Irish economy is not a model for other countries? says President Higgins
Citizens have paid ‘a very high price’, president tells tells Strasbourg assembly
President Michael D Higgins at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Tuesday where he delivered his address ‘The Future of Parliaments: Addressing the Challenges’.
Ireland should not be taken as a model for other countries struggling to overcome economic crisis, President Michael D Higgins said repeatedly on Tuesday during a day-long visit to the 47-member Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.
“I don’t think the Irish Government is seeking to give lectures to members of the EU or the Council of Europe,” Mr Higgins replied to a correspondent from the Chinese news agency Xinhua who noted that Ireland now has the highest economic growth in the euro zone.
In the question-and-answer session following Mr Higgins’s address to the Parliamentary Assembly, a Turkish representative asked what was the secret to Ireland’s success.
“This adjustment has taken place with a huge sacrifice by the people of Ireland,” Mr Higgins replied, reiterating his allusion to the “narrow version of fiscal orthodoxy” that “seems predicated on a de-peopled economy.”
The Irish economy “is not a driverless car. It has citizens abroad who paid a very high price,” the President continued. “It is not appropriate to use Ireland as some kind of exemplar.”
Sunday’s election in Greece brought the far left anti-austerity Syriza party to power. Though he never mentioned Greece by name, it was writ large in Mr Higgins’s speech.
He called on parliaments “to muscle themselves into this debate, and to take it back from what I regard as unaccountable sources”. It was, he added, “a view that I share with Pope Francis”.
Emotional debate
Mr Higgins’s visit was almost sidelined by an emotional debate at the Parliamentary Assembly over the continued suspension of Russia’s participation in the Council of Europe because of its annexation of Crimea.
Anti-Russian protesters are encamped across the street from the council’s headquarters.
In his speech to the assembly, Mr Higgins called the war in eastern Ukraine “the disquieting return to our continent of grave geopolitical fractures, carrying disastrous human consequences”.
The Islamist attacks that killed 17 people in Paris earlier this month were another recurring theme. Like the war in eastern Ukraine, “new forms of fanaticism and conflict” pose “a profound challenge to democracy and social cohesion”, Mr Higgins said.
These new forms of violence “arise at the obscure intersection of global geopolitical tensions, individual trajectories and beliefs, and complex structures of social inequalities”, he continued.
In response to a question from Joe O’Reilly TD, a member of Ireland’s delegation to the Strasbourg Assembly, Mr Higgins said European countries “have neglected conversations with those who advance faith systems based on fundamental texts”.
“We have created a kind of void into which those who would exploit [youths] have moved like predators… We must be able to look at a stranger as someone with whom we share vulnerabilities – not as an aggressor.”
Political speech
Despite the care taken by Mr Higgins to avoid political controversy, it was a highly political speech, if one read between the lines.
In a veiled reference to dissatisfaction in the UK with the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which is part of it, the President expressed his “disquiet” at what he called “endeavours under way in some quarters that risk undermining the very legitimacy of both the court and the Convention on Human Rights”.
It was, for Ireland, “a very serious matter for concern”, Mr Higgins continued. “The European Convention on Human Rights must remain the cornerstone of human rights protection in Europe.”
Membership in the council and Ireland’s implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights “have been fundamental in consolidating the rule of law and supporting positive social change in Ireland,” Mr Higgins said.
Michael O’Boyle is the second-ranking lawyer at the ECHR, which employs 700 people and accepted its one millionth application last month. “This court has the most developed case law regarding human rights anywhere in the world,” Mr O’Boyle said after taking Mr Higgins on a tour of the court.
Ireland pays to have the proceedings of the ECHR webcasted on the internet, “an archive of hearings that plays a big part in law schools throughout the world”, Mr O’Boyle said.
“Ireland has always taken this court very seriously… There is absolutely no question mark regarding Ireland’s respect for this court.”
New mortgage 90% loans rule allow relief for first-time buyers
Banks to be able to lend 90% up to €220,000 as phase-in plans abandoned
The new 80% loan to value limit will be introduced for most borrowers, in a significant tightening of the current lending regime.
New mortgage rules announced by the Central Bank will allow first-time buyers some relief from the new 80 per cent loan to value limit.
For first time buyers, banks will be able to lend 90 per cent up to a value of €220,000. Above that the 80 per cent limit will apply.
The new rules, which are effective immediately, have been announced this evening.
The move will significantly reduce the amount of deposit which first-time buyers have to save when buying a home.
However, the 80 per cent limit will be introduced for most borrowers, in a significant tightening of the current regime, designed to protect banks and borrowers from getting into difficulties with future lending.
The Central Bank Commission decided on the new rules at a meeting on Tuesday. Non first-time home buyers will generally be restricted to borrowing 80 per cent of the property’s value.
A 70 per cent limit will apply for banks lending to investors purchasing buy-to-let properties.
Plans to phase in the new rules have been abandoned, with the higher limit on borrowings up to €220,000 designed to address concerns about the impact on first time buyers.
Under the existing rules – which normally allow a bank to lend 90 per cent of the value of the house – a first-time buyer would require a €35,000 deposit on a home valued at €350,000. Under the new rules this will rise to €48,000.
Had the 80 per cent limit applied to the entire loan, the deposit required would have been €70,000.
The changes follow a consultation period on the proposed new lending rules. Original proposals to impose an 80 per cent cap on all new home-buyers had met a wave of opposition.
The Central Bank said a certain number of loans – up to 15 per cent of loans by value for principal dwelling – could breach the new limits, offering some flexibility to lenders and borrowers.
Housing loans for borrowers who are in negative equity and who are obtaining a mortgage for a new property are not subject to the LTV limits and will be assessed separately.
The rules will also mean that people buying homes will face a limit that loans should not exceed 3.5 times income.
Again some exceptions will be allowed on this. Switcher mortgage loans and housing loans for the restructuring of mortgages in arrears are not covered by the regulations.
Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said the measures would reduce financial vulnerabilities for lenders and borrowers.
Ireland rankings falls in international health service index
Ireland slips eight places to 22nd in 2014 Euro Health Consumer Index
Ireland is ranked 22nd in the 2014 Euro Health Consumer Index, down from 14th the previous year.
Ireland has tumbled down an international ranking of health services after its waiting list data was found to have lost credibility.
Ireland is ranked 22nd in the 2014 Euro Health Consumer Index, published Tuesday, down from 14th the previous year.
While overall healthcare performance in Europe has improved despite reduced spending in many countries, Ireland was one of the few states to lose ground.
The index says this is because it decided to use feedback from patient organisations in relation to waiting times rather than rely on official data.
It took this step after six years of persistent patient criticism, having decided the official waiting list data had “lost credibility”.
“Ireland is a strange artefact among the healthcare systems of northwestern Europe,” said Dr Arne Bjornberg, head researcher of the index.
“Patient empowerment is on the level ofRomania, waiting times as long as inSweden (which is bad!) and healthcare inequity is evident.”
‘Extreme dissatisfaction’
The fact so many Irish people have private health insurance in addition to their entitlements under the public system could be interpreted as “an extreme case of dissatisfaction” with the public system.
Dr Bjornberg said Ireland should take radical action to improve patient information and empowerment and reduce waiting to the level of other EU members.
While the level of hospital-acquired infection has fallen in Ireland in recent years, the improvement was not sufficient to escape a red score on this indicator, he said.
“Ireland has no longer a total ban on abortion, which is an improvement, but abortion still requires approval by people who are frequently [men aged] 50+ … This is a far cry from abortion being a woman’s right,” he also commented.
The index, which is compiled from a combination of public statistics, patient polls and independent research, ranked the Netherlands first, followed by Switzerland, Norway,Finland and Denmark.
VHI to cut prices on 7 of its lowest cost health plans
Move which will apply from March is a sign spiralling health insurance prices have eased
VHI IS TO CUT THE COST OF SEVEN OF ITS PLANS BY 3%.
The country’s largest health insurer, the VHI, is to reduce the price of seven of its lowest cost insurance plans.
The price of all its other health insurance plans is to be frozen, the company said.
VHI said the cost reductions would be up to 3% in some cases. The seven insurance plans to have their prices reduced are: One Plan Starter, One Plan Starter Day to Day, One Plan 500, One Plan 250, One Plan 150, First Plan Level 1 and Family Plan Level 1.
VHI chief executive John O’Dwyer said by focusing on savings and efficiencies the company was in a position to announce premium reductions on seven plans together with no price increase on any of our plans on the 1st March 2015.
“The business is performing well and over the last two years has delivered solid financial results. We continue to attract new business and our most recent offers have proved very successful and attractive to young families.
“Also, we are committed to continuing to drive an ambitious cost containment programme with a view to securing savings which can be passed directly to our customers.
This cost containment programme has focussed on a number of key areas such as reduced rates for consultants and hospitals, increased use of clinical indicators and clinical audit and the continued movement of treatment to the most cost-efficient setting. All of these factors are facilitating today’s price decrease.”
VHI said that a family of two adults and two children on its One Plan Starter Day to Day plan renewing in March could save €55 on the price they paid last year under the new reductions.
The company said there would be savings of €91 in the case of a family on its “Family Plan Level 1”.
Vhi also said it would put in place a half price children’s offer on four plans – One Plan Family, Parents & Kids Excess Plan, Teachers’ Plan Select and Nurses’ Plan Select — for customers joining or renewing these plans from 1st March 2015 until 30th April 2015.
Last November Minister for Health Leo Varadkar announced a series of measures designed to tackle the problem of rising health insurance premiums.
The package included a reduction in stamp duty, lower premiums for young adults, the previously announced introduction of Lifetime Community Rating and a reduction in the Health Insurance Authority Levy.
The Minister said his proposals built on Budget measures which included a freeze on hospital bed charges, and no decrease in the relievable amount for tax relief purposes
Cancer research advanced by scientists un-boiling Boiled Eggs
The struggle to find a cure for cancer could have received a huge boost from the most unlikely of sources, the boiled egg.
As Liz Neporent of ABCNews.com reports, scientists have found a way to un-boil hard-boiled eggs which could lead to advances in the fight against cancer. The common factor between cancer research and boiled eggs is that they use and contain proteins respectively.
Unboiled eggs: Researchers spin dissolved egg whites
As lead researcher Gregory Weiss explains, the proteins which egg whites consist off have a certain shape which changes when you boil them. “Once you boil them, the proteins stay intact but they change their conformation,” he said.
Weiss is a professor of chemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Irvine, and his team have disproven the long-held belief that boiling an egg was an irreversible. Now they can recover and reuse the proteins by reversing the process.
The team first managed to separate the whites from the yolks before soaking them in a chemical called urea, which dissolves them. The whites were then spun at high speed in a machine called a “vortex fluid machine,” a process which returns them to their original state in a matter of minutes.
Vast improvement in reliability
The speed of the process will aid those who work with similar proteins in cancer research. Proteins are useful in the field but until now scientists have struggled to consistently make them unfold into the right format, with the majority of them turning out useless. Weiss and his team have discovered a simple way of returning them to their original forms which doesn’t take a prohibitively long time.
“We are already using it in our cancer research here,” Weiss said, and he hopes that the method will be used more widely in the near future.
Weiss also moved to head off any expectations of uncooking other foodstuffs, claiming that although it is theoretically possible, the team have not even tried to unboil a yolk. It should also be possible to reverse cook a chicken, but the result would be thoroughly unappetising.
Arctic PCBs may cause performance issues for male polar bears: says new research
Study finds PCBs weaken bears’ penis bones
As if they didn’t have enough problems, male polar bears now have to worry about this: PCB contamination that weakens their penis bones.
Climate change may affect the higher latitudes of the globe more than anywhere else on earth, putting habitats like that of the polar bear at risk.
And now a new study suggests industrial pollutants put the polar bear’s nether regions at risk as well.
That’s because wind and water-borne pollutants — polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — have been linked to lower bone density in the polar bear’s penis bone.
PCBs, used for decades in hundreds of industrial applications such as paint, rubber production and electrical transformers, have been banned by a United Nations treaty since 2001.
But the chemical breaks down in the environment very slowly and, because of air temperatures and currents, concentrate at the earth’s polar regions.
Using a hospital x-ray technique, scientists from Denmark and Canada measured the bone density of penis bones — or the baculum — from almost 300 polar bears born between 1990 and 2000 from north-eastern Greenland and the Canadian Arctic
They then compared their data to locally recorded data of a range of harmful pollutants, finding a link between PCBs and lower bone density in the polar bear’s baculum.
They also found polar bears with higher PCB levels to have smaller testes.
The exact function of penis bones, which a number of mammals other than humans have, is not known, but the scientists suggest a weaker baculum could prevent successful mating.
“If it breaks, you probably won’t have a bear which can copulate,” Danish researcher Christian Sonne from Aarhus University said in an online article in the New Scientist.
The article quotes a biologist from the University of Edmonton, Andrew Derocher, who says the impact of pollutants are compounded on malnourished polar bears unable to find enough to eat because of habitat destruction.
“Skinny bears have higher levels of circulating pollutants, so the concern is that a polar bear that is nutritionally stressed may become more vulnerable to the effects of pollution at the same time,” he said in the article.
Sonne said he now plans to study the effect of food stress and pollutants have on evolutionary changes of the polar bear.
The study on bacula, published in the February 2015 edition of Environmental Research, points out that more research needs to be conducted before PCBs can be said to cause the lower bone density in the baculum of polar bears.
