Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Ireland ‘ignored EC advice’ to stop economy overheating

 

Marco Buti and Dónal Donovan speak at Banking Inquiry. Dónal Donovan, the former Deputy Director at the IMF, appears before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.

Ireland ignored advice from the European Commission to take measures to prevent the economy overheating prior to the banking collapse, according to the commission’s director general for economic and financial affairs.

Marco Buti said the commission issued a critical opinion on the 2001-2003 stability programme highlighting Ireland’s failing to contain its public expenditure.

He said the commission also recommended that the Government be asked to take countervailing measures on February 12th, 2001.

“As some of you may remember, the recommendation was not very well received in Ireland; it was not implemented,” Mr Buti told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.

“Also many in the economic profession derided the Commission accusing us of focussing more on decimals rather than acknowledging the strength of the Irish economy,” he added.

Ireland’s economy started to “overheat” in the early 2000s but Europe did not have the authority to enforce responsible budgetary policies at the time, Mr Buti said.

“At the time we had a very limited set of tools within the stability and growth pact,” he said. “We called on the Irish authorities to behave responsibly but we did not have the authority [to enforce this].”

He said he agreed with those who concluded that the domestic financial supervisor did not acknowledge and address the risks associated with the credit and housing boom.

Mr Buti said economic growth became increasingly reliant on construction in the 2000s. Interest rates had declined and access to credit increased with Ireland’s entry into the EMU, which helped trigger a boom in investment and commercial property.

“House price inflation surged in Ireland. It rose by more than four-fold between 1993 and 2007, amongst the highest of any advanced economies,” Mr Buti said. “The supply of housing also rose sharply, but eventually beyond the needs of the population. The idea that house prices would increase forever turned into a recurrent and dangerous motive,” he added.

He said expansionary budgets negatively affected the Irish economy. Revenues became overly reliant on the property market but a shrinking tax base due to tax cuts left the budget exposed to the downturn in the property market.

He said “we saw the risks related to the housing market and we signalled that in a number of documents”. He said the commission used the tools at its disposal at the time to “ring the bell” but he added that this set of tools was “incomplete”.

Later the committe heard that the International Monetary Fund’s surveillance programme failed in Ireland during the years 2000 to 2007.

Former deputy director of the IMF Dónal Donovan said although the organisation noted some vulnerabilities in Ireland during the time leading up to the banking collapse, its assessments “gave no inkling” that a financial disaster was in the making.

He said the IMF got it more badly wrong in Ireland than he had seen in any other country. “I cannot recall in my experience a situation where the rosy picture turned so negatively in such a short period of time.”

Mr Donovan told the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry assessment of Ireland’s and other countries’ economies during this time were “overly positive”.

He said the IMF did believe house prices were “somewhat overvalued” during the construction boom but added that IMF staff and Irish officials implicitly “agreed to differ” over this question.

Enterprise Ireland backed firms to create 1,500 new jobs

A new report states

 

State body supported 81 early stage businesses last year.

A total of 43 new female-led start-ups were supported by Enterprise Ireland last year, the highest number ever

As many as 1,500 new jobs are expected to be created over the next three years by start-up companies backed by Enterprise Ireland, according to a new report from the State agency.

Enterprise Ireland said it supported 102 so-called High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) companies last year. A high-potential start-up is defined as a company that is export oriented, focused on technological innovation and likely to achieve growth of at least €1million per annum over a three-year period, and led by an experienced team.

The majority of the firms to be backed by Enterprise Ireland were in areas such as software and services, cleantech, engineering, medical devices and pharmaceuticals.

The State body said it also backed 81 new early stage businesses under its Competitive Start Fund, which provides seed funding for start-ups.

A total of 43 new female-led start-ups were supported by Enterprise Ireland last year, the highest number ever. The number of female-led firms to receive funding more than doubled 16 in 2012 to 41 in 2013 on the back of a number of women-specific initiatives. Additional programmes launched last year included the development of a dedicated female accelerator programme and the launch of Enterprise Ireland’s first peer-to-peer online networking platform for female-led companies.

Sixteen of the firms to receive funding last year were spun out of third-level institutions, compared to ten in 2013.

Twelve new food and drinks start-ups received backing last year, the highest number ever.

In addition, 14 new start-ups established by entrepreneurs from overseas, involving a range of sectors and with founders who have moved to Ireland to establish their businesses from Singapore, India, Switzerland and Germany.

Elderly Donegal woman faces 250km journey for cancer treatment to Galway

  

An 89-year old cancer patient has been forced to find her own way to travel 250km to receive cancer treatment.

The elderly woman, from North Donegal, contacted a local charity which operates a volunteer bus service transporting cancer patients the four-hour journey to Galway or Dublin.

Donegal has no specialist cancer care services, leaving people diagnosed with cancer to travel significant distances for radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The woman, who do not want her name published, sought help from Eamonn McDevitt, and runs the cancer bus service entirely on donations.

“We have a saying in our charity that, if you’re diagnosed with cancer in Donegal, you’ve two options: you can travel, or you can die,” Mr McDevitt said.

“The lady contacted us to say she has to go to Galway for treatment.

“Believe it or not, the husband is still driving, and while he’s not able to drive to Galway, he said he would be able to drive (20 miles) to Letterkenny to meet up with the bus.

“They don’t have a family, it’s just themselves.”

Mr McDevitt criticised the Irish Cancer Society which, he said, had never provided funding for the charity bus service because, he said: “They don’t (fund) buses”.

“We’re very disappointed with the Irish Cancer Society,” said Mr McDevitt.

“They come to Donegal every year and they do what’s called a ‘Relay for Life’.

“It’s a fundraiser and they announced before Christmas that they picked up €820,000 here in Donegal alone.

“We’ve have talked to them in the hope they might give us something, and each time they have come straight out and tell us they ‘don’t do buses’.”

As part of a detailed statement the Irish Cancer Society said: “In 2015, we will fund a number of…local cancer groups with over €500,000 of direct financial support for their services.

“What these groups have in common is that they are affiliated to the Irish Cancer Society’s network of cancer groups and have signed up to a shared code of practice for good governance.

“This gives us confidence that we can stand over any funds we redistribute to support our vision of a future without cancer.”

“We invited (Mr McDevitt’s charity) to become part of this network and they have chosen not to engage.

“They are aware that this is the first step to take when seeking funds from the Society. It remains open to (them) to join the affiliated network of cancer support groups and seek funding through this mechanism.”

The Irish Cancer Society said it would “not compromise” on its policy of providing funds to affiliated local cancer services.

One third of DNA-tested pork ‘not sourced in Ireland’

Is very misleading 

  

The Irish Farmers’ Association has created a pig DNA database through which pork products can be traced back to the individual animal. 

Almost a third of pork meat products tested in an Irish Farmers’ Association survey were not of Irish origin, even though they were sold as Irish produce.

The IFA carries out DNA testing on pork as part of its “DNA-certified pig meat traceability programme”.

A total of 91 retail pork products were subjected to DNA tests in December and 26 of those checked (29%) were not assigned to the Irish boar database.

The IFA said the “misleading of consumers remains a serious issue”.

Its national pigs and pig meat committee chairman, Pat O’Flaherty, said the Republic of Ireland was the “first country in the world” to introduce a nationwide DNA traceability programme for pork.

‘Informed choice’

He said boar stud farms on both sides of the Irish border had signed up to the Republic’s DNA database.

“We can test any pig meat and tell if the daddy was Irish or not,” Mr O’Flaherty said.

The County Kildare-based pig farmer has worked in the industry for 15 years and believes consumers should be given an “informed choice” when buying food, as production standards vary greatly from country to country.

He said the IFA introduced its DNA-certified pig meat traceability programme about two years ago “to stop the blatant misleading of consumers”.

Mr O’Flaherty said food suppliers had a wider responsibility to be honest and transparent with consumers on how and where their food is produced

Its most recent set of tests were carried out at shops in Wexford, Galway, Cork and Cavan.

In every store surveyed, an IFA representative posed as a shopper and asked the salesperson to confirm if the pork products on display were Irish goods.

“Not one butcher admitted that the products were imported,” Mr O’Flaherty said.

“We are horrified that fresh pork is being imported into this country. This is a new development and one which the consumer would never expect”.

‘Labelling fraud’

The IFA has a vested interest in promoting Irish farmers’ goods above all others, but Mr O’Flaherty said there is a wider responsibility to be honest and transparent with consumers on how and where their food is produced.

He said there was nothing to stop imported food from being labelled as “produced in Ireland” even if it was only processed or packaged in the Republic, which he felt was misleading to customers who want to buy Irish goods.

He said most Irish consumers knew little or nothing about food production regulations in some of the countries they were unwittingly buying meat from.

Mr O’Flaherty also complained about the lack of prosecutions for food labelling fraud in the Republic of Ireland and said rules must be tightened to promote greater consumer confidence in the food chain.

The BBC asked the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) about the latest pig meat survey results but a spokeswoman said her organisation had no involvement in the IFA’s testing process and could not comment on the findings.

‘Horsemeat scandal’

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has called on the European Union to introduced mandatory ‘country of origin’ labelling for processed meats.

The party’s Dublin MEP, Lynn Boylan, was among a group that brought forward a resolution to the EU Parliament last week, calling on the European Commission to propose new food labelling legislation.

“We should not wait for another scandal on the scale of the horsemeat scandal before we act on this issue. Consistent studies have shown that the vast majority of consumers want this labelling,” Ms Boylan said.

Penguins are not able to taste fish,

Says a new study

  

Penguins may love devouring fish, but it turns out they might not be able to taste them.

While analyzing the genetic data of five penguins, each of a different species, researchers at the University of Michigan discovered that all the birds were missing three of the five basic taste genes. “Based on genetic data, penguins are believed to have sour and salty tastes, but have lost sweet, umami, and bitter tastes,” researcher Jianzhi Zhang told the BBC, adding that the birds likely lost these taste genes when they evolved millions of years ago.

Zhang said that penguins may be unique in this deficiency. He told the HuffPost that “no other bird is known to have lost three tastes. As far as we know, most birds have both umami and bitter taste receptor genes.” Most, however, cannot taste sweetness.

Without this ability to taste umami, or a savory, meaty flavor, it’s possible that penguins — who are also believed to lack taste buds on their tongues — are unable to taste the seafood that makes up their diet.

“Penguins eat fish, so you would guess that they need the umami receptor genes, but for some reason they don’t have them,” Zhang said in a news release. “These findings are surprising and puzzling, and we do not have a good explanation for them. But we have a few ideas.”

The researchers speculate that the cold environments in which penguins evolved may have played a role in their changing tastes, as the taste receptors for sweet, umami and bitter are said to function poorly in cold temperatures.

Still, though it might strike some as odd that a carnivorous animal can’t taste meat — or perhaps anything at all, given penguins’ reduction in taste function both at an anatomical and sensory level — researchers say that a lack of taste is likely not such a big deal for the birds: penguins swallow their food without chewing.

“Their behavior of swallowing food whole, and their tongue structure and function, suggest that penguins need no taste perception,” said Zhang, “although it is unclear whether these traits are a cause or a consequence of their major taste loss.”   

Donie's Irish daily news BLOG update

Dear Ministers, here is a couple of ways to make Irish health better for the Irish people

 

Health does not have to be an unsolvable crisis for the Irish people? There are small changes that can make a big difference.

There’s a huge amount of services provided by our hospitals at massive cost that could be provided by GPs at a fraction of that. For example, there’s no reason why minor surgical procedures should not be provided by the local doctor

It’s hard not to feel sick at the thoughts of our health service. Since the new year began, we’ve heard nothing except there’s almost 600 sick people on trolleys in A&E waiting for admission and do bear in mind you no longer get admitted to an Irish hospital unless you are extremely unwell. The INMO have called for all elective procedures to be cancelled for the first half of January, to ease the pressure, and nurses are serving strike notices at Beaumont hospital. Health is a mess.

On the other hand, the country is doing well, we’re told. We’re going to grow at the fastest rate of any economy in Europe this year. Unemployment is down and we took €1.2bn more into the coffers than was expected. Now, I may just be a simple GP, but Ministers Noonan and Varadkar, may I make two humble suggestions to you?

Firstly – we’ve approximately 800 elderly patients in hospital, waiting on long-term beds in the community. They don’t need to be in hospital but they can’t go home. Long-term beds aren’t cheap. They cost an average of €1,000 per week. But the reason those patients are in hospital isn’t because there are no long-term beds – it’s because there’s no funding for those beds.

They aren’t moved out of those hospitals because HSE managers know that the minute they are, those acute hospital beds will be refilled immediately, by those poor souls on trolleys in A&E. And then the HSE will be paying for two beds where they are currently only paying for one. It’s called bed blocking – are you still with me?

So here’s a radical thought. Do just that. Fund those long-term beds. Those 800 people at €1,000 per week will cost us about €40m per year. Do that and free up 800 acute beds for the seriously ill. In effect, it’s the equivalent of providing and running – in bed terms – a whole new hospital at a minimal cost to the State.

Also, do bear in mind, that because these long-term beds will be provided in the private nursing home sector, which – unlike the HSE – will put on additional staff to cope with additional patients, there will be an increased tax take, which will go some way to offset that €40m.

Secondly, there’s a huge amount of services provided by our hospitals at massive cost that could be provided by GPs at a fraction of that cost. I’m thinking minor surgery, chronic disease management, or mental health services.

Transfer funding from secondary care to primary care and get these services provided faster, cheaper and nearer to patients. This is actually already a stealth policy of the HSE, but they are hoping to transfer these services without any funding – which means the already over-stretched GP service is unable to actually provide them. Pointless. Transfer with funding and new GPs practice nurses and physios etc. can be hired – and the patients benefit hugely.

This could actually be budget neutral as the funding to secondary care could be cut (by no longer hiring hugely expensive agency staff) by the same amount as primary care is increased. To illustrate: if it costs €300 for a surgeon in St Vincent’s to remove your mole, your local GP could remove four people’s moles for that money – without waiting lists, and down the road from you. What a GP can’t do is remove them for free, Ministers. Incidentally, it also frees up the surgeon for proper surgery – we GPs can’t do everything.

So there’s a thought for the unsolvable problem that is health. For the princely sum of €40m (out of the €1.2bn perhaps?), free up 800 acute beds; put elderly patients back into their local communities where relatives can visit them more easily; and provide faster, cheaper, more efficient health services through primary care. Happy New Year, Ministers. You’re welcome.

95% compliance rate for Local Property Tax in 2014 says Revenue

   

The amount of money collected by Revenue last year was up in a number of categories, more than €450m was collected through the Local Property Tax last year, according to the Revenue Commissioners, with 95% of liable households paying the charge.

The LPT was introduced in the middle of 2013 and recorded a compliance rate of 91% during its first six months, with €242m raised during the period.

Revenue said the figures showed a “strong compliance culture among our customers”, adding that it had received €39m in payments for this year’s charge.

Revenue’s headline results for 2014 confirm the Exchequer’s receipt of almost €41.3bn over the course of the year.

There was a 4.5% increase in the number of PAYE employees during the year to 2.4m – though this includes people with multiple employments and those in receipt of occupational pensions.

Those registered for self-assessed tax returns was up 3.5% to 639,487, while the number of companies registered for corporation tax was 4.2% higher at 167,783.

The agency also collected €610.4m through audits and compliance checks, compared to €551.9m in 2013.

A further €222.7m was received through collections enforcement, up slightly on the previous year, while €88.5m was gained from settlements with tax defaulters.

There was a sharp rise in the value of seizures during 2014, which stood at €122.1m last year compared to €44.3m in 2013.

Seizures of cocaine and heroin accounted for the largest portion of this, representing €73.4m of the total amount, while cigarette and tobacco detections accounted for almost €30m.

Revenue said it received more than 2.2m calls to its telephone services during the year, with more than 660,000 relating to the Local Property Tax.

Customers made contact online more than 5.7m times, while 2.3m letters were received in the year.

In addition to a high compliance rate for the Local Property Tax, Revenue said compliance was also strong amongst most businesses.

In 2014, large companies with a tax liability above €500,000 had a compliance rate of 99%, while firms with a tax liability of €75,000 to €500,000 had a rate of 97%.

Other cases, which would include companies with smaller returns, had a lower rate of compliance, however, at 83%.

Enterprise Ireland creates record number of net jobs in 2014

 

Agency revealed its client companies recorded lowest level of job losses since 2000.

Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, and Enterprise Ireland chief executive Julie Sinnamon, pictured at the Enterprise Ireland end of year review.

Enterprise Ireland backed companies created almost 20,000 new jobs last year, resulting in the highest net jobs gain in the history of the state agency – a total of 8,476.

In its end of year statement, the agency said software and services sector accounted for the strongest net jobs growth, adding 2,092 jobs.

The agency said client companies last year recorded the lowest level of job losses since 2000, with more than 180,000 people (almost 10 per cent of the workforce) now employed in Enterprise Ireland supported companies.

Figures from the IDA Ireland, released last week, also revealed a record year for jobs growth in 2014, with multinationals creating 15,012 jobs and a net increase in employment of 7,131.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton said the positive figures did not happen by accident, adding that they were the result of extra resources and trade missions.

“We have put in place a raft of measures to deliver on this, including doubling the number of trade missions, recruiting extra staff in overseas markets, and delivering new funding supports for Irish exporting companies,” he said.

Mr Bruton said the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs was creating a powerful engine of Irish enterprise, alongside the strong multinational sector, and that Ireland has the capacity to create full employment by the end of 2018.

Enterprise Ireland chief executive Julie Sinnamon said 69% of the net job gains were outside of Dublin, adding that the level of increased employment achieved is “remarkable”.

“We continue to relentlessly focus on ensuring the right supports are available for clients at every stage of growth.

“This focus — coupled with our priority to support entrepreneurship across the regions, and develop strong, export focussed, ambitious Irish companies that can win new business — will mean even more jobs for Ireland over the next 12 months”.

Primary School literacy and numeracy rise for first time since 1980

 

Despite progress no real reduction in gap between disadvantaged urban schools and others.

A study on literacy and numeracy in primary schools has identified the first ’statistically significant’ rise in standards in over 30 years.

A study on literacy and numeracy in primary schools has identified the first “statistically significant” rise in standards in over 30 years.

The 2014 national assessments of English reading and mathematics showed a major improvement in students’ performance at second and sixth class, compared to the last study in 2009.

However the researchers found that despite an overall progress there has been “no real reduction in the gap” between pupils in disadvantaged urban schools and pupils in other school types.

The Educational Research Centre study cited particular concern over “the large proportion of very low achievers in reading” in the most disadvantaged schools, namely those falling into Deis (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) band 1.

The agency, which carries out the assessments for the Department of Education at five year intervals, said it was the first time since 1980 that increases in performance had been recorded.

While it cautioned against putting too much store in a single set of results, it pointed to the impact of improved teacher training and professional development, including the use of new methodology, as well as spending more time on literacy and numeracy in class.

Progress in vocabulary and comprehension was found to be well ahead of a target set in 2011 National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Progress in algebra and data analysis was also found to be ahead of target but to a lesser degree.

The study showed girls are still better readers than boys but the gap has narrowed since 2009, from 14 points to 7 points among second class pupils, on a 250-point baseline for the tests.

Reading skills among second class pupils in Deis band 1 schools rose by 14 points compared to 2009 but the improvement was greater (27 points) in Deis band 2 schools (these are schools deemed less disadvantaged than band 1). The latter also saw a significant increase in maths scores (up by 29 points) whereas there no significant change in band 1 schools.

The most disadvantaged schools also saw no significant increase in reading at sixth class whereas band 2 schools saw a 14 point increase in scores, deemed as “substantive important”.

In reading, the mean score for Deis band 1 sixth class pupils was 233. This compared to 246 for Deis band 2 schools and 263 for all schools. In maths, the mean score for Deis band 1 was 233 compared to 241 for Deis band 2 and 262 for all schools.

Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan welcomed the upward trend overall, acknowledging the work of teachers, parents and students in improving standards.

Cautioning against complacency she said:“The results leave scope for improvements, especially in maths and in Deis schools”. She has asked for a review of the strategy to be brought forward to this year from 2016.

An additional €6 million had been provided for the implementation of the strategy in Budget 2015, bringing the annual budget to €13.8 million and further measures would be considered, she added.

One proposal mooted by her predecessor Ruairí Quinn was for Leaving Cert honours maths to be made a requirement for entry into teacher training. Asked whether or not she would support such a measure, Ms O’Sullivan said she was awaiting advice from the Teaching Council. “We can be generally fairly sure as of now that the qualifications of people going into teaching are very high,” she said.

The primary teachers’ union, the INTO, also welcomed the test results. General secretary Sheila Nunan said they were probably the result of several different factors including supports for disadvantaged schools, changes to teacher education, improvements in learning support allocations to schools and an increased focus on literacy and numeracy.

However she singled out the fact that only qualified teachers were now licensed to teach in primary schools. Research by the organisation a decade ago showed more than 1,400 primary classes were taught by people who had no teaching qualifications.

Easter Island demise revealed? New findings provide intriguing clues

  

What caused the demise of Easter Island’s population? Researchers may have solved the mystery behind what caused the extinction of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

Recent findings suggest significant changes in land use and dynamics that occurred within the community before the European arrival may have been linked to the people’s demise, the University of Auckland reported.

“The results of our research were really quite surprising to me. Indeed, in the past, we’ve published articles about how there was little evidence for pre-European-contact societal collapse,” said study co-author Thegn Ladefoged of the School of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts.

To make their findings, the scientists looked at more than 400 obsidian artifacts from six sites around the island. Obsidian absorbs water after being exposed to air, allowing the team to measure the amount of water in the artifacts and determine how old they were.  These findings helped the researchers determine land use and population fluctuations based on the number of tools made during each time period.

Sites on the northwest coast of the island showed an increase in population that occurred between 1220 and 1650 followed by a significant decline. The second site on the northwest coast (which was wetter and less prone to drought but had low soil fertility) saw an increase in use from 1200 to 1480 that sustained itself before declining around 1705. The third site, which was both rainy and fertile, showed an increase in use starting at 1250 and remaining consistent until about 1850.

Europeans are believed to have arrived on the island around the year 1722, but these findings suggest the indigenous was already struggling before this occurred.

“It is clear that people were reacting to regional environmental variation on the island before they were devastated by the introduction of European diseases and other historic processes,” Professor Ladefoged concluded.

In the future the researchers plan to examine individual dwelling on the island in hopes of gaining further insight into the interaction between Easter Island’s aboriginal people and the natural environment.