Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Enda Kenny to stay ‘until North crisis is sorted out?

  

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has risked deepening the increasingly bitter Fine Gael war over when he will step down by saying he has no intention of leaving until the Northern Ireland political crisis is resolved.

Speaking after the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, Mr Kenny said the Northern Ireland issue “takes precedence over everything else”, effectively delaying his departure until at least the summer.

In the aftermath of a tentative coup against Mr Kenny last month, the Taoiseach told the parliamentary party he would address the leadership issue conclusively on his return from his week-long US visit.

However, while the position was widely seen to indicate he would step down later this month or in early April, no definitive timeline was given.

In recent weeks, Mr Kenny has caused concern among Fine Gael dissenters that he will not leave due to his repeated references to the need for stability during the Brexit negotiations next month and last Thursday’s meeting with US president Donald Trump.

However, while those close to Mr Kenny have sought to downplay such fears, the Taoiseach poured further fuel on the flames yesterday by saying the Northern Ireland political crisis is now another reason for why he should not step down.

Asked about when he will resign after walking past cheering crowds at the New York City St Patrick’s Day parade, Mr Kenny said he continues to have “a number of priorities” that must be resolved.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Taoiseach Enda Kenny march in the St Patrick’s Day parade on 5th Avenue.

He said the political impasse in the North caused by last month’s Stormont elections, and the fact Sinn Féin and DUP now have just three weeks to form a government or be forced into another election in May, was a new addition to these “priorities”, and stoked backbench anger by saying Ireland must provide “stable” leadership.

“What I’ve always said is I need to deal with a number of priorities here, the first priority is to put in place an executive in Northern Ireland,” said Mr Kenny.

“We have no government, no devolved authority, in Northern Ireland now. I hope the parties who are elected will accept the responsibility of putting together a government within the three-week period.

“What I did say to my party is that I would deal with this effectively and conclusively on my return, that’s my intention. But I think these are priorities that take precedence over everything else.”

Asked directly when he is “going to deal with it [the leadership question]”, Mr Kenny said: “I’m not going to answer that for you. Do you not think it’s appropriate that the immediate priority is to have an executive functioning in Northern Ireland, do you not think it’s appropriate that all the work we put together we should have an agreed negotiating stance for the EU that’s going to affect everybody in our country?

“I intend to follow through on those [priorities] very, very diligently.”

A number of Fine Gael backbenchers known to want Mr Kenny to step down as soon as possible last night declined to comment publicly, but said it has already been made clear to the Taoiseach he cannot continue to ignore the leadership issue.

Mr Kenny’s New York comments came 48 hours after a draft version of his speech to the American- Ireland Fund Gala in Washington DC said this would be his last St Patrick’s Day as Taoiseach before it was deleted from the script.

Asked about the change to the otherwise untouched 1,500-word speech on Wednesday, Mr Kenny simply said it was removed “because it shouldn’t have been in there”.

The McEvaddy brothers get Dubai backing for €2bn airport terminal

   

THE MARKER HOTEL IN DUBLIN’S GRAND CANAL SQUARE WILL HAVE 30 BEDROOMS ON THE NEW FLOOR, AND THE MAIN RESTAURANT WILL BE MOVED TO THE ROOFTOP.

Businessmen Ulick (above pic) and Des McEvaddy have secured the financial backing of a Dubai-based investment group to build a proposed €2 billion terminal scheme at Dublin Airport, according to the media.

Omega Air boss Ulick McEvaddy and his brother Des have been attempting for more than 20 years to develop a third independent terminal on 130 acres of land they own adjacent to the airport. They now have the support of Dubai-based Tricap Investments, an investment fund with a diversified portfolio that spans real estate, energy and aerospace in the Middle East, the US, Asia and Africa.

  Brehon to add new floor to Marker hotel in €10m upgrade

Brehon Capital Partners, the owners of the Marker hotel, in Dublin’s Grand Canal Square, is planning a €10 million investment that will add a new floor and upgraded roof bar to the property.

The expansion will include about 30 bedrooms on the new floor, bringing the hotel up to 217 rooms, while it also involves moving the main restaurant to the rooftop. The roof would be about two-thirds enclosed, with a small, open terrace, allowing it to be used all year round.

JP Morgan may double its Irish workforce.

US investment bank JP Morgan may add up to 500 people to its operations in Ireland, which would more than double its workforce here, the Sunday Business Post suggests. The bank is among those to have instructed property agents to find additional office space in Dublin, it reports.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said on St Patrick’s Day that more than 120 overseas banks, insurers and other financial companies are currently in talks to move operations to Ireland as a result of the UK’s decision to quit the European Union.

Mr Noonan made the comments on Friday at an event in Singapore.

Aryzta sets four-year target to cut debts by €1bn.

Aryzta chairman Gary McGann has told analysts that he plans to cut debt levels at the troubled frozen baked goods company by €1 billion within four years, according to the Sunday Times.

Mr McGann, in his first public outing as chairman of Aryzta, said the company would undertake an overhaul of the board and a review of its business model. He also said he had received “very, very clear feedback” from shareholders that they did not see “the strategic fit” between Aryzta and Picard, its French frozen-food retailing associate.

Unilever may sell off its margarine division for €6bn.

Consumer goods giant Unilever is eyeing the £6 billion sale of its margarine division, which produces Flora and Stork, says the Sunday Telegraph. The FTSE 100-listed manufacturer has been forced into a strategic review of its operations after an audacious £115 billion takeover approach from Kraft Heinz, it reports.

The newspaper understands that rather than opt for a defensive bid for a rival such as Colgate-Palmolive, or a spin-off of its entire food arm, Unilever is leaning towards a sale of the margarine business, which controls just under a third of the entire global margarine market.

Eight men rescued off the Sligo coast after dive boat capsizes

Two men taken to hospital following the incident east of Sligo town

  

RESCUE 118 WAS CALLED OFF FROM ITS SEARCH AT BLACKSOD BAY, CO MAYO TO ASSIST WITH THE OPERATION.

Eight men have been rescued from the sea off the coast of Co Sligo after a dive boat capsized.

Two of the men were taken to hospital following the incident which occured off Aughris Pier, east of Sligo town.

A mayday call was received by Malin Head Coast Guard at 11.24am on Sunday. Fortunately, the Sligo Bay RNLI lifeboat crew were on a training exercise in the area and arrived at the scene of the incident at 11.43am.

The lifeboat crew rescued all eight people from the water and one man was airlifted to hospital by the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Rescue 118. He suffered a head injury when the boat capsized in heavy seas.

The remaining seven men were taken to Aughris Pier where one person was taken by ambulance to hospital. Following the rescue, the lifeboat crew returned to the scene to tow the vessel back to the pier.

Rescue 118 was called off from the search at Blacksod Bay, Co Mayo for the missing crew members of Rescue 116, the Sikorsky helicopter which crashed into the sea on Tuesday morning.

Sligo Bay RNLI lifeboat operations manager Willie Murphy said the incident happened at the end of a difficult week for the rescue services following the loss of Rescue 116.

He said: “This morning’s callout shows that the professionalism and dedication of the search and rescue community remains unchanged.

“The RNLI crew at Sligo Bay along with their colleagues at Rescue 118 were on scene minutes after the call for help was raised and rescued eight people from the water. Our thoughts are with the man who was airlifted to hospital and with our colleagues still searching in Blacksod Bay for the three missing crew members of Rescue 116.

Cancer the dreaded disease of women

    

Cancer is a dreaded disease, and rightly so because hitherto treatment was vague and patients were generally doomed to die of it. Advances in surgical technique and adjuvant treatment have now made cancer a treatable and possibly curable disease in early stages.

Women suffer nearly half the burden of cancer even though they are not pre-disposed to the conventional causative factors like tobacco and alcohol. The causal factors in women are generally age, lifestyle, hereditary, infections and environmental factors.

Social factors, especially inequalities, are major determinants of cancer burden in females, with poorer females more likely to die of their disease than affluent ones. Cancer can have profound social and economic consequences for the people of India, often leading to family impoverishment and societal inequality.

Common cancers and their screening?

Females generally postpone their first contact with a health facility, leading to a delayed diagnosis in an advanced stage. Unfortunately, the four most common cancers afflicting females can be screened and diagnosed at an early stage.

1. Firstly, Breast cancer, can be screened by monthly self-breast examination, annual clinical examination and mammograms after the age of 50 years.
2. Second, cervical cancer, a sexually active female should undergo a pap smear every three years from the age of 21 years and co-testing with HPV after the age of 30 years.
3. Third, ovarian cancer, can be diagnosed by having a high clinical index of suspicion in a female presenting with vague abdominal symptoms, early satiety and a timely investigation by tumour markers and an ultrasound examination.
4. Fourth, uterine cancer, presents as inter-menstrual or postmenopausal bleeding usually in an obese elderly female. The sad common denominator in all these cancers is that they can all be diagnosed early with minimal effort and cured by surgery.

How is cancer treated?

Once a patient is suspected of having symptoms of cancer, a general evaluation followed by a staging workup including a tissue biopsy is done. Once the diagnosis has been confirmed, treatment options are discussed and if possible an appropriate radical surgery is planned. Radical surgery for cancer is the only curative treatment modality for solid organ cancers. Radical cancer surgeries require a centre where trained surgical oncologist interact with their medical and radiation oncology colleagues and have adequate post -operative ICU care  to obtain best results.

The first attempt at treatment is generally the best chance of cure as recurrence is resistant to most forms of treatment. After surgery the patients are followed up by designated protocol and undergo adjuvant therapy (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy) as needed.

The role of women in cancer is prevention?

Women have a central role in the fight against cancer, not only can they encourage their family members to change to a healthy lifestyle (abstinence from smoking/alcohol, healthier food habits, exercise) leading to cancer prevention, they can also be an observant family member who encourages an early medical consultation for a possible cancer symptom leading to early detection and cure. We must therefore, empower women with knowledge and use them as our sentinels in the war on cancer.

Scientists say the ‘five second’ rule is correct when dropping food on the floor

    

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU DROP SOME FOOD ON THE FLOOR? DOES IT GO STRAIGHT IN THE BIN OR DO YOU ADHERE TO THE WIDELY-USED ‘FIVE SECOND’ RULE AND EAT IT?

A study, undertaken by scientists at The Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, shows that four out of five people or 79 per cent of us admit to popping fallen food in our mouths.

Of course most people think their own floors are cleaner and thus it’s more acceptable to eat food off – 56 per cent of them in fact – but that figure drops considerably to just 17 per cent if eating off another’s floor.

The research also shows people are just as likely to serve food that’s fallen on the floor to their dog (18 per cent) as they are their partner (17 per cent).

The most radical examples of ‘hoovers’ include people eating snacks off the floor of the cinema (2 per cent) or public transport (1 per cent).

But when asked to justify why they would do thus, a fifth of people admitted to following ‘five-second rule’, which scientists have now revealed as legitimate and safe in most cases.

Germ expert, Professor Anthony Hilton from Aston University, told the Birmingham Mail: “Eating food that has spent a few moments on the floor can never be entirely risk free.

“Obviously, food covered in visible dirt shouldn’t be eaten, but as long as it’s not obviously contaminated, the science shows that food is unlikely to have picked up harmful bacteria from a few seconds spent on an indoor floor.

“That is not to say that germs can’t transfer from the floor to the food.

“Our research has shown that the nature of the floor surface, the type of food dropped on the floor and the length of time it spends on the floor can all have an impact on the number that can transfer.”

Supermarket soups can be laced with up to seven spoons of sugar

    

SOME “HEALTHY” COMMERCIAL SOUPS CONTAIN A STAGGERING SEVEN TEASPOONS OF SUGAR, A TOP CHEF HAS REVEALED.

Hilary O’Hagan-Brennan said one spiced chicken soup was made with 28 grams of sugar per tub. The World Health Organisation recommends people take no more than 24 grams a day.

Ms O’Hagan-Brennan said on the RTE’s What Are You Eating? programme that even a root vegetable soup, which people might assume was healthy, contained 16 grams of sugar, or four teaspoons.

She says “There is no place for added sugar in soup”?

And sugar wasn’t the only hidden ingredient in our convenience foods, presenter Philip Boucher-Hayes discovered when he investigated.

He found that one third of us believe wraps are more healthy than traditional sandwiches.

But a large wrap can be equal to two slices of bread. And commercial tortillas are made with glycerol – a form of sugar – to keep them moist, and emulsifier to bind the ingredients together and extend their shelf life.

“Some chicken wraps have as many calories as a 12-inch pizza,” he discovers.

Consultant dietitian Aveen Bannon reveals that while salads are good for you, the benefits are often undone by large amounts of dressing. An average tablespoon of mayonnaise contains 94 calories – and people often use two or three spoons with a salad.

What would happen if the Earth’s rotation change direction or stop

    

The Earth, is the only planet in our solar system, that as long as we know it has life, and moves with a certain pattern, which we assume. Our planet rotates around its axis, a drive that takes about 24 hours, which seems to be from east to west at a speed of about 30 km per second.

We might think that these rules are insignificant and do not affect our existence. Only if our planet “rebels” and change course or reduce speed, then nothing will be the same.

According to the BBC, if the Earth began to move east, the climate in most regions would change drastically. The Sahara would be more rainy and desert will be turned into a jungle. Another case is that of anhydrous California which will also have more rain, as opposed to Florida we would see the swamps to dry up.

If again our planet began to move very slowly, then life on the planet would not survive as well, cause the side that would strike the sun would burn, and the “dark” side would freeze. In just one day we would have a transition from the Ice Age … the planet Venus. It’s a fact that the Earth actually reduces its speed, but it will spend trillions of years until it stops completely.

BUT HERE IS A SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION ANSWERS.?

1. The Earth would become an even more imperfect sphere and this would reduce the acceleration due to gravity; it would decrease at the equator and increase at the poles. Also, the days would shorten.
   2. Since the effect of gravity has decreased near the equator, we would observe tides much higher than usual in these areas, much more land would go underwater during high tides. I assume Venice would cease to remain habitable.
   3. The precession of the Earth’s axis would change. As the Earth becomes an even more Oblate Spheroid, the gravitational differences (of the Sun on Earth) would be larger on different parts of the Earth, this would make the axis precess even faster. The current cycle is 26,000 years long for one complete precession, this would shorten depending on the increase in rotational velocity. Axial precession
   4. North Star would change faster. Currently the North Star is Polaris which is set to be replaced by Deneb in 8,000 years. Due to the above reasons, it would occur faster.
   5. It is also possible that the axial tilt of the Earth would increase. This would mean that winters would be colder and summers would be hotter.
   6. Since the Earth now rotates faster and the Coriolis effect depends on the rotation of the Earth, the impact of Coriolis effect would increase and we would experience faster wind speeds. Coriolis force
   7. This would be a boon for geostationary satellites as the operational altitude would reduce due to Earth’s increased rotational velocity. Geostationary orbit
   8. Since the Sidereal day (Sidereal time) would now be shorter, we would have to redefine our present units of time.
   9. Since we would have to redefine our units of time and also the orbit of our satellites, it would be a disaster for the GPS system, I can safely say that it would be unusable for at least a few years until all the corrections have been made.
   10. Since the Coriolis Effect would alter the wind speeds, and the rotational velocity of Earth has increased, the travel time of aeroplanes would change.    

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Why Irish voters should choose in order of preference all the way down the ballot paper

PATRICK SMYTH ON HOW OUR UNPREDICTABLE STV SYSTEM WORKS AND WHY ALL PREFERENCES SHOULD BE USED

    

WE HAVE THE PRSTV SYSTEM IN IRELAND. A COMPLEX SYSTEM WHERE THE VOTER HAS MORE INFLUENCE OVER CANDIDATES THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN EUROPE. BUT HOW EXACTLY DOES IT WORK?

We were discussing a particularly obnoxious candidate. Call him “Murphy”.

My wife assured us that her’s was the best approach – she would use her usual method , casting Murphy as her last preference, No. 15 on a 15-candidate ballot paper, and working her way up from the bottom.

Our friend demurred. He would not dream of putting any preference beside Murphy’s name, however lowly, for fear that his vote would somehow creep, transfer by transfer, eventually into the latter’s pile and assist his election.

Though our friend was difficult to persuade, the trust is that my wife is right: anything higher than a 15, and particularly a failure to use all his preferences, could theoretically help Murphy, however slightly.

I will return to why that should be. But the message is crucial: under our almost unique voting system, the Single Transferable Vote (STV) – Malta, the Australian Senate, and the Northern Ireland Assembly share it – it pays to vote all the way down the list to maximise the effectiveness of one’s ballot forand against individual candidates.

It’s as simple as 1,2,3

STV has the key virtue of being simple to use as a voter, as simple as 1,2,3, although counting is another matter. And reading the entrails of the results involves yet other levels of complexity and sublety for political operators and psephologists. When results are dug-down-into, they show patterns of party and regional differences, of local disputes, of generational change, of ideological sympathies and alliances.

As a voting system, STV inspires peculiar devotion – twice the politicians tried unsuccessfully to abolish it – and not least because of the extended horse-race character of the counts whose compulsive theatricality more than any technical objections did for automated voting.

Its feature of allowing voters themselves to rank candidates within the same party places a particular emphasis on the individual and encourages intra-party rivalry, parochial ‘favour’ politics, and perhaps even the proliferation of independents and small parties that we are seeing today.

To read the entrails it is necessary first to understand the ‘quota’, the number of votes in any constituency necessary for one person to be elected or, to put it another way, the number of votes which, multiplied by the seats to be filled, would allow only that number of seats to be filled.

In a three-seater where 100 people vote, four people can achieve 25 votes each – (25 x 4 = 100) – whereas only three can achieve 26 votes each – (26+ 26+26+22 = 100).

This produces a formula for the quota that applies to any number of seats: Quota = (100/3+1 ) +1 =26 Or = Total Valid Vote/ (Seats+1) +1

Quotas for three-seat, four-seat and five-seat constituencies work out in percentage terms at 26, 21, and 17 per cent respectively.

To analyse results at national level, or in a constituency after the first count, a rough rule of thumb that will provide a prediction of the eventual outcome is to tally the number of quotas or parts of quotas that each party achieves and to add to them an assessment of how much they can expect to pick up in transfers from parties or individuals who will be eliminated.

But transfer rates are incredibly difficult to predict – particulary so in this election – and at national level resulting predictions from percentage shares of vote have become increasingly impossible. In not a single constituency is the last seat, in many cases even the last two seats, predictable.

Far from proportional?

Known to one and all as “proportional representation”, in truth the STV is far from that. As David Farrell and Richard Katz point out in a recent academic article, modern STV elections are only “reasonably proportional” in allocating seats in terms of parties’ share of the poll at local and national level . “In a technical sense it is a misnomer to identify STV as a proportional system at all.”

Parties can work to improve the efficiency of their vote by maximising the rate at which their candidates and allies transfer between them. A formal coalition deal may help – Labour, for example, delivered 71 per cent of its transferred votes to Fine Gael in 1973, as opposed to only 32 per cent in 1969.

And parties can also help that process by spreading their first preference votes between their candidates to minimise the extent to which they are transferred as reduced surpluses rather than as eliminations. In a system which encourages internal party competition this is by no means easy. (Surpluses arise when a candidate goes over a quota – his/her spare votes are redistributed at a reduced level, while the transfers from eliminated candidates are whole votes).

Fine Gael won a 10 per cent seat bonus at the last general election – in other words ten per cent more seats than their vote warranted in percentage terms. This time round, if anything, the result is likely to stray even further from the strictly proportional.

Constituency seats

For one thing, there are more three-seaters and four-seaters – the larger the number of seats in a constituency the more proportional the result is likely to be.

For another, the poll findings of huge support for independents and the smaller parties – more than 40 per cent in Dublin in the latest Irish TimesIpsosMRBI poll – would seem to reflect a somewhat disengaged voter attitude to candidates, particularly to those from the main parties. That suggests a likely higher than normal reluctance to vote down through the ballot paper once initial preferences are recorded.

Individually, it is true, failing to vote right down through the list has only a marginal effect. But if this sin of omission is repeated on a widespread basis by fellow voters it can actually assist a candidate who you would prefer to see defeated by lowering the effective quota, and making it easier for him/her to reach it. As an election proceeds and the number of non-transferable votes accumulates, the number required to be elected – the effective quota – falls.

In an election in which there is a strong non-transferable trend, this marginal trend can become very pronounced and results become very unpredictable.

As my wife would insist – “vote all the way through the list”.

EC ranks Ireland 8th in 28 countries for digital skills and fixed broadband costs

EUROPEAN COMMISSION STUDY PLACES IRELAND IN 8TH OUT OF 28 STATES FOR DIGITAL ECONOMY

  

IRELAND IS RANKED IN 22ND PLACE OUT OF 28 COUNTRIES FOR DIGITAL SKILLS

Ireland lags far behind most other EU member states when it comes to digital skills, according to a new European Commission survey which calls for measures to address the issue.

The latest Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which was published on Thursday, ranks Ireland 8th out of 28 Member States. This places the country in the ‘lagging ahead’ category, meaning it performs slightly above theEuropean Union average, but has improved at a slower rate than the EU as a whole.

Countries in the lead ‘running ahead’ category are Austria, Estonia, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands and Portugal.

The study, which measures the progress of EU member states towards a digital economy and society, looks at more than 30 indicators across five broad areas: connectivity; human capital/digital skills; use of internet; integration of digital technology; and digital public services.

According to the latest index, Ireland performs particularly badly when it comes to digital skills. Just 44% of the population is deemed to have sufficient skills to operate effectively on-line, compared to 55% of the EU average. The report also says more progress is needed to boost the number of skilled ICT professionals in the economy as well as the integration of some digital technologies by enterprises.

Google to train two million Europeans in digital skills

Broadband access?

The study finds some improvement with next-generation access and take-up of fast broadband having jumped and use of internet services such as online banking and social networking sites also rising.

In terms of connectivity, Ireland’s performance has risen from 16th place to 13th since last year. The index notes that while 96% of households are now covered by fixed broadband, this is still somewhat below the EU average. Moreover, fixed broadband costs are still almost double the EU average, unchanged since last year.

Next-generation access has grown from 71% of households in 2014 to 80% last year the survey finds, while subscriptions to fast broadband services increasing from 45% to 51%.

Ireland has fallen two places in the ‘human capital’ category and now ranks 10th among EU countries, due largely to the country’s poor performance in digital skills, where it is ranked in 22nd place out of 28 countries.

The survey also notes that Ireland is lacking skilled ICT professionals despite the fact that the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates is above the EU average and that the proportion of IT specialists in total employment is relatively high.

In terms of internet usage, Ireland is ranked 14th, up one place compared to last year with use of news, social networking and banking services having risen since 2015. According to the index, the most popular online activities among Irish internet users is video-on-demand (VoD).

Ireland comes in top spot for integration of digital technology in the EU, up from 3rd place in 2015. However, the report says businesses could better exploit the opportunities offered by electronic information sharing and RFID.

Lastly, the country ranks 9th for digital public services, down one place on last year. While eGovernment use is significantly above the EU average, provision of pre-filled forms is relatively low. Ireland comes in 9th spot for online service completion and in 10th for open data, which is above the EU average but a decline versus 2015.

Ireland’s weekly earnings up by 1.4% to over €700 in fourth quarter

NEW FIGURES SHOW PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT RISING 1.6% OVER THE LAST YEAR TO 380,000

  

Average hourly earnings declined by 0.5% from €22.04 to €21.94 in the year to the fourth quarter but were up from €21.46 in the preceding three months

Average weekly earnings rose by 1.4% in the final three months of 2015, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

Earnings increased from €702.61 to €712.75 over the year having fallen to €691.81 in the third quarter.

Increases in wages were recorded in 9 of the 13 sectors surveyed by CSO. The largest increases were in the administrative and support services category, up 9.9% to €549.76 from €500.42. The biggest decline in weekly earnings was in the financial, insurance and real estate category, down 4.3% from €1,076.12 to €1,029.58.

Over the last five years, average weekly earnings across individual sectors showed changes ranging between a 7% decline in arts, entertainment, recreation and other services activities to a 14.9% in admin and support services.

Hourly earnings

Average hourly earnings declined by 0.5% from €22.04 to €21.94 in the year to the fourth quarter but were up from €21.46 in the preceding three months. The largest increase was recorded in admin and support services, up 3.5% to €17.20 per hour. The largest decrease in hourly earnings was in the financial, insurance and real estate category, down 7.5% to €28.83 from €31.17.

Enterprises with less than 50 employees showed an annual decrease of 0.4% in average hourly earnings in the fourth quarter, from €18.30 to €18.23. Organisations with between 50 and 250 employees recorded an increase in average hourly earnings of 0.1%, from €19.86 to €19.87 over the same period. Results for enterprises with greater than 250 employees showed an decrease of 0.9%, from €25.38 to €25.14.

Over the year, private sector average hourly earnings fell 0.7% from €20.20 to €20.06, while public sector average earnings decreased by 0.1%, from €28.29 to €28.26.

The data show average weekly paid hours rose 1.9% cent over the year to 32.5 from 31.9 a year in the same quarter in 2014.

Average hourly total labour costs stood at €25.45 in the final three months of 2015, a fall of 0.4% or €25.55 for the fourth quarter a year earlier.

The job vacancy rate at the end of the year was 0.8%, an increase from 0.7% over the 12 months. The highest vacancy rate was recorded in the ICT sector, up of 2%. This was followed closely by the financial, insurance and real estate sector with a vacancy rate of 1.8%. The transportation and storage sector had the lowest vacancy rate at just 0.2%.

The rounded number of job vacancies at the end of the fourth quarter was 13,800, representing a rise of 2,900 versus the same three months a year earlier and a decrease of 2,600 on the vacancies reported at the end of the preceding quarter.

The estimated number of persons employed in the public sector rose by 1.6% over the year from 374,000 to 380,000. The largest increase in employees was recorded in the health sector, up 2.9% from 118,600 to 122,000. The largest decrease was recorded in defence, which was down 3.1%.

Over the last five years, overall employment numbers in the public sector declined by 24,100 or 6% from 404,100 to 380,000, the figures show.

Industrial disputes

Related figures show the number of days lost to industrial disputes fell by 25% last year.

Overall, there were 32,964 days lost to disputes during 2015, compared to 44,015 a year earlier.

Nine disputes involving 37,760 workers and nine firms were recorded in the 12 months, with three disputes in the education sector accounting for 73% of the days lost in 2015. A year earlier there were 11 disputes reported involving 31,665 employees.

During the final three months of the year there were two disputes in progress involving 72 workers.

‘No cuts’ to hours at Sligo Hospital emergency department

SAOLTA UNIVERSITY HEALTHCARE GROUP SAY’S?

   

Recommendations in a top-level report in relation to the Emergency Department (ED) at Sligo University Hospital did not include a possible reduction of opening hours, Saolta University Healthcare Group has stated.

A review of the emergency care units across the Saolta Group has now been completed.

The Group’s Executive Council, in collaboration with the local hospitals’ management and clinical teams and the HSE’s National Acute Hospitals senior management team, have considered the report’s recommendations, as has the Board of the Saolta Group.

Work is now under way by the Group’s Executive Council on developing plans for further consideration by the Saolta board. This will investigate both the implementation and impact of the recommendations.

A key recommendation of the Higgins report, which led to the establishment of the hospital group structure, was that the six hospital groups would conduct individual reviews of the various services delivered by each of the hospitals in its group.

The Saolta University Health Care Group has already undertaken reviews in respect of cardiology, urology and orthopaedic services.

Lobby group seeks ideas for an Irish satellite programme

    

EARTH CAPTURED BY THE SPINNING ENHANCED VISIBLE AND INFRARED IMAGER INSTRUMENT ON MSG-4.

A lobby group for the Irish space industry has put out a call for ideas for the development of a small satellite programme for Ireland.

The Irish Space Industry Group (ISIG) says it is pursuing the idea because similar initiatives in other countries have led to growth in industrial and scientific capabilities.

The call aims to determine the level of interest in developing such a programme, with the ideas then used to lobby stakeholders and inform the programme’s direction.

The group says it is does not have any funding in place yet for any potential mission, but if there is sufficient interest from funding agencies it will pursue the matter further.

ISIG says the scope of the ideas it is inviting is wide, and includes proposals for whole missions, space science, earth observation, spacecraft payloads and technology demonstration, ground segment and others.

“It can be for a service you would like to be provided from space [eg fisheries protection]; a service that you believe will have value to others from space, a technology demonstration mission or a scientific mission,” ISIG wrote on its blog.

The group says ideas that address national needs are likely to be most attractive to government and submissions should clearly set out whether the proposal could lead to further activity as policy in Ireland favours such projects.

ISIG says although smaller missions or payloads are easier to plan and pay for, there a no restrictions on the type or size of the missions that can be suggested.

The submissions should be made by 24 March, with details of the template and the submission address available at ISIG’s website.

Predicting human evolution our teeth tell the story

  

A NEW STUDY LED BY EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST ALISTAIR EVANS (above centre pic) OF MONASH UNIVERSITY IN AUSTRALIA, TOOK A FRESH LOOK AT THE TEETH OF HUMANS AND FOSSIL HOMININS.

The research confirms that molars, including ‘wisdom teeth’ do follow the sizes predicted by what is called ‘the inhibitory cascade’ – a rule that shows how the size of one tooth affects the size of the tooth next to it. This is important because it indicates that human evolution was a lot simpler than scientists had previously thought.

The international team included researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany: The analysis of digital data on fossil hominins generated by the Department of Human Evolution made this large-scale study on dental development possible.

Alistair Evans explains how our fascination with where we come from, and what our fossil ancestors were like, has fuelled our search for new fossils and how we can interpret them. “Teeth can tell us a lot about the lives of our ancestors, and how they evolved over the last 7 million years. What makes modern humans different from our fossil relatives? Palaeontologists have worked for decades to interpret these fossils, and looked for new ways to extract more information from teeth,” says Evans.

He then discusses how this new research has challenged the accepted view that there was a lot of variation in how teeth evolved in our closest relatives. “Our new study shows that the pattern is a lot simpler than we first thought – human evolution was much more limited,” says Evans.

He led an international team of anthropologists and developmental biologists from Finland, USA, UK and Germany, using a new extensive database on fossil hominins and modern humans collected over several decades, as well as high resolution 3D imaging to see inside the fossil teeth.

The team then took the research a step further by applying the findings to two main groups of hominins: the species in the genus Homo (like us and Neanderthals), and australopiths, including specimens like Lucy, the famous fossil hominin from Africa. Evans explains that while it was discovered that both groups follow the inhibitory cascade, they do so slightly differently. “There seems to be a key difference between the two groups of hominins – perhaps one of the things that define our genus, Homo,” says Evans.

“What’s really exciting is that we can then use this inhibitory cascade rule to help us predict the size of missing fossil teeth. Sometimes we find only a few teeth in a fossil. With our new insight, we can reliably estimate how big the missing teeth were. The early hominin Ardipithecus is a good example – the second milk molar has never been found, but we can now predict how big it was,” says Evans, who is also a research associate at Museum Victoria.

The findings of the study will be very useful in interpreting new hominin fossil finds, and looking at what the real drivers of human evolution were. As well as shedding new light on our evolutionary past, this simple rule provides clues about how we may evolve into the future.