Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Garda are constrained by budget cuts, says acting Commissioner O’Sullivan 

 

Nóirín O’Sullivan tells policing event that force has ‘adequate’ resources to meet their obligations.

Acting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said she believed the force still had adequate resources for policing.

The Garda force had been hit by budget cuts that “constrained” it, but it still had “adequate” resources to meet its obligations, acting Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has said.

AND SHE INSISTED SOME INVESTMENTS WERE BEING MADE.

“This year alone we have bought 140 new cars which are augmenting the fleet. But when new resources and new finances are made available we can prioritise on where those new cars need to go and what types of cars and bikes we need.”

However, despite the reduced resources she believed the Garda was “policing very well”.

“Yes, the numbers have fallen slightly under 13,000,” she said in reference to the total strength of the force and the number former Garda commissioner Martin Calllinan said they should not fall below.

“Nevertheless, we do have adequate resources to police,” Ms O’Sullivan added.

She was speaking at an event in Farmleigh, Phoenix Park, Dublin, in which stakeholders in the justice and policing areas were meeting today for a consultation on how the new Garda Authority would be introduced.

This week the head of the Garda Inspectorate, which reviews all elements of policing in the Republic and advises the Garda and Government on the need for reforms, expressed the clear view that policing was struggling.

Chief Inspector Bob Olsen said the Garda did not have the resources it needed to carry out its work in the way it should.

The IT infrastructure enjoyed by police forces in other countries was not available to gardaí.

Garda vehicles were being switched from urban to rural areas to get more mileage from old vehicles.

It meant the fleet would all require upgrading at the same time and was a financial “time bomb”.

He had previously said Garda training had ground to a halt and that he and his staff were meeting detectives who had never received any training on how to be a detective.

Yesterday the Public Accounts Committee was told by the secretary general of the Department of Transport, Tom O’Mahony, that some parts of the penalty points system were on hold for years because neither the Garda nor Irish Courts Service had the IT it needed to operate them.

Ms O’Sullivan pointed out that Garda recruitment was about to begin again in the weeks ahead, saying it was something the organisation was looking forward to.

The new recruits would enter a Garda culture where the standards expected from them were clear.

The Garda culture needed to “tell them what those standards, values and behaviours are and ensure that the training is adequate and robust enough to foster those values in people”.

The Guerin report, which indentified serious shortcomings in policing in Bailieboro, Co Cavan, “represented an opportunity to review some of the policies and practices around investigations and supervision over sight and management”.

She said an online survey of Garda members since she had assumed her post on an interim basis following the snap retirement of Mr Callinan two months ago reflected the concerns that the main Garda representative bodies had been raising.

“I know the perception is that morale is on the ground. Certainly people are hurting, people are concerned and they were very concerned at everything that has happened.”

However, she believed the visible leadership she had demonstrated and her efforts to travel around and meet members of the force “not alone reinforced confidence in people that it’s business as normal, but that we can build on what has happened in the past, we can learn lessons and get stronger”.

She would “shortly” be in a position to talk about her plans to reorganised Garda Headquarters and also the reforms put in place as a result of the Guerin report.

She was aware of comments by independent TD Clare Daly in the Dáil yesterday when she alleged Mr Callinan, while still in office, had made attempts to contact the main Garda staff associations to ask them to express no confidence in the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission.

“I am aware of the reporting today which also says that the Garda associations have refuted that but that’s all I know about that.”

She said the Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe had returned to work and continued to enjoy the support of senior management in that regard. However, she did not want to go into specifics about the circumstances of any individual Garda member.

NTMA raises €500m in successful sale of three-month bonds

 

Taking advantage of positive investor sentiment towards Ireland, NTMA receives bids of €2.1 billion.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan with NTMA officials in the Treasury Holdings building in Dublin

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has successfully auctioned a further €500 million in three-month Treasury Bills.

Taking advantage of positive investor sentiment towardsIreland, the NTMA received total bids amounting to €2.1 billion – 4.2 times the amount on offer. The three-month notes were sold at an annualised yield of 0.105 per cent.

Ireland’s borrowing costs have been trading near record lows of late on foot of two recent credit upgrades and further European Central Bank stimulus measures, including an interest rate cut, earlier this month.

he NTMA has raised €6.5 billion of Ireland’s long-term money this year already, bringing it 81 per cent of the way towards its full-year funding target of €8 billion.

Today, the yield on 10-year Irish bonds remained at 2.4 per cent, keeping the State’s borrowing costs below those of the UK.

Investors are buying bonds of peripheral euro zone states amid signs the region’s debt crisis may be over.

The so-called “yield grab” was fuelled earlier this month by comments from ECB chief Mario Draghi that Frankfurt was prepared to take more action if the new measures fall flat.

The cost of posting a letter in Ireland is to increase from July this year

  

Communications regulator gives An Post green light to raise cost of a stamp to 68 cent. 

An Post has been cleared to increase the cost of postage from July 21st next.

The price of sending a letter is to increase next month. The communications regulator ComReg has given An Post permission to raise the price of its stamps, with effect from Monday, July 21st.

The standard domestic letter rate for items up to 100g will increase from 60cent to 68 cent while the standard international letter rate will increase from 90 cent to €1.00 for items up to 100g.

Despite the increase, An Post said the new rates will remain among the lowest in the EU countries including Britain, France, Belgium and Italy, and well below the EU domestic average of 71 cent.

A range of discount options will continue to remain available to businesses buying stamps in bulk and using meter mail, Ceadúnas licence and bulk-mail services.

A spokeswoman for An Post said the increase is necessary due to “ongoing cost reduction initiatives” and to “stem the unsustainable financial losses” arising from the Company’s Universal Service Obligation where losses totalled €55 million in 2013 .

An Post’s annual report published in April of this year showed that in 2013, the company made an operating loss of €11.4 million in spite of an increase in turnover of 0.5 per cent and an extra €20 million from a stamp price increase. The operating loss in 2012 was €17.5 million.

More than half of all mobile phones are Smartphones

 

Broadband subscriptions and speeds also increase, according to a new Comreg report. 

With the rise in smartphones comes an increase in data volumes, which rose by 48.1% in the year to the end of March to reach 13,897 terabytes

Smartphones are more popular than ever before, according to new figures published by the Communications regulator Comreg.

Its latest quarterly report shows that 57.2% of all mobile phones in use in Ireland are smartphones, up 12.2% for the first quarter 2013.

The study reveals there are now 3,206,880 active 3G and 4G users in the country.

With the rise in smartphones comes an increase in data volumes, which rose by 48.1% in the year to the end of March to reach 13,897 terabytes.

According to the figures there were 5,619,777 mobile phone subscriptions in total in the first three months of 2014, down 0.1% on the previous quarter. Ireland’s mobile penetration rate for the quarter was 121.9%.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) was €26 per month, down from €28 on the previous quarter. Comreg attributed the decline in ARPU to cheaper mobile phone plans and increased sales of bundled products.

The total number of text messages sent by mobile users in Ireland was over 2.02 billion in the first three months of the year, down 25% on the same quarter in 2013. The number of multimedia messages (MMS) sent declined by 7.4%.

Fixed voice and mobile voice traffic also declined during the quarter. Fixed voice traffic was down by 1.3% while mobile traffic fell by 0.8%.

Comreg’s report shows that broadband subscriptions rose by 0.7% versus the previous quarter to stand at 1.7 million at the end of March. The estimated household broadband penetration rate was 67%.

Average broadband speeds continue to rise with 56.7% of all subscriptions equal to or greater than 10 Mbps, up from 32.2% for the same quarter a year earlier. Approximately 37.7% of all broadband subscriptions were equal or greater than 30 Mbps up from 21.3%.

The number of WiFi hotspots and access points increased by approximately 18.4% and 16% respectively on an annual basis.

Overall industry retail revenues for telecom companies decreased by 3% according to Comreg. Total retail revenues in the twelve months to March totalled €3.13 billion, down from over €3.22 billion a year earlier.

A Great View of Earth of the Summer Solstice

  

AN IMAGE OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN OVER THE NORTHERN REACHES OF THE WESTERN HALF OF THE GLOBE.

A new satellite image beautifully highlights the Earth forming a perfect crescent as the midnight sun beams down on the far northern reaches of the globe

Planning to host a party for the summer solstice tomorrow? Here’s a view that will help build some excitement, courtesy of a satellite positioned about 36,000 miles from the Earth’s surface.

Brian McNoldy, a tropical storm researcher at the University of Miami, grabbed an image of the Earth as GOES-West, a satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that shows the Earth at local midnight last night. It beautifully highlights the earth forming a perfect crescent as the midnight sun beams down on the far northern reaches of the globe.

While the solstice is officially at 6:51 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, McNoldy explained in an email that the image captured is a pretty close representation of what it will look like from the same vantage point. In other words, this is a solstice drill that’s as close to the real thing as possible.

McNoldy also shared another bit of trivia: you won’t see a similar view from the opposite side of the planet. GOES-West, which in satellite parlance sits in a geostationary orbit above the 135°W meridian, snaps a full Earth picture at local midnight everyday. However, GOES-East, its aptly-named partner on the other side of the planet, operates on a slightly different schedule and the closest you’ll get to this view is a photo taken at 12:45 a.m. local time. That view, while still pretty spectacular, would show a warped crescent as opposed the perfection of GOES-West’s view.

Feel free to add that to your trivia game at your solstice party.

The solstice is commonly referred to as the longest day of the year, a statement that leaves most folks in the Southern Hemisphere shaking their heads. A more accurate description of the solstice is that due to the position of the Earth’s orbit around the sun, the North Pole will be angled as close to the sun as possible this year. That makes it seem like the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere but the shortest in the southern hemisphere. After Saturday, the two hemispheres’ luck will start to reverse which each day getting shorter in the northern half of the globe and longer in the southern half.                   

Donie's daily news BLOG Tuesday

Gardai call for tough new laws to protect whistle-blowers at AGSI conference

   

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors says officers who expose wrong-doing should not “suffer reprisal or fear of victimisation.”

Mid-ranking Gardai yesterday called for stronger whistleblower laws so malpractice in the force can be exposed.

But delegates at the annual Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) conference in Killarney said the Garda Ombudsman should not handle complaints from within the force.

AGSI vice president Antoinette Cunningham stressed it was important whistleblowers “do not suffer reprisal or fear of victimisation”.

The motion was discussed in the wake of evidence given by whistleblowers, former Sgt John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe to the Dail Public Accounts Committee about abuse of the penalty points system.

Ms Cunningham said whistleblowers’ claims “must be taken as genuine until proven not to be so”.

She added: “We do not want allegations of malpractice buried, we want to be able to report in confidence.

“We believe there has been damage to the confidential reporting system, members may be reluctant to report to a body which may have previously investigated them. At national level we have discussed this and it is not appropriate that GSOC could be the confidential recipient.

“GSOC was set up to investigate members of the Gardai and for us that is the job they do. If someone is investigating you, the confidential recipient should be entirely different.”

The motion was proposed by Sgt Jim Collins from Donegal.

He said: “With the exposure of recent whistleblowers, and the extensive media coverage they have received, confidence in the current system of confidential reporting has taken a serious blow.

“It is the belief of the Donegal branch colleagues the system is deterring whistleblowers within An Garda Siochana from reporting any matters they may deem relevant to these regulations, thus defeating the intended purpose of the legislation and regulations created to allow for the confidential reporting of corruption.”

Sgt Tony Lavery, from Claremorris station, Co Mayo, said reporting of the whistleblowers scandal did more “reputational damage to An Garda Siochana than anything since the foundation of the force”.

He added: “Members are sick to the back teeth with negative publicity.

“Their attitude is, ‘Why should I do anything, if I do I only get into trouble?’ It is driving morale into the ground.”  The motion was welcomed by Interim Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.

Irish Government still wants €2bn in budget cuts and taxes for 2015

 

TAX RISES AND CUTS ON DEPARTMENT’S AGENDA DESPITE ERSI’S POSITIVE FORECAST. 

The Department of Finance is pushing back against the clamour for a softer budget next year as the economic recovery picks up.

In a fiscal policy document to be published today the department will also indicate that the improvement in economic conditions does not yet call for a big upgrade in its growth forecasts.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will seek Cabinet approval today for a document in which his department says there should be no step back from the plan for €2 billion in tax rises and spending cutbacks in 2015.

Opening position: The Stability Programme Update document, which will be sent to Brussels for the approval of the European Commission, represents the department’s opening position in advance of talks on the preparation of the October budget.

After years of grinding austerity, the Government has billed the 2015 budget as the final round of deep cutbacks and steep tax hikes after years. However, Ministers would still prefer to keep any further retrenchment to a minimum.

  The Department of Finance document comes days after the Economic and Social Research Institute think tank said scope may be opening up to reduce retrenchment in the next budget to some €500 million from €2 billion and still meet fiscal targets set by the EU.

The ESRI said last week that the Government may be in a position to achieve a budget deficit below 3 per cent next year, as it is obliged to do under European agreements, by doing nothing more than introducing the new water charge.

At the same time, the institute said the Government should continue to plan for a €2 billion package of tax and spending measures and wait until September to change course if the quickening of economic growth continues.

Unwavering demand: Mr Noonan’s endorsement of the unwavering demand for a €2 billion adjustment next year reflects concern in his department to avoid giving line Ministers the impression that they can slacken the effort to assert control over the public finances.

This conservative approach is mirrored in the department’s update of its own official forecast for economic growth, which is appreciably below the forecast set out last week by the ESRI.

Although the unemployment rate is lower than expected at the start of the year, the Stability Programme Update says a only modest increase in the growth forecast is appropriate at this point.

The document is understood to forecast growth of some 2.1 per cent in gross domestic product, up only slightly from 2 per cent growth forecast set out in the budget for 2014.

Forecast validated: The department’s new forecast has been validated theFiscal Advisory Council, a formal body set up in 2011 to monitor fiscal policy. By contrast, the ESRI report last week forecast a 2.6 per cent expansion in GDP this year.

At its meeting today the Cabinet is also expected to sign off on legislation to introduce free GP care for children under the age of six.

No Irish Government decision made on basic water charge’s yet

SAYS THE TAOISEACH

 

Enda Kenny tells Dáil report of charge arose from draft Irish Water memo.

The Government has no made no decision on introducing a basic water charge for householders, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The Government has no made no decision on introducing a basic water charge for householders, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

Mr Kenny also said no decision had been made on the level of waters charges, or the subvention to be paid by the Government to Irish Water, and he also firmly ruled out the privatisation of the service. He repeated that householders would know the details of the charges before the local elections on May 23rd.

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Kenny said he had seen the media report of a standing charge for water. “My understanding is that arose from a draft memo submitted by Irish Water,’’ he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin said that Irish Water had confirmed that it had sought the introduction of a 100 euro standing charge for all households.

“This, indeed, has shocked many people and has caused a considerable degree of disquiet and anxiety amongst the general public,’’ he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the company was seeking to impose a standing charge of one-third of the water bill, adding that it was very high when compared to other countries.

A helpline is the only contact some elderly Irish people have with others

 

Over 2,000 Irish people have called Senior Help Line in the first three months of this year.

One man called the Senior Help Line last month described how he felt, saying “I am going mad with loneliness.”

The helpline has received over 6,000 calls already in the first three months of this year.

The biggest concerns for callers include the cost of living, cuts to services, instances of abuse and feelings of suicide.

The CEO of The Senior Help Line, Aine Brady, said that the most common factor among those who call is a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Callers have expressed their loneliness by saying “The house is so empty since Christmas” and “I have no contact with my family any more”.

The high volume of calls since the start of the year is a sign of the challenges that older people are facing.

For many Senior Help Line is their only means of contact with other people. Callers have said “I find the days very long on my own.”

Listening services for the elderly.

“Regardless of age, we all have problems and worries. It is important to have an outlet, someone to talk to, to share those worries with.

For many older people, their trusted circle of friends has diminished and there is no one to share a worry or even the joys of life with.

“We urge any older person who is worried about issues concerning health, family or any other matter to call us.”

The Senior Help Line is Ireland’s only peer to peer national listening service for older people.

Brady explained, “A unique aspect of our service is older people listening to older people. This helps create an empathetic atmosphere for the caller helping them to open up and discuss their problems easily.”

However, for all the calls we answer, we know that many go unanswered. Our resources are limited. We are working hard to answer as many as we can and to be there for as many people as possible.

Senior Help Line is available 365 days a year from 10am-10pm. & all calls to 1850 440 444 are handled in strict confidence.

MEANWHILE:

Loneliness is a health risk for the elderly people of Ireland & the world

 

Extreme loneliness has twice the impact of obesity on premature death.

Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older person’s chances of premature death by 14% according to research by psychologist John Cacioppo.

A 2010 meta-analysis showed that loneliness has twice the impact on early death as obesity does.

The consequences to health are dramatic, as feeling isolated from others can disrupt sleep, elevate blood pressure, increase morning rises in the stress hormone cortisol, alter gene expression in immune cells, increase depression and lower overall subjective well-being.

Research: Cacioppo joined other scholars at a seminar “The Science of Resilient Ageing” in Chicago over the past week.

The researchers looked at dramatic differences in the rate of decline in physical and mental health as people age.

They examined the role of satisfying relationships on older people to develop their resilience, the ability to bounce back after adversity and grow from stresses in life.

Cacioppo said: Retiring to Florida to live in a warmer climate among strangers isn’t necessarily a good idea if it means you are disconnected from the people who mean the most to you.

Although some people are happy to be alone, most people thrive from social situations in which they provide mutual support and develop strong rapport.

Silver Demographic: Cacioppo says we are “experiencing a silver tsunami demographically. The baby boomers are reaching retirement age”. Speaking about America, he said:

Each day between 2011 and 2030, an average of 10,000 people will turn 65.

The researchers identified three core dimensions to healthy relationships:

• Intimate connectedness – which comes from having someone in your life you feel affirms who you are
• Relational connectedness – which comes from having face-to-face contacts that are mutually rewarding
• Collective connectedness -which comes from feeling that you’re part of a group or collective beyond individual existence

Cacioppo said older people living alone are not necessary lonely if they remain socially engaged and enjoy the company of those around them.

However some aspects of ageing, such as blindness and loss of hearing place people at a special risk for becoming isolated and lonely.

Diabetes care for Irish children falls badly short in our hospitals

  

A team at Temple Street Children’s Hospital conducted the research, which found only one of the 19 hospital centres treating children with type-1 diabetes had the recommended ratio of nurses to patients

Only one of the 19 hospital centres treating children with type-1 diabetes had the recommended ratio of nurses to patients, according to a new study.

Insulin pump instruction was available in eight centres and the number of children using these alternatives to an insulin injection ranged widely from zero to 42%.

The study, by the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology in Temple Street Hospital in Dublin, pointed out that type-c diabetes is a chronic condition affecting five to 40 per 100,000 of the child population.

The incidence is higher in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia than in most of central and southern Europe and is rising, particularly in children under five.

SKILLS: The report in the ‘Irish Medical Journal’ showed a wide variation in the structure and process of care between centres. The authors said that “regionalising diabetes care for children with type-1 diabetes should be considered”.

Large patient numbers are necessary to justify full-time employment of a large multidisciplinary team. “This would allow for the maintenance of skills, attendance at best practice meetings and improvement in patient care,” said the study.

“It would also facilitate skilled out-of-hours coverage as well as emergency cover of sick leave. While this may improve patient outcomes, it will be associated with an increased requirement for patients to travel to appointments and careful geographic consideration of location of centres is required to mitigate the burden for families,” it added.

Tiny particle that is smartphone readable could curb counterfeit goods

  
Researchers hope to crack down on counterfeiting of all types with a new invisible microparticle that is smartphone-readable and glows brightly under near-infrared light.

Some 2 to 5 per cent of all international trade involves counterfeit goods, according to a 2013 United Nations report. These illicit products – which include electronics, automotive parts, pharmaceuticals, and food – can pose safety risks and cost governments and companies billions of dollars annually.

Many strategies have been developed to try to label legitimate products and prevent illegal trade – but these tags are often too easy to fake or cost too much, according to MIT researchers who have developed a new alternative.

Led by Patrick Doyle and Albert Swiston, the researchers have invented anew type of tiny, phone-readable particle that could be deployed to help authenticate currency, electronic parts, and luxury goods, amongst others.

The particles, which are invisible to the naked eye, contain coloured stripes of nanocrystals that glow brightly when lit up with near-infrared light.

These particles can easily be manufactured and integrated into a variety of materials, and can withstand extreme temperatures, sun exposure, and heavy wear, says Doyle, the senior author of a paper in Nature Materials. They could also be equipped with sensors that can record their environments – for example, if a refrigerated vaccine has been exposed to heat. The paper’s lead authors are Jiseok Lee and Paul Bisso.

A massive encoding capacity: The new particles are 200 microns long and include several stripes of different coloured nanocrystals, known as “rare earth upconverting nanocrystals.” These crystals are doped with elements such as ytterbium, gadolinium, erbium, and thulium, which emit visible colours under near-infrared light. By altering the ratios of these elements, the researchers can tune the crystals to emit any colour in the visible spectrum.

To manufacture the particles, the researchers used stop-flow lithography, a technique developed previously by Doyle. This approach allows shapes to be imprinted onto parallel flowing streams of liquid monomers – chemical building blocks that can form longer chains called polymers. Wherever pulses of ultraviolet light strike the streams, areaction is set off that forms a solid polymeric particle. In this case, each polymer stream contains nanocrystals that emit different colours, allowing them to form striped particles. So far, they have created nanocrystals in nine different colours, but it should be possible to create many more, Doyle says.

Using this procedure, they can generate vast quantities of unique tags. With particles that contain six stripes, there are 1 million different possible combinations; this capacity can be exponentially enhanced by tagging products with more than one particle. For example, if the researchers created a set of 1,000 unique particles and then tagged products with any 10 of those particles, there would be 1030 possible combinations – far more than enough to tag every grain of sand on Earth.

Versatile particles: The microparticles could be dispersed within electronic parts or drug packaging during the manufacturing process, incorporated directly into 3D printed objects, or printed onto currency, the researchers say. They could also be incorporated into ink that artists could use to authenticate their artwork.

The biggest advantage of these particles is that they can be read without an expensive decoder like those required by most other anti-counterfeiting technologies. Using a phone camera equipped with a lens offering twentyfold magnification, anyone could image the particles after shining near-infrared light on them.  

Donie's Ireland news BLOG Tuesday

Ireland’s Pensioners protest over cruel Budget cuts in Dublin

   

Up to 12,000 mostly older people descended on Leinster House to mount a noisy demonstration against multimillion-euro government cuts targeting the elderly.

Many who had travelled from throughout the country carried placards attacking the Fine Gael/Labour coalition and joined in chants of “shame, shame, shame” directed at the Dail.

At least three older people collapsed during the lunch-time rally in central Dublin, which had to be interrupted at one stage to secure medical help for one sick protestor.

Several speakers from the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament as well as from political and trade union backgrounds took to a makeshift stage to denounce austerity measures hitting medical care, telephone allowances and bereavement grants.

Cheered on by the huge crowd, Paddy Moran, of trade union Siptu, mocked Taoiseach Enda Kenny‘s pre-election promises to make Ireland a great country in which to grow old.

“One of the main boasts of this government is that the core State pension has been left untouched by this Budget,” he said.

“And, of course , they are right. That is, if you don’t suffer from any illnesses that require a visit to the doctor, that would require hospitalisation, or any kind of prescribed medicines.

“It was also a great budget as long as you or and your spouse or partner manage to stay alive forever – so you would not be in need of the bereavement grant.”

The veteran activist said the abolition of the telephone allowance  had condemned older people to a life of isolation.

Former junior health minister and Labour party rebel Roisin Shortall was briefly heckled by a small number of people in the crowd when she took to the podium.

But after a steward called for order, she urged the gathering to step up the fight against the Budget cuts.

“It’s a disgrace that you have to take to the streets again because of what this government is doing to older people,” she said.

Ms Shortall called on people to get on the airwaves, on the streets and on to government TDs to stop the “unfair” Budget.

“Once upon a time we had a country that stood by the older generation, where older people were listened to, looked after, loved and where older people were treated with respect and not treated like some kind of unwanted burden,” she added.

Robin Webster, chief executive of Age Action, said the Budget has hit the sickest, the most vulnerable and the poorest of older people.

A small number of protesters broke away after the demonstration to march on the GPO on O’Connell Street.

Gardai said there were no major incidents and put the turnout at the main rally at around 12,000 people.

Revenue to contact Irish homeowners over 2014 property tax

 

One million Irish people are to be asked how they intend to pay local property tax next year

Revenue said in a statement that those who paid in one lump sum – whether by credit or debit card, cheque, postal order or cash – as well as those who maderegular payments in cash, will receive a letter outlining options for the coming year.

  The Revenue Commissioners are to write to nearly one million individuals seeking details on how they intend to pay their local property tax next  year.

Thousands who paid through various deduction options as well as those who received exemptions will not be contacted.

However, Revenue said in a statement that those who paid in one lump sum – whether by credit or debit card, cheque, postal order or cash – as well as those who made regular payments in cash, will receive a letter outlining options for the coming year.

“All you need to do is decide how you want to pay for 2014,fill in  the payment instruction either online or in paper and send it to Revenue by the deadline. You don’t need to value your property,”it said in a statement.

“Revenue will not be writing to you if you paid your 2013 LPT by phased payment method (direct debit or deduction at source from your salary, occupational pension or certain Government payments). Your phased payment method will continue to apply  in 2014 and you don’t need to contactRevenue.

“Similarly, Revenue  will not be writing to you if you claimed a full deferral or were exempt as the deferral or exemption carries forward to 2014.”

Further details for the forthcoming year and details on how to change payment methods can be found at revenue.ie.

Minimum price for alcohol to be introduced in Ireland

 

Cabinet decides to proceed with range of measures but proposed sports sponsorship ban kicked to touch

The Irish Government has shelved plans to ban the sponsorship of sporting events by drinks companies but it will proceed with the introduction of a minimum price regime for alcohol.

The cabinet  today decided to proceed with a range of measures to try and control the abuse of alcohol but the proposed sports sponsorship ban which was due to come into force in 2020 has been kicked to touch.

Instead, a working group under the Department of the Taoiseach will report back in 12 months on the implications of the ending of sports sponsorship.

An outright ban will only be considered if and when other means of funding sport have been identified and secured.

The cabinet decided to press ahead with a range of other measures designed to curb the abuse of alcohol, particularly by under-age drinkers.

The main element of the plan is the introduction of minimum prices for alcohol. The new pricing  structure will be calculated on the sale price per gram of alcohol.

The system will be introduced after consultation with theNorthern Ireland authorities to ensure that there are no major differences  in the price structure on both sides of the border.

The is a question mark over whether a minimum price arrangement will be legal under EU competition law but the Government has decided to press ahead.

Another element of the plan  will be a ban of drinks advertising on television during the day and early evening and it is expected that a watershed time limit of 9 pm will be introduced.

There will also be a ban on drinks advertising in cinemas during films that are screened for people aged under 18.

New regulations for the display of alcohol in supermarkets and other retail outlets will also be introduced. A strict code for separating alcohol from other products will be policed by environmental inspectors.

A new labeling regime for alcohol products with health warnings and a clear statement of the alcohol strength andcalorie count  also features in the plan.

How you can inherit dangerously high cholesterol

AND NOT KNOW ABOUT IT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE

     

Getting ready for a night out with friends, Kate Kear (above pictured with her son & daughter) was carefully applying her make-up when she spotted a strange yellowish white mark under her right eye. 

• High levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol can build up in artery walls
• This triggers inflammation and the formation of plaque, restricting blood flow
• If a blood clot forms, this can cause a heart attack or stroke
• Risks factors are smoking and an unhealthy diet, but it can be a genetic fault
• For these people, cholesterol levels rise sharply as they age
• But only 15% of those with the defect have been diagnosed

‘It was like a small squashy spot, around 2-3 mm across. I’d never noticed it before,’ says Kate, 34. Rushing to get ready, she covered it up with concealer. But the lump then began to grow. 

‘It was just getting bigger all the time. After two weeks, it was about half a centimetre across.’

Kate went to her GP, who sent her for a series of blood tests. These revealed she had alarmingly high cholesterol: 9.8 millimoles per litre of blood, almost double the normal level of five millimoles per litre.

‘I’d barely heard of cholesterol before,’ says the mother-of-four from Castleford in Yorkshire, ‘but when the GP explained that it can clog the arteries and lead to heart disease, I started to worry. There is a lot of heart disease in my family – in fact, we used to say we’ve all got bad hearts.’

Kate’s mother, Alison, had been diagnosed with high cholesterol in her early 30s, and needed bypass surgery to replace blocked arteries at 54. She died aged 60 in April 2005 after a blood vessel in her brain burst.

And her father, Kate’s grandfather, died of a heart attack aged 44.

Kate’s GP explained that the strange lump beneath her eye was a deposit  of cholesterol, and can often be a warning sign of high cholesterol. These lumps appear around the eyes for reasons doctors don’t fully understand. Lumps can also grow on tendons in the body and form on the knuckles, elbows and the back of ankles, on the Achilles tendon. In some people, they can also appear for no reason.

Kate’s high cholesterol was caused by a genetic fault, passed down through her family. Cholesterol is a waxy substance produced naturally in the liver, though it can also be found in some foods, and is vital for cells to function.

Doctors distinguish between two types of cholesterol: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or ‘bad’ cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or ‘good’ cholesterol.

High levels of bad cholesterol can build up in the walls of the arteries, triggering inflammation and the formation of plaque. This narrows the blood vessel, restricting blood flow to the heart, brain and body, which can cause symptoms such as chest pain – it can also cause leg pain if the arteries supplying the limbs become blocked. If plaque breaks off, it can create a clot and cause a heart attack or stroke.

The good and the bad: LDL, or ‘bad’ cholesterol (as opposed to HDL, or ‘good’ cholesterol) can build up in artery walls, triggering inflammation and the formation of plaque

The usual risk factors for high cholesterol are an unhealthy diet , smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure, but doctors recognise that some people, like Kate, are unlucky enough to be born with a genetic fault that places them at risk of high cholesterol from a very young age.

These people have slightly elevated levels of cholesterol even from birth. As they age, their levels rise sharply, irrespective of diet , smoking and lifestyle. The condition, known as familial hypercholesterolemia, affects as many as 120,000 Britons, but is often undiagnosed, and experts warn that many of those affected are walking around at high risk of a sudden heart attack or stroke without any inkling of the dangers (the condition doubles the risk of a sudden heart attack from the age of 20).

‘Having this genetic defect makes an enormous difference,’ says Mark Signy, consultant cardiologist at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

‘This faulty gene means that people have high cholesterol from a young age and are exposed to the harmful effects of high cholesterol for much longer. This brings forward the onset of heart disease by several decades, and people can have heart attacks in their 20s and 30s.’

And yet, worryingly, only 15 per cent of those with the condition have been diagnosed, explains Alan Rees, consultant physician at University Hospital Wales in Cardiff and a trustee of the charity Heart UK. ‘That means that 85 per cent of those with the condition are oblivious to the fact that they have it, and are not receiving appropriate treatment, which means a healthy lifestyle, taking exercise, not smoking, and taking cholesterol-lowering statins.’

Many people are only diagnosed when they have already developed heart disease, says Mark Signy. ‘Although some people have lumps around the eyes or tendons, many are only diagnosed when they develop heart disease or have a relative who died young from heart disease.

‘I would like to see routine screening for cholesterol perhaps as early as when people are in their 20s and 30s, and even earlier in those with a family history of familial hypercholesterolemia or very early heart disease.’

  ‘This faulty gene means that people have high cholesterol from a young age and are exposed to the harmful effects of high cholesterol for much longer. This brings forward the onset of heart disease by several decades.’

Identifying and treating the 100,000 Britons undiagnosed with the condition could prevent more than 2,500 heart attacks every year, says Heart UK. When Kate was diagnosed in 2004 she was immediately put on statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs, and was recommended to eat a healthy diet and take more exercise.

Two more lumps appeared beside her eyes, and the first lump was by now 1 cm across. They were unsightly, but the GP warned that removing them could leave scarring. Kate’s doctor didn’t explain the seriousness of the condition, or offer to test her children for high cholesterol, so she put it out of her mind.

But three years ago, Kate’s sister, Laura, sent her a story that highlighted the severity of familial hypercholesterolemia, and explained how cholesterol can start to build up in youngsters.

‘I was terrified for my children,’ recalls Kate. ‘I started reading stories of people who’d died young because they had never been diagnosed. It was horrible to think my children could already have high cholesterol, and risk heart attacks in their 20s or 30s.’

Horrified, she changed GPs – her new doctor immediately doubled her dose of statins (from 20mg to 40mg) to get her cholesterol as low as safely possible, and tested her children. These tests, which were performed two years ago, showed that her son Jack, now 15, has normal cholesterol of around 5.5 – but Lewis, 13, and Isabel, nine, had abnormally high levels, with readings above nine.

Isabel takes a daily 10mg dose of statins, and Lewis takes 20mg – a full adult dose (Dr Rees explains studies have shown statins are safe from the age of nine or ten). They now have normal cholesterol levels – three-year-old Caleb will be tested before he turns ten.

Kate and her children were lucky to be diagnosed early, says Dr Rees: ‘Not everyone with high cholesterol has symptoms such as fatty deposits around the eyes. But anyone with these signs, or a family history of heart disease, should have their cholesterol tested by their GP and if necessary be offered family screening.’

Life-changer: Kate is campaigning for genetic screening to be made more easily available on the NHS

Kate is campaigning for genetic screening to be made more easily available on the NHS.

‘Having that diagnosis changed our lives. Knowing that a genetic defect runs in the family means we have to be extra careful – we now have a gym in our basement, including a running machine, and the children do a lot of sports.

‘We eat a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and pulses, which is fantastic for reducing cholesterol, and have homemade soups, too.’

But Kate still worries. ‘Watching what the children eat when they’re at a friend’s house is not easy, though their school is great and offers salads and baked potatoes.

‘And when they’re older and thinking of a family, their partner will need testing too so their children don’t risk inheriting two copies of a faulty gene, which can make people very ill and shorten their lives.’

Meanwhile, she still has the distinctive lumps under her eyes. Kate, who two years ago married Jonathan, 28, who runs his own property maintenance business, considered having laser treatment to remove them, but decided against it. ‘That little yellowish white lump could have saved my life, and saved my children from a high risk of an early heart attack or stroke. It’s terrifying to know there are often no signs – this really is a silent killer.

‘Now if I see people in the street with those same lumps I want to warn them to get their cholesterol checked. It’s a life saver.’

Jellyfish kill up to 20,000 Clare Island salmon

  

Jellyfish have more than sting in their tails for Clare Island salmon

Weeks after a Clare Island man ended  up in hospital due to jellyfish stings, it has emerged that up to 20,000 farmed salmon, situated in cages off the north-east coast of Clew bay outpost were lost because of the same marine species.
Marine Harvest, the aquaculture company that runs Clare Island Sea Farms Ltd, has confirmed the massive losses occurred in recent days and were due to warmer sea temperatures, which have led to similar incidents in fish-farms across Europe.
There have already been reports of strandings of jellyfish ‘blooms’ (groups) along the coast with thousands of Pelagia Noctiluca or Mauve Stinger occurring off Ballyferriter, Dingle, in late August and off Donegal early in September.   This species inflicted losses of over €1 million at a fish farm in Glenarm Bay, County Antrim, back in 2007 when a reported 120,000 fish died.
Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday, Dr Peter Gill, a retired Professor of Education in the University of Gavle in Sweden and a longtime resident of Clare Island, revealed that he ended up in a Swedish hospital after a recent encounter with jellyfish while swimming at The Cove on Clare Island.
“It’s funny  now but it was a shock to dive into The Cove about three weeks ago, thinking that the ‘brown stuff’ I thought I could see in the ripples was seaweed that had been blown in by the easterly wind.  Little did I know, that  from the top of my head  to my big toes,  I was inundated with jellyfish stings.  I was stung and scratching when I got out of the water and got into a warm bath when I got home.  It itched here and there but I thought no more of it,” Peter Gill said.
“A week later, I was in Sweden, and had to go to A&E.  I was beginning to scar and swell. Purple lines kept popping up along my arms, eyelids, earlobe, backside, legs and feet..  An intensive course  of antihistamines and I was okay after 24 hours,” he continued.
Adding: “Now I know how the poor salmon feel.  I am still scratching scabs a month later.”

Saturn from above is a pretty awesome sight

  

This view of the planet Saturn from above, including its surrounding rings, is pretty unique.

In fact, it’s one that could not possibly have been taken from Earth.

The picture, a composite ‘image mosaic’, is made up of shots earlier this month by the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn, and shows the right side of the planet and the corresponding shadow cast across Saturn’s rings.

It was made by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic, and shows a side of the planet never before seen, as no Earth-based camera could possibly view the right side of Saturn.

“Since Earth is much closer to the Sun than Saturn, only the day side of the ringed planet is visible from the Earth,” according to NASA.

“The beautiful rings of Saturn are seen in full expanse, while cloud details are visible including the polar hexagon surrounding the north pole, and an extended light-colored storm system.”

It’s not the first time the Cassini spacecraft has offered us incredible images from its Saturn mission. The below shots taken in July capture not only the rings of Saturn but also the Earth, some 898 million miles (1.44bn kilometres) in the distance.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency