggests building a spacecraft that is capable of creating its own artificial gravity through spinning. This would enable the astronauts to become acclimatised to Mars, where the gravity is around 40% of Earth’s.

“We are going to get to Mars at some point. It is inconceivable that we will be sitting looking at that planet in 1000 years having not sent anyone there,” he said.

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Enda Kenny phone call to Angela Merkel leads to joint statement on bank debt deal

    

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have issued a joint communiqué saying that Ireland’s banking crisis was “unique” and that Ireland was to be considered a special case in the forthcoming negotiations over the role of the new bailout fund the European Stability Mechanism in

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have issued a joint communiqué saying that Ireland’s banking crisis was “unique” and that Ireland was to be considered a special case in the forthcoming negotiations over the role of the new bailout fund the European Stability Mechanism in supported troubled banks.

The statement followed a phone call between the two leaders this afternoon.

It comes after two days of opposition attacks over Ms Merkel’s apparent rejection on Friday of the ESM being used for so-called legacy debt.

As the EU summit was winding up at the end of last week, Ms Merkel, in response to a question about Spanish banks, said there would be no retroactive recapitalisation of banks by the ESM.

Her remarks triggered a barrage of opposition attacks against Mr Kenny, who had hailed the summit as a success.

While Berlin confirmed that the chancellor meant that only future debts would be covered, over the next 12 hours the Chancellery issued two apparently mollifying statements supporting Ireland’s reform efforts and a return to the bond markets.

This evening, following a half hour phone call, the two leaders issued the joint statement reaffirming the commitment of 29 June, which said that Ireland’s bank debt situation would be looked at.

Encouragingly from the Government’s point of view, the statement described Ireland as a special case and the circumstances surrounding the banking crisis as “unique”.

This would be taken into account by eurozone finance ministers, the statement concluded, as they begin negotiations on how the ESM will work, once a banking supervision system is in place.

The statement did not spell out that legacy debt will be covered but it will provide the coalition with some badly needed cover following the criticism it has taken since Friday lunchtime.

Meanwhile later today:

Francois Hollande the French president supports Irish bid for a banking-debt agreement

   

French president Francois Hollande (L) welcomes Taoiseach Enda Kenny before a meeting in Paris today.

French president François Hollande today said he supports Ireland’s campaign to have old bank debt covered by recapitalisations through the euro zone’s new rescue fund.

Mr Hollande said Ireland was “a special case” and must be treated as such when euro group finance ministers negotiate a deal on how to break the link between sovereign and bank debt over the coming months.

German chancellor Angela Merkel caused consternation in Dublin last Friday when she said “legacy” debt would not be covered by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) bailout fund, echoing remarks made last month by her finance minister and apparently threatening Ireland’s long-running efforts to secure an EU deal to ease its multibillion-euro bank debt burden.

However, she and Taoiseach Enda Kenny issued a joint statement yesterday affirming that Ireland’s bank rescue was a “special case” and that euro zone leaders would examine ways of improving it.

After a 50-minute meeting with Mr Kenny at the Élysée Palace in Paris this afternoon, Mr Hollande pledged his support for Ireland’s position.

“The Irish specificity is that for several months there had already been a recapitalisation of banks through the budget, which further exacerbated Ireland’s debt and forced it to impose a tough austerity program,” Mr Hollande remarked.

“I said Ireland was a special case and should be treated as such.”

Asked by The Irish Times if this meant he agreed with the Irish position that bank recapitalisations through the ESM should be retroactive, the French president said: “Yes. Ireland is asking that its specific situation should be taken into account – that it had to recapitalise its banks with its own means. The Eurogroup will take this specificity into account.”

Mr Kenny said that what made Ireland a special case was the fact that it had a European position “imposed upon it” when the banking sector collapsed.

“Ireland was the first and only country which had a European position imposed upon it, in the sense that there wasn’t the opportunity if the Government wished to do it their way by burning bondholders.

“The Irish public and Irish taxpayer were required to service the full extent of the debt, which was a situation which we’re trying to reduce by the negotiations which are going on.”

Mr Kenny’s visit to Paris was his first as Taoiseach, reflecting an improvement in relations between France and Ireland since Mr Hollande came to power in May. He is also attending a major food fair in Villepinte, near Paris, underlining France’s importance as one of Ireland’s main export markets.

Mr Hollande confirmed that he would receive President Michael D Higgins in Paris next February.

This afternoon, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said if a bank-debt deal can be reached, it would not affect this year’s budget.

He said it was made clear during the June euro zone meeting that any move on bank recapitalisation would only happen after an EU-wide banking supervisory body was in place. “We are looking well into next year, quite clearly after the budget….[but] If we get a resolution which makes the debt more sustainable obviously that improves budgets in the future,” Mr Noonan added.

Earlier, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the joint statement made it clear that Ireland is being treated as a “special case” in Europe. He said the deal on Ireland’s bank debt “was never off track” although he conceded there was “concern” at Government level on Friday after Dr Merkel dismissed retrospective recapitalisation of banks in response to a question about the Spanish situation.

“The issuing of a joint communiqué . . . puts the issue beyond any doubt that Ireland’s case being treated as special,” he said.

He said contacts between Berlin and Dublin began immediately after Dr Merkel’s comments on Friday and continued at very senior diplomatic level over the weekend, culminating in a telephone discussion between Dr Merkel and Mr Kenny and the issuing of the communiqué.

Mr Gilmore was speaking at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, where he was attending the Africa Ireland Economic Forum. He said the statement issued last night was perfectly consistent with what was agreed in June by European heads of State. He said there was political support for efforts to work through Ireland’s debt problem in European capitals, including Berlin.

He stressed the statement was clear that Ireland’s case was special. “There’s a very strong view that Europe needs a winner and needs a country to come out of the programme and Ireland is the best-placed country to do that.”

Irish League of credit unions says it will lobby for changes to Credit Union Bill

   

The Irish League of Credit Unions has stated it will continue to lobby for changes to the Credit Union Bill after former senator Joe O’Toole accused it of having “learned nothing and forgotten nothing” about financial governance and probity.

The league, which represents 3.1 million members, called for changes to a number of aspects of the Credit Union Bill, including those which it feels would prevent it from sharing electronic lodgement and withdrawal services between branches.

It is also concerned about restrictions on officers serving in more than one branch.

The league said a further issue is that while the Bill provides for an appeal process to the Irish Financial Services Appeal Tribunal, a concurrent Bill regarding the Central Bank directs appeals to the High and Supreme Courts.

Mr O’Toole said it appeared “internal ILCU matters are taking precedence over a Government commitment to make the guts of €1 billion available to solve the credit union difficulties…in short to create a viable and safe Irish Credit Union movement”.

Mr O’Toole and ILCU chief executive Kieran Brennan both served on the Government’s Commission on Credit Unions which Mr O’Toole claims agreed a report which is the basis for the current legislation “unanimously and [it] was acclaimed and welcomed by every significant group including the ILCU”.

He says no group had more representation on that commission than the ILCU.

The two men have subsequently served on an implementation group to monitor the progress of action on the commission’s recommendations, Mr O’Toole said. It had been pleased with progress and there were no disagreements within the group.

“Then two weeks after we had sat around a table together impressing on the department the importance of keeping to the implementation schedule Kieran launches a campaign to delete some and dilute other key recommendations,” he said.

The league said it believes directions issued to it from the Central Bank under the Central Bank Bill would negate its ability to appeal to the financial services tribunal.

Mr Brennan says the application of the Central Bank Acts 1942-2011 to credit unions was neither discussed nor agreed at the commission and would be onerous for a voluntary organisation.

While the league welcomed most reforms in the Credit Union Bill, the “discrepancies” between the recommendations of the Commission on Credit Unions and the Credit Union Bill itself needed to be addressed, he said.

He said the league was “fully supportive of the need to assist the restructuring of the credit union sector” but he believed restructuring would need to be in done “in a manner that does not ignore the voluntary nature and ethos of the movement”.

Eamon Gilmore backs gay marriage

  

Ireland’s journey toward creating a society fully tolerant of the gay community is still not complete, the Tánaiste has claimed.

Eamon Gilmore said attitudes in the country were almost unrecognisable to those that prevailed a generation ago but insisted more progress was needed.

Addressing the European region’s annual International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) conference in Dublin, Mr Gilmore reaffirmed his support for the acknowledgment of gay marriage by the state.

“That ILGA Europe should choose our capital city, Dublin, for this conference is a source of pride for us,” he said.

“This city, and this Republic, have been on their own remarkable journey in relation to the rights of LGBTI persons.

“There is a generation of young Irish people, for whom the Ireland of twenty or thirty years ago would be almost unrecognisable.

“Thousands of young LGBTI persons, who in the past would have felt the need to live elsewhere, have opted to stay in Ireland.

“And by doing so, they have enriched the country and made it a more tolerant place. Many in public life have emerged as role models for young LGBTI people and, in recent years, civil partnership ceremonies have been occasions of great celebration around the country.

“That journey is still incomplete. As I have stated elsewhere, the right of same-sex couples to marry is not a gay rights issue, it is a civil rights issue, and one that I support.

“The question of same-sex marriage is one that will be considered by our forthcoming Constitutional Convention. This is an innovation in Irish democracy, where citizens and public representatives will come together to consider what changes might be made to our Constitution, so that it better reflects not just the society we are now, but the society we aspire to.”

The conference was attended by delegates from 42 countries across Europe who work for LGBTI rights.

Tiernan Brady, chair of the Dublin conference, welcomed Mr Gilmore’s attendance.

“The Tánaiste’s presence at the conference is remarkable symbol of the progress that has taken place in Ireland,” he said.

“The Tánaiste’s presence sent a powerful message of hope to those delegates coming from countries where LGBTI people are under daily threat, and where opportunities for progress are very limited.

“Many of these delegates face considerable challenges in their own countries in achieving basic human rights for LGBTI people.”

He added: “The Tánaiste’s commitment to continue Ireland’s strong track record of the promotion of human rights for LGBTI people across Europe and the world was enthusiastically welcomed by the delegates.”

Yesterday members of Ireland’s transgender community held a rally in Dublin to demand greater recognition in law.

They were joined at the gates of Leinster House by supporters from elsewhere in Europe at the protest calling for new legislation to have their changed gender acknowledged legally.

Organisers claim transgender people in Ireland and elsewhere in the world are treated as if they have a mental disorder.

They said the time had come for the introduction of “inclusive and respectful” gender recognition legislation and criticised progress made by the current Irish government on the issue.

Some 75% of people ‘cannot name the body’s biggest organ’

 

It may be basic biology but the majority of British people cannot name the largest organ in the body, according to a survey.

A total of 75% of people revealed they did not know it was the skin, while almost half (47%) of people admitted to wrongly self-diagnosing an illness.

Perhaps in a sign of the times, findings also revealed more than half (58%) of people prefer to check the internet about symptoms before consulting a doctor.

The survey of 2,000 people, commissioned to coincide with the release of the eighth series of medical drama House on DVD, showed that just under half of people believed their lungs were the largest organ in their bodies.

Demonstrating further confusion, 64% and 43% were unable able to correctly place their spleen and liver respectively.

Meanwhile, the research also revealed that nearly one in 10 people turn to television shows such as Embarrassing Bodies,Casualty, Doctors and House to self-diagnose medical conditions.

One in 20 people have overheard someone talking about an illness and used this information to self-diagnose, while one in 50 people have heard of a celebrity’s illness, such as Lady Gaga‘s lupus or Jade Goody’s cervical cancer, and again applied the symptoms to themselves.

Jane Druker, editor of Healthy magazine, said: “Increasingly, TV shows such as House are making people more aware of looking after their own health; however, it’s really worrying that so many Brits are self-medicating an illness rather than consulting with a GP or seeking the advice of a qualified high street health professional.

“With nearly half of people wrongly self-diagnosing an illness, this can lead to a great deal of unnecessary additional stress that could be avoided by simply asking a professional.”

House: Season 8 is available today on DVD, legal download and via video-on demand from Universal Playback.

Beluga whale ‘makes human-like sounds’

    

Beluga whales are known as “canaries of the sea” because of their frequent, high-pitched calls

Researchers in the US have been shocked to discover a beluga whale whose vocalisations were remarkably close to human speech.

While dolphins have been taught to mimic the pattern and durations of sounds in human speech, no animal has spontaneously tried such mimicry.

But researchers heard a nine-year-old whale named NOC make sounds octaves below normal, in clipped bursts.

The researchers outline in Current Biology just how NOC did it.

But the first mystery was figuring out where the sound was coming from. The whales are known as “canaries of the sea” for their high-pitched chirps, and while a number of anecdotal reports of whales making human-like speech, none had ever been recorded.

When a diver at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in California surfaced saying, “Who told me to get out?” the researchers there knew they had another example on their hands.

Once they identified NOC as the culprit, they made the first-ever recordings of the behaviour.

They found that vocal bursts averaged about three per second, with pauses reminiscent of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies within them were spread out into “harmonics” in a way very unlike whales’ normal vocalisations and more like those of humans.

They then rewarded NOC for the speech-like sounds to teach him to make them on command and fitted him with a pressure transducer within his nasal cavity, where sounds are produced, to monitor just what was going on.

They found that he was able to rapidly change the pressure within his nasal cavity to produce the sounds.

To amplify the comparatively low-frequency parts of the vocalisations, he over-inflated what is known at the vestibular sac in his blowhole – which normally acts to stop water entering the lungs.

In short, the mimicry was no easy task for NOC.

“Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds,” said Sam Ridgway, president of the National Marine Mammal Foundation and lead author on the paper.

“The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale.”