Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Housing census figures in Ireland paints a bleak picture?

A BLEAK PICTURE OF HOMELESSNESS, OVERCROWDING AND RELIANCE ON OVERPRICED RENTALS

   

Even the Irish Government admits that its plans to increase the supply of new homes will fall woefully short of expanding demand. The State needs to build about 35,000 new homes every year to begin making a dent in the housing crisis,

The Minister for Housing Simon Coveney said last week. He admits that the current target is to build only some 25,000 new houses a year, a third less. It was a challenge, he confessed, that reflects a “fundamental structural problem in the housing sector”.

The first Central Statistics Office “thematic” report on housing from the 2016 census paints a bleak picture: homelessness, overcrowding, and forced reliance on an overpriced rental sector, on the rise, while home ownership and house-building have declined – a perfect storm of rising demand and falling supply.

Perhaps most dramatic is the stark contrast between the 0.4% growth (just 8,800 units) in the housing stock between 2011 and 2016 and the previous five-year period – the latter, at 225,232 new dwellings, was 26 times larger.

Close to one in 10 of the population now lives in some 95,013 overcrowded households which have more people than rooms, a rise in five years of 28%. The hidden homeless. And the number of owner-occupied homes also fell between 2011 and 2016 causing the overall rate to drop from 69.7% to 67.6%, a level last seen in 1971. We are moving backwards, fast.

For most young people renting is the only option and now exceeds owner-occupation among under-35s . And in a squeezed market like Dublin, rents have inevitably soared – up some 30 per cent in the capital since 2011, if you are lucky enough to find somewhere.

Yet, why is there not a more serious attempt to incentivise bringing the 183,000 homes that are currently vacant back into use? And why the obsession with building homes-to-buy for first-time buyers at ever-inflating prices, when the real demand is for affordable social and affordable housing and rental properties? Time for a broader range of solutions, Says Mr Coveney.

Meanwhile: —

New data shows just 2,076 homes built last year

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FIGURES SHOW NEW HOMES FALLING FAR SHORT OF GOVERNMENT’S 15,000 ESTIMATE. 

  

THE NUMBER OF NEW HOMES BUILT IN THE STATE LAST YEAR WAS JUST 2,076, A FRACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT’S 15,000 ESTIMATE, ACCORDING TO NEW FIGURES.

The number of new homes built in the State last year was just 2,076, a fraction of the Government’s 15,000 estimate, according to new figures obtained under the Freedom of Information.

Taken from the Building Control Management System, which is widely acknowledged as the most reliable construction database, the figures cast further doubt on the Government’s estimate of homebuilding rates in the economy.

They show that, when one-off homes are excluded, just 848 estate houses and apartments were completed in 2016 compared to an official Department of Housing estimate of 8,729.

In Dublin city, the most populous part in the State, just 68 scheme homes and apartments were completed last year.

The figures for other local authorities were also well below official estimates; Fingal (121), Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (78), South Dublin (69) and Cork City (21).

In three local authorities, Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon, there were no housing completions recorded at all in 2016, while a further eight counties recorded fewer than 10 completions.

The figures stand in stark contrast to the Department of Housing’s official housing completion figure for 2016 of 14,932.

The discrepancy stems from the department’s use of ESB metering data as a proxy to count new builds. Electricity connections can be triggered by work to existing buildings or by formerly vacant units coming back on stream.

Ghost estates in Ireland?

The official figures are also likely to have been inflated by the finishing out of so-called ghost estates built during the boom.

Dublin architect Mel Reynolds said the Government’s housing targets, contained in its Rebuilding Ireland strategy, are based on new-build levels that were “fictional”.

He said the remarkably low output figure for scheme homes and apartments also raised questions about the Government’s new Help-to-Buy scheme, which has been blamed for fuelling further inflation in the market.

Mr Reynolds said there were now almost five Help-to-Buy scheme applicants for every new home being built.

The Department of Housing has repeatedly defended its use of the 14,932 completion figure, suggesting electricity connections have been used as a proxy for completions since the 1970s, as developers would not connect a property to the grid until it is ready for sale.

It also claims the Building Control Management System database is not an accurate measure of homebuilding activity as it was only established in 2014 and may fail to capture projects commenced prior to that.

Last week, Minister for Housing Simon Coveney said he hoped the level housing supply could be accelerated to 25,000 units a year by the end of next year. However, he indicated the State may need to build 35,000 units before demand in the market can be met.

Minister Varadkar supports an SSIA-style scheme to top up personal pensions

VARADKAR SAYS A PLAN IS URGENTLY NEEDED TO ENCOURAGE MORE SAVING’S.

  

A new SSIA-style savings scheme should be introduced to try to tackle our ‘pensions time bomb’, according to Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar.

The original State-backed five-year SSIA plan, introduced in 2001, offered a bonus of €1 for every €4 saved monthly, subject to an agreed maximum.

Now Minister Varadkar wants a similar type of incentive for workers to pay into their own “personal” pension fund. The plan would give them additional retirement cover – on top of their State pension entitlement – and employers would be required to match their contributions.

“The minister’s preferred option would be an SSIA-type top-up from the Government, rather than the current system of a tax-relief incentive,” a spokesperson confirmed to the Sunday Independent.

“The SSIA top-up is very well understood, much more so than tax relief.

“It costs much the same, and would add to an individual’s pension income, as the money would go into their personal pension savings account.”

The fund would have to be phased in over a period of time with contributions starting at a “low level” in the first year.

The most favoured model would be similar to the Australian, Singaporean and New Zealand systems, and specially “tailored” for Ireland.

Every worker would be automatically enrolled in the scheme – but would have the right to avail of an opt-out clause. The fund would be the “private property” of the individual, could not be expropriated by any government, and could be inherited by a partner or family members if the worker passed away before drawing down any benefits.

It could be transferred to another jurisdiction, and there would be flexibility as to when benefits accrued could be taken out. The SSIA scheme of 16 years ago was generally regarded as a success, generating a huge national savings kitty.

Only a third of private-sector workers have a pension. During the recession years, many people sacrificed saving for their retirement as they battled to cope with more immediate bills such as mortgages, heating and food.

Meanwhile, the latest census data shows the proportion of those in the older age bracket continues to increase.

There are now 296,837 males and 340,730 females aged 65 or older in Ireland.

The number of men in this age category has gone up by 22% since 2011, compared with an increase of 16% for women. Medical experts predict improved medical care and other lifestyle changes will result in people generally living longer.

Financial studies show the demise of the traditional ‘permanent pensionable job’ as the nature of the workplace changes. Problems in many company schemes are an added complication.

Dermot O’Leary, chief economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers, suggests an SSIA-style government initiative could help deal with the ‘ticking pensions time bomb’.

He said recent census figures provided further confirmation that the over 60s segment of the population will increase in the coming years.

He suggested there would be obvious benefits to an SSIA-style scheme linked to pensions provision.

Nutritionists now agree there’s only one fruit that must find a place in your shopping basket “Berries”?

  

Every fruit has its nutritional benefits but there is only one that seems to be winning the battle across the board when it comes to the expert’s advice.

If you tend to opt for berries of the red variety over blue because of their appealing buy me attractions, it might be time to change that because blueberries have multiple health benefits with 17 different dietitians agreeing that they’re one of the best superfoods available.

After surveying a group of nutritionists and cross-referencing their answers, Byrdie found the non-assuming berry came out on top.

WHY IS THAT?

Nutritionist Frida Harju, sums it up perfectly, when explaining:

“If you are going to add one fruit to your diet, make it blueberries. They have been labelled a superfood due to their high levels of polyphenols, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory compounds that help to combat memory loss and enhance your mood.”

Due to the high amount of antioxidants present in blueberries, they help cardiovascular health and brain health.

They’re also high in fibre, good for your skin, aid digestion and unlike other fructose-laden fruits, blueberries have been shown to improve blood glucose and insulin levels.

If food shopping is on your Weekly to-do list, make sure blueberries find their way into your basket…

‘Hobbits’ Now claimed as one of the earliest forms of the human species?

  

A model of a female Homo floresiensis right picture.

HOBBITS, KNOWN AS HOMO FLORESIENSIS, COULD BE ONE OF THE MOST ARCHAIC FORMS OF HUMAN ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH.

Remains of hobbits were discovered on an Indonesian island in 2003, and since then scientists have debated where they originated from.

While some claim they were just short Homo sapiens, new Australian National University (ANU) research claims the hobbits were most likely a sister species to Homo habilis – who lived in Africa about 1.75 million years ago.

There’s also a chance that they even proceeded the Homo habilis, making them one of the oldest forms of humans.

They were about 3.5ft tall and used stone tools.

“It’s possible that Homo floresiensis evolved in Africa and migrated, or the common ancestor moved from Africa then evolved into Homo floresiensis somewhere,” study leader Dr Debbie Argue says.

Dr Argue said the analyses could also support the theory that Homo floresiensis could have branched off earlier in the timeline, more than 1.75 million years ago.

“If this was the case Homo floresiensis would have evolved before the earliest Homo habilis, which would make it very archaic indeed,” she said.

The hobbits lived on the Indonesian island of Flores until as recently as 54,000 years ago.

Prior to the ANU study it was believed that the Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus, a larger human that lived on the Indonesian mainland of Java.

However the ANU researchers say that’s almost certainly not the case.

“We can be 99 per cent sure it’s not related to Homo erectus and nearly 100 per cent chance it isn’t a malformed Homo sapiens,” Professor Mike Lee said.

The research was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

It’s unclear whether Bilbo Baggins is connected to the Homo floresiensis, or how he and his relatives made their way to Hobbiton from Indonesia.  

Donies news Ireland daily BLOG Tuesday

President Higgins & Sabina start their state visit to Britain today Tuesday

  

Irish President Michael D Higgins started his official state visit to Britain today.

His extended four day trip, three years after the Queen visited Ireland, will include an address to the Houses of Parliament and a focus on the contribution Irish emigrants have made to UK life.

“We are at a very interesting point in history, when we have, following Her Majesty’s visit to Ireland, such good relations between our people,” he said.

“My hope for the visit at the end of it all is that people will in ever more numbers come to share in experiencing the history, the present circumstances and culture, and do so in ever greater numbers.”

 The theme of the state visit will be on the two countries’ shared histories.

And the significance has been further deepened with the presence of Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister and ex-IRA commander Martin McGuinness who will attend a banquet hosted by the Queen – a move unthinkable only a decade ago.

Mr Higgins, who is accompanied by his wife Sabina, addressed the Northern Ireland peace process before he left amid wider discussions about how to deal with the past.

He said it would be wrong to wipe the slate clean over historic conflict which affected relations between Britain and Ireland and that progress should not be about forgetting the past.

“The peace process is that, it is a process that comes after the formal agreement at one level. Ultimately it is an exercise in consciousness at the level of community,” Mr Higgins said.

“The challenge is to hand to a future generation all of the prospects of the future. You are not inviting them to an amnesia about any deep dispute.

“There are a lot of very difficult memories and it would be to my mind wrong to suggest to anyone that you should as it were, wipe the slate clean.

“I think Her Majesty in coming to Ireland and addressing for example issues of relations between our two people was doing it the right way.”

The highly successful state visit to Ireland by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in May 2011 paved the way for the return by Mr Higgins and makes the attendance of Mr McGuinness at the royals’ home, Windsor Castle, the latest in a series of recent milestones in Anglo-Irish relations.

In remarkable scenes, the Queen paid her respects to republican dead at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, visited Croke Park – site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre – and made a widely-praised speech on Anglo-Irish history at Dublin Castle.

Since then, a number of meetings between Mr Higgins – a former Labour government minister, a poet and academic – and members of the Royal Family have taken place.

Although the Irish head of state has travelled to events in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland last year, these were not official visits.

Mr Higgins will spend four days on the extended visit as a guest of the monarch, a sign he says is symbolic of the importance both countries place on the normalisation of relations more than 90 years after independence.

Despite the feel good factor around the trip in general there is discomfort in some staunch conservative circles about Mr McGuinness’ presence.

Efforts to cement reconciliation between republicans and the state took a massive leap forward when the senior Sinn Fein figure shook hands with the Queen during a trip to Belfast two years ago.

He was given the green light to join the latest celebrations after a meeting of the leadership of his party at the weekend even though they snubbed the ground-breaking royal visit to Ireland in 2011.

 Highlights of the visit which begins with a ceremonial arrival at Windsor Castle will include the President’s address at Westminster – another first for an Irish head of state.

Mr Higgins will also get to view the colours of disbanded Irish regiments in the British army while in Windsor.

In an interview with Irish state broadcaster RTE, he praised the royal for setting the scene for the return visit and a new era of Anglo-Irish relations in her speech at Dublin Castle.

“The words chosen and the symbolic way they were delivered by the Queen herself were extraordinarily important,” he said.

“The decision for example not to ignore the past but to address it, to go on and say as well, not only would things have been done differently but maybe not all, that was adding generosity to a kind of an ethic of memory.”

Mr Higgins said it was an invitation to people to be firm about events in the past but not be crippled by them in the present.

Elsewhere, the President will visit the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and he will attend another major dinner at the Guildhall in the City given by the Lord Mayor.

He will also meet Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street during the visit and pay tribute to the work of Irish health professionals, meet business leaders and London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The President will be joined on the trip by Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore.

Scientists uncover why booze makes women touchy-feely and men unfaithful by

Observing drunken VOLES

 

• Researchers at an Oregon university used the famously faithful prairie vole to test how alcohol affects relationships
• The study found that drunk male voles tended to stray more often while the females wanted more cuddle time
• Alcohol was found to cause anxiety in females, which explains their desire to seek the comfort of their mates
• Meanwhile, males were less anxious and more inclined to stray

A study published Monday helps unravel some of love’s mysteries by picking apart the exploits of drunken rodents.

Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland used drunken prairie voles to uncover what makes men more likely to be unfaithful and women more interested in snuggling when alcohol enters the equation.

They found that booze on the brain loosened up the male voles, making them more inclined to mess around. While the vodka-fueled female voles became more anxious and desirous of a furry shoulder to lean on.

Drunk rodents: Researchers plied prairie voles with alcohol to determine how the famously faithful critters might change their mating behavior

As an added bonus, researchers found that the frequency at which or amount voles imbibe is affected by how much their friends and lovers drink–just like human peer pressure.

In the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Acadamey of Sciences, researchers offered up a water/ethanol concoction to the famously faithful fur balls.

Prairie voles are often used in animal studies focused on human bonding and monogamy because they mate for life. Unlike some animals, they also happen to like a stiff drink now and then.

For 24 hours, male/female pairs of previously unmated voles were placed together with the booze and their drunken canoodling was observed.

Then the researchers stopped the party and separated the voles, giving them new opposite-sex playmates.

What happened then depended on whether a vole was male or female.

The Oregon Health and Science University study found that males were more likely to stray when drunk and females were more likely to want to cuddle with their mate. Subsequent tests revealed that the answer to why this was true in the voles, and why humans exhibit similar behavior, has to do with how alcohol affects the neurochemical underpinnings of anxiety

The drunken male voles tended to prefer their new, more novel female party partners to the previous females.

The females, on the other hand, preferred their old mates to the new lads and sought out more ‘huddling’ time with their old flames.

Interestingly, the opposite was seen in the control group that was given no alcohol.

With the teetotalers, males nearly always preferred their original mates while only two-thirds of the sober females preferred the same.

The researchers found that neuropeptides linked to anxiety were affected by the alcohol, but in opposite ways between the males and females.

Males exhibited an increase in density of their amygdalar, which is associated with lowered anxiety, while the females did not.

The scientists believe the lowered anxiety in males makes them more likely to run after new females, and away from the old and that the opposite was true for females.

‘It’s the first time we’ve shown that alcohol drinking can directly affect social bonding and that these effects are paralleled by changes in neuropeptides,’ said lead researcher Andrey Ryabinin.

‘This means that we can use prairie voles to model not just our alcohol-related behavior but [also] the underlying molecular influences on that behavior,’ he says. ‘More studies are required, but separating biological effects from purely cultural ones could lead to better treatments for both problem drinking and the resulting interpersonal conflicts.

Ireland’s biggest dental group Smiles Dental now sold to Oasis Healthcare

 

Price paid for chain, founded by Emmet O’Neil and orthodontist Hugh Bradley, thought to be €36m. 

Smiles Dental, Ireland’s biggest privately-owned dental care provider, has been sold to Oasis Healthcare for an undisclosed sum.

The price is thought to be region of £30 million (€36 million) for the company which was founded in Dublin in 2005 by Emmet O’Neil and orthodontist Hugh Bradley.

Smiles provides dental care from 77 practices in Ireland,England, Wales and Scotland. The Irish group, which has 17 clinics in Ireland, has a turnover of £70 million (€84 million).

Oasis Healthcare is Britain’s largest provider of dental care and post the acquisition of Smiles it will have a turnover of £210 million and three million private and public sector patients. There will be 280 dental practices in its group post the transaction.

Oasis is owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint, which owns among other businesses Pret A Manager, the ready -to-eat salad and sandwich maker which has 300 outlets in the UK, US, France and Hong Kong.

The UK dental care firm is led by Justin Ash and chaired byStuart Rose, the former Marks & Spencer executive chairman.

Emmet O’Neil Smiles Dental chief executive said: “We were looking for a partner to help Smiles reach the next level and had examined a number of options. When I met Sir Stuart and Justin Ash I realised that there was a shared approach and a matched ambition at Oasis.”

“I am delighted to be joining their team and look forward to working hard not only to integrate our business, but to grow in future and to continue delivering a modern and innovative approach to dentistry,” he added.

“The team at Smiles both in the UK and Ireland have a huge amount to be proud of, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their loyalty, support and dedication.”

Mr O’Neil said combining the two businesses would offer additional clinical services to patients and lead to other synergies. Oasis will brand Smile’s UK practices as Oasis Dental Care but retain the Smiles brand in Ireland.

Justin Ash, chief executive of Oasis, said: “This is a transformational deal for Oasis and demonstrates our ability to drive growth and consolidation, building the only national brand in the fragmented dental market.”

“We believe this is outstanding news for the three million patients of the combined group and all patients seeking high quality, easy accessible dental care. We are also pleased to be extending our partnership with the NHSacross the domiciles in the UK and to be providing care under the HSE in the Republic of Ireland.”

Mr Ash said Oasis was “well funded to continue our growth, and actively seeking further complementary acquisitions, as well as new openings to at least double the size of Oasis.”

Advanced speed camera’s measures how fast our universe is expanding

 

MOST ACCURATE MEASURE SHOWS EXPANSION CLOCKED AT 68 KM PER SECOND. 

The largest known galaxy cluster in the distant universe, catalogued as ACT-CL J0102-4915, nicknamed ‘El Gordo’ (Spanish for “the fat one”).

Scientists have used an advanced speed camera to clock how fast the universe was expanding when it was a quarter of its current age. Back then, it was inflating at a rate of 68km per second and today things are moving even faster.

Spacetime is expanding in all directions, rushing away at a blinding pace, something confirmed in the 1930s by US astronomer Edwin Hubble. So important was the finding that the famous space telescope currently in Earth’s orbit was named in his honour.

Hubble’s Law describes how the farther apart two objects are in space, the faster they are accelerating away from one another. This sounds confusing but may help to explain why so many feel we are moving as quick as we can but getting nowhere fast.

Astronomers have been studying expansion speed since Hubble, and being able to measure it is central to our understanding of the universe. That is why this new, more accurate rate is important. The research team from the US, Switzerland and France presented their findings yesterday afternoon at the April meeting of the American Physical Society in Savannah, Georgia.

CRUNCHED GALAXIES

In a seriously hard slog, the researchers studied the light coming from 140,000 distant quasars – crunched galaxies that are exceptionally bright and look like individual stars. “We have measured the expansion rate in the young universe with an unprecedented precision of 2 per cent,” said Prof Timothee Delubac of the Centre de Saclay in France.

“If we look back to the universe when galaxies were three times closer together than they are today, we would see that a pair of galaxies separated by a million light years would be drifting apart at a speed of 68km per second as the universe expands,” said Prof Andreu Font-Ribera of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US.

Those quasars are moving even faster today, given expansion speeds up the greater the distance between them. But what is pushing them along?

Astronomers have dubbed it “dark energy”. They have no idea what it is but have calculated it makes up more than 68 per cent of the universe. All the stuff we can see like quasars and stars only accounts for 4.9 per cent of the pie.

USI Student Summit 2014 to encourage Ireland’s next entrepreneurs

  

USI Student Summit 2014 to encourage next entrepreneurs Students at last March’s announcement of the summit. 

The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Student Summit 2014 will kick off at 4.30pm in Dublin today and will host more than 35 start-ups from across Ireland. State advisory bodies will also be on hand to advise the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

The aim of the USI Student Summit 2014, according to its organisers, is to create a sense of community among young student entrepreneurs in Ireland, where they can come and learn about starting their trade, listen to people who have been successful in their field, and obtain advice on making their ideas come to life.

There will be a host of familiar tech names speaking at the event, many of which have formed their own successful start-ups, including Niall Harbison of Simply Zesty, Richie Whelan of Popdeem, Malachy Browne of Storyful, and Caroline Downey, MD, of the Olympia and Ambassador venues.

According to USI president Joe O’Connor, “This event is the first of its kind and provides an incredible opportunity for Irish student entrepreneurs to hear from inspirational speakers, learn from Ireland’s most innovative start-up companies, and network with entrepreneurs. We hope that this is a USI event that continues long into the future.”

The event takes place at the Print Works Conference Centre, Dublin Castle.

Homo sapiens and Neanderthals got together much more recently. 

A DNA link shows

   

New evidence suggests Homo sapiens and Neanderthals got together much more recently.

Europeans may be closer to their Neanderthal cousins than was previously thought, new research suggests.

Breeding with now-extinct Neanderthals is known to have left its traces in the DNA of modern Europeans.

But this mingling of the two human sub-species was thought to have taken place long ago in Africa, before our ancestors spread across the globe.

The new evidence suggests Homo sapiens and Neanderthals got together much more recently.

Scientists have shown that the genetic similarity between Neanderthals and non-African modern human populations must have arisen after interbreeding inEurope and Asia.

The research involved dividing up the genetic code of each sub-species to calculate the statistical likelihood of distant or recent interbreeding.

Dr Konrad Lohse, one of the scientists from the University of Edinburgh, said: “Although there has been mounting evidence for genetic exchange between modern humans and Neanderthals in Eurasia from a number of recent genetic studies, it has been difficult to rule out ancestral structure in Africa. We hope our study settles this issue.”

Before they died out around 30,000 years ago, Neanderthals co-existed with early modern humans in Europe and Asia for thousands of years.

Both groups first evolved in Africa before spreading out from the continent at different times, and are believed to have had a common ancestor.

Neanderthals are thought to have left Africa more than 200,000 years before early modern humans.