Donie's ireland daily news BLOG

Ireland should now plan to cut 12.5% corporation tax rate & steal a march on Brexit

   

Michael Noonan Minister for finance and Ibec policy chief Fergal O’Brien.

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT SHOULD GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AND CONSIDER CUTTING THE 12.5% CORPORATION TAX RATE, AND PREPARE AN “AGGRESSIVE” STRATEGY IN THE BUDGET TO PREPARE FOR ANY FALLOUT FROM THE DECISION OF THE UK TO QUIT THE EU, BUSINESS GROUP IBEC HAS SAID.

In a new policy document, the business group also advises the Government to temporarily secure a break on the EU spending rules and splash €1bn in building social housing next year.

It says a massive programme to build new social homes – the largest in the history of the State – is the only way to start to address the housing crisis.

Ibec said its new document, called ‘IBEC priorities for budget 2017’, represents a call to arms for the Government to respond in a new way to the threat of the Brexit on Irish businesses.

“The most important thing about this budget is it is seen as a Brexit response. A real aggressive drive is required.

“The Government has sat on its hands – but we have already seen [UK chancellor] George Osborne setting the terms for the UK government what they want to do with corporation tax cuts to 15%, possibly lower,” said Ibec policy chief Fergal O’Brien.

“The UK has laid down the gauntlet on its business tax ambitions, Ireland must now respond,” he said. “We are looking for a more aggressive approach”.

Ibec said a corporate tax rate cut should be part of the Government’s armoury, the budget should address the immediate challenges of the Brexit vote.

It said it was most concerned about the Irish indigenous companies which now face financial pain because of the slump in the value of sterling against the euro since the Brexit vote on June 23.

Ibec urges more favourable tax terms for the self-employed to match and compete with the incentives the UK offers its entrepreneurs, in capital gains and in the taxing of share awards.

“Sterling is a massive issue. This budget has to be about reacting to Brexit and addressing those competitive concerns which will help Irish business to be more competitive,” Mr O’Brien said.

“We think it would be completely illogical for example to increase our minimum wage to impact on those sectors such as food processing, tourism, retail and indigenous exporters, who are trying to cope with an exchange rate,” he said.

Mr O’Brien said Irish companies were already suffering after the plunge in sterling and it was up to Government to control business costs.

“Not that many companies are hedging. The majority of the smaller companies are going to be exposed really quickly,” he said, adding that proposals to introduce a sugar tax and raise excise duties on tobacco would hurt retailers.

“The UK is going to take out the bazooka. If they are outside the EU, they are going to act on state-aid issues.

“We are going to have to react. The budget is the first opportunity for the Government to show what they can do for indigenous companies,” Mr O’Brien said.

Ibec said that cutting the USC rate would not help businesses. It said its tax measures would cost €469m and its recommendations for spending on infrastructure and research and development would cost an extra €250m.

Spending on social housing would be covered by the Government securing a derogation from EU spending rules, Ibec said.

Ex-Nama ‘big player employee’ used inside knowledge to buy Dublin site, 

THE WEXFORD TD WALLACE ASKS TAOISEACH WHY HARCOURT STREET GARDA PREMISES WAS SOLD TO ‘VULTURE FUND’

  

INDEPENDENTS4 CHANGE TD MICK WALLACE HAS CLAIMED THAT A FORMER ‘BIG PLAYER’ IN NAMA USED INSIDER KNOWLEDGE TO PURCHASE THE SITE OF THE HARCOURT STREET GARDA CONTROL CENTRE.

A former “big player” in Nama used insider knowledge to purchase the site of the Harcourt Street Garda premises, Independents 4 Change TD Mick Wallacehas claimed.

Mr Wallace called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to explain why the State allowed Nama to sell the location of the Garda “command and control centre” for the entire country to a vulture fund.

Hibernia Reit later said the claims about it were “ill-informed, inaccurate and without foundation”.

Hibernia Reit is now taking a court action to have An Garda Síochána removed from the Harcourt Street premises, Mr Wallace told the Dáil.

“The company that now owns Hibernia Reit was set up by a guy who was a big player in Nama where he was a portfolio manager for three years,” the Wexford TD said.

Asking why Nama was allowed to sell the site to a vulture fund, rather than keep it in State ownership, Mr Wallace said: “Had it anything to do with the fact that the people to benefit from it were insiders?”

Mr Kenny told him “the advice given to me by the authorities is that loan portfolio was sold following an open process to the highest bidder”.

“I’ll find out the answer for you why Harcourt station was sold to a vulture fund,” Kenny said.

An objection lodged?

The Taoiseach said an objection had been lodged to the Hibernia Reit court action. He also said that if there was an allegation being made about an individual or entity the Comptroller & Auditor General was “perfectly entitled to investigate that completely independently”.

Mr Kenny said “there are a lot of rumours going around, a lot of speculation, a lot of allegations”.

He said that if Mr Wallace had any evidence “this will be treated seriously as it was in other areas where commissions of investigations have been involved”.

Speaking about the buyer, Mr Wallace said that “when he joined Nama he moved his 30 per cent shareholding in his father’s company to an offshore trust. Did he declare that to Nama?”

The same company “then benefited from some very lucrative work from Nama”.

‘Inside knowledge use’

Mr Wallace said the portfolio manager left Nama in December 2012 and “used his inside knowledge regarding Nama assets to line up investment funds that would provide the finance for this new company Hibernia Reit which he manages”.

Mr Wallace said “it wouldn’t require forensic knowledge to establish that Hibernia Reit did remarkably well in purchasing assets from Nama, many of which this gentleman was involved with”.

He said “the public interest would be best served if we examined the internal workings of Nama”.

“At this stage the majority of people believe Nama is rotten to the core,” he added.

Project Aspen

In a statement after Mr Wallace’s comments, Hibernia Reit said the claims about it were “ill-informed, inaccurate and without foundation”.

Hibernia REIT did not purchase Harcourt Square from Nama, the company said. Harcourt Square was sold by Nama to Starwood Capital in 2013, as part of a large portfolio of assets called Project Aspen. Hibernia acquired the property from Starwood Capital in February 2015.

“Hibernia REIT is an Irish listed and regulated public company that is investing in Ireland for the long term,” the statement said. “It is disappointing that Deputy Wallace has used the protection of Dail privilege to make a range of untrue allegations.”

Financial strain, overcrowded housing and deprivation and young people have it tougher nowadays, says the ESRI

RESEARCH FINDS OVER-65S HAVE FEWER QUALITY-OF-LIFE PROBLEMS THAN YOUNGER ADULTS

     

FINANCIAL STRAIN, OVERCROWDED HOUSING AND DEPRIVATION WERE AMONG THE MOST SERIOUS PROBLEMS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, ACCORDING TO ESRI RESEARCH.

Younger people are having a tougher time of it in modern Ireland than the over-65s, new research has suggested.

Far more of those aged 18-30 have multiple quality-of-life problems than people over 65, the research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

Financial strain, overcrowded housing and deprivation were among the most serious problems for young adults, while poor health and feeling unsafe were among the worrying issues for older people.

Differences between social classes were also identified, with poorer adults significantly more likely to have “multiple problems” than wealthier people. Their problems include poverty, financial stress and housing quality and health.

THE RECESSION?

The findings pointed to the harsher impact the recession had on young people and on lower socioeconomic groups, said its author Dorothy Watson.

Published today by the Department of Social Protection, the research goes beyond income to measure Irish adults’ quality of life. It used 11 indicators to examine not only economic wellbeing, but also physical and mental health.

Drawing on 2013 survey data from the Central Statistics Office, the indicators used were income poverty, inability to afford basic goods and services, financial strain, poor health, mental distress, housing quality problems, neighbourhood problems, crowded accommodation, mistrust in institutions, lack of social support, and feeling unsafe in one’s local area. The findings apply to adults over 18.

Just over 70% of all adults had experienced at least one of the issues, while 25.5% had faced three or more of them.

The ESRI found that while 31% of those aged 18-30 faced problems in relation to three or more of the issues, only 20% of those aged 65-70 and those aged 71-85 reported a similar level of problems.

THE SOCIAL CLASS IN IRELAND?

In relation to social class, it found 36% of those in the manual skilled and semi-skilled sector experienced multiple problems compared with 14 per cent in the professional-managerial sector.

Ms Watson said the findings were consistent with those of other studies, with evidence of younger adults contending with multiple social stressors less likely to impact on older people. These included the cost and availability of housing, childcare costs and increased precariousness of work.

In contrast, successive budgets had protected pensions.

She said better public services in other societies helped to mitigate some of these stressors, particularly on the poor and younger adults.

This teacher’s letter praising a pupil with autism is the nicest thing you’ll read today

Ruth Clarkson decided to pen a letter praising the student for qualities not examined in academic tests

   

THE MOTHER OF 11-YEAR-OLD BOY BEN TWIST, WHO HAS AUTISM, HAS SHARED A HEART-WARMING LETTER HIS TEACHER PENNED DETAILING ALL HIS QUALITIES THAT ACADEMIC TESTS COULD NOT MEASURE.

Ben’s teacher Ruth Clarkson decided to write the uplifting letter after he failed his stats which he sat earlier in the year.

Gail, Ben’s mother, posted the letter on Twitter and it has already been retweeted 3,500 times.

In tears. A letter to my 11 yr old autistic son from his school. “These tests only measure a little bit of you”

The letter reads: “A very important piece of information I want you to understand is that these tests only measure a little bit of you and your abilities. They are important and you have done so well but Ben Twist is made up of many other skills and talents that we at Lansbury Bridge see and measure in other ways.”

She then lists some of his qualities including his kindness, abilities in sport and artistic talents.

She continues: “We are so pleased that all of these different talents and abilities make you the special person you are and these are all of the things we measure to reassure us that you are always making progress and continuing to develop as a lovely bright young man. Well done Ben, we are very proud of you.”

Ben’s emotional mum told the Liverpool Echo: “Ben worked so hard and sitting the tests was a massive achievement. We knew the results were coming but to get a letter like that – I got part-way through it and I burst into tears.”

“He is all of the things they wrote about him – he is an amazing person. I think their words will stay with him if we keep reminding him what they said about him. When I told him he said: ‘Wow, do they really think all those things about me?’ It’s just a beautiful thing to do.”

New Benthic Underwater microscope lets scientists watch corals as they boogie on down

      

USING THE NEWLY RELEASED BENTHIC UNDERWATER MICROSCOPE, SCIENTISTS OBSERVED CORAL POLYPS OFF THE COASTS OF ISRAEL AND MAUI EATING, DANCING, AND EVEN KISSING.

New underwater microscope technology allows scientists to get an up-close and personal look at the secret lives of dancing coral, according to a study published in the July 12 issue of the journal Nature Communications.

Scientists say that the new microscope, called the Benthic Underwater Microscope (BUM), allows them to explore the underwater world in an unprecedented way. The microscope features an extremely high-resolution camera, an underwater computer with a diver interface, bright LED lights for fast exposure images, and a flexible, tunable lens that allows scientists to view underwater structures in 3D.

“To understand the evolution of the dynamic processes taking place in the ocean,” said study lead author Jules Jaffe in a statement, “we need to observe them at the appropriate scale.”

First on the list of underwater life forms to observe using the new microscope? Coral. The magnificent invertebrates may look stationary, but they are built by tiny creatures called polyps, which look similar to upside down jellyfish attached to the bottom sides of coral reefs.

Millions of polyps work together to build coral reefs by secreting calcium carbonate, with the tiny animals providing nutrients and color to the reef.

The new microscope allowed a team of scientists to observe the tiny polyps as they gently swayed, ate, and, apparently, danced.

Using the microscope, scientists were able to position themselves two inches away from the polyps and watch them as they captured tiny plankton and brine shrimp with tiny swaying tentacles.

Scientists left the microscopes out overnight in order to observe the polyps over an extended period. The images and footage gathered show the polyps’ gentle “dancing” and post-meal kisses that scientists say could be a way for polyps to share nutrients throughout the coral colony.

Images from the Benthic Underwater Microscope also revealed a more violent side to the secret lives of polyps, showing coral of different species conquering weaker specimens. In order to win more reef space, the conquering coral will emit filaments that secrete stomach enzymes to destroy the tissue of their competitors.

Researchers have used the BUM in two places thus far – the waters off of Maui and the coast of Israel. With some of the largest coral bleaching events ever recorded taking place this year, scientists were especially interested to study the hard hit coral reefs off of Maui.

With the help of their new microscopic tool, scientists discovered that in bleached areas, there is a honeycomb pattern of algal colonization (like underwater squatters, algae move in when coral is weak from bleaching) and algal growth around individual polyps on the coral.

When coral are weak, scientists found, algae are able to outgrow and smother the already struggling reefs.

Scientists are enthusiastic about the future of underwater exploration with this new microscope, which they say is a great leap forward in the tools available for seafloor study.

“This underwater microscope is the first instrument to image the seafloor at such small scales,” said Dr. Jaffe’s co-lead author Andrew Mullen of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

“This instrument is a part of a new trend in ocean research to bring the lab to the ocean, instead of bringing the ocean to the lab,” said fellow lead author Tali Treibitz of the University of Haifa.

Next up for the microscope: close-up study of coral surfaces and tiny particles in the water around them in an effort to understand how coral breathe through gas exchange.        

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

IBEC warns of threats to Irish economic growth

BREXIT POSSIBILITY CREATING COMPETITIVENESS RISK FOR IRISH EXPORTERS, SAYS LOBBY GROUP

    

BREXIT YES VOTE COULD SPARK DEVALUATION OF STERLING WHICH WOULD MEAN PRODUCTS FROM IRISH COMPANIES SELLING INTO THE UK WOULD EFFECTIVELY BE 30% MORE

Ibec the employers lobby group, expects economic growth of 4.6% this year and 3.9% for 2017. But it warned that uncertainty from the growing “economic headwinds” facing Ireland means the actual performance could deviate “substantially” from these numbers.

Its latest quarterly economic outlook warned that the possibility of a British exit from the European Union was creating a major competitiveness risk for Irish exporters into the UK. It also warned on the dangers of a global economic slowdown, spiralling wage growth at home and constraints due to Ireland’s acute housing shortage.

Ibec said a Brexit vote could spark a devaluation of sterling. That would mean products from Irish companies selling into the UK would effectively be 30 per cent more expensive following the June referendum than they were in January.

Different path

  Danny McCoy, the chief executive of Ibec, said that even if the UK votes to remain within the EU, it has set itself “on a different path” to the rest of Europe that could harm Irish economic prospects.

“Even if the UK stays, an ever-closer union is not for them. That’s massive [for Ireland]. Over time, it could lead to a significant drift away from the European core,” he said.

Ibec warned the UK would not be bound by state aid rules were it to leave the EU, potentially creating competition for Ireland for mobile foreign investment.

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On the upside, it said a Brexit could create opportunities for the Irish financial sector to capitalise by attracting UK-domiciled institutions that want an EU “home”.

Sean Kelly, leader of the Fine Gael delegation in the European Parliament, also warned yesterday of the dangers of a Brexit for Ireland, which he said would “severely damage” trade.

Ibec’s report predicts “continued increases in rental prices in and around the main cities” in Ireland due to the accommodation shortage.

“The current housing crisis is a supply side problem and is not likely to go away until enough houses are built to meet demand,” it said. However, it warned that building costs were still too high.

“There is a lazy assumption out there that just because house prices are rising, there will be huge investment in building,” said Mr McCoy. “But it isn’t like that. Investors in the sector have other places to put their money, such as into commercial property.”

Ibec is forecasting 2.1% employment growth, or an extra 40,000 jobs in the economy, with short-term unemployment almost down to pre-crisis levels. Wages will grow by about 2% this year.

The improvement in the labour market, meanwhile, should lead to a 4.1% increase in consumer spending in 2016, it said, although retail competition will keep price growth to a minimum.

Luas dispute

However, Ibec warned that the Luas dispute was an example of how wage demands are spiralling in some sectors and that the economy needs to focus on maintaining competitiveness.

“If wage growth stays within productivity growth, then you’ve no problem,” said Mr McCoy, “but there is no way of co-ordinating wages at a national level.”

He said that he was not calling for a return to a centralised system of collective bargaining over wages, as per the pre-crash social partnership deals, “but there does need to be some centralised forum for social dialogue on the elements that affect pay. We need an anchor for wage expectations.”

Ibec highlighted that there was a “ clear upward momentum in wage trends”, especially in certain sectors such as technology and in administration and support services.

It said that the still relatively high unemployment level of 8.8% was not acting as an effective brake on wage growth, as it normally would, because of the concentration of long-term unemployment in jobless figures.

Ireland’s brewers building a brighter future for their trade

  

RAY RYAN REPORTS THAT BREWERS IN IRELAND ARE BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE FOR THEMSELVES BY INCREASING THEIR INVESTMENT IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT.

Beer production remains an important sector within the Irish drinks industry in terms of indigenous manufacturing and the provision of jobs.

It accounts for about 50% of the market, directly employs around 2,500 people, and exports more than 40% of its production.

Exports last year increased by over 10% to around €265m as stronger trade to Britain, other European Union markets and the United States is helping to boost trade.

The craft beer sector in Ireland continues to be a success story, making up an estimated 1.2% of the market, with 40% of microbreweries exporting.

That represents a small portion of the overall Irish beverage exports to 130 markets worldwide last year. However, it highlights a huge potential for growth.

The craft beer industry alone is worth an estimated $12.5bn in annual sales in the United States. New York and Boston, cities with large numbers of people with Irish ancestry and many Irish pubs, are obvious marketing targets.

A number of Irish brewers are already exporting to the US. Some are focusing on on-trade channels while others are connecting with craft breweries and creating partnerships that are potentially beneficial to both sides.

With beer consumption in Ireland now approaching the average level of most northern European countries, the Irish Brewers Association is working to ensure that people are aware of their industry’s contribution to social and economic life.

Over 60 microbreweries now operate in Ireland with 22 of them having started in the past two years. The number is expected to exceed 100 by 2020.

The value added by the overall beer sector to the economy was €1.72bn in 2014. It spends €400m purchasing goods and services including transport and agricultural products.

It raised some €425m in excise receipts. The beer- related contribution to employment represents 44,741 jobs.

A new report by Europe Economics, ‘The Contribution made by Beer to the European Economy’ commissioned by the Brewers of Europe, found that brewing companies in Ireland are responding to the opportunities and challenges they are facing by increasing investment, particularly in product development.

The report says production fell slightly between 2013 and 2014, which it says reflects conditions in international markets.

It also says that the industry exported 2.8 million hectolitres of beer in 2014, and that 64% of beer in Ireland is consumed “in the on-trade”, meaning in restaurants and pubs.

The report also found the total beer-related contribution to government revenues increased from 2013 to 2014, with increases in excise duties and on-trade and off-trade Vat, in particular.

Jonathan McDade, the head of the Irish Brewers Association, said the Irish beer industry is experiencing an exciting period of development.

“As the report states, investment in product development is also up. These trends reflect an increasingly diverse beer sector, with more high-quality Irish beer products for consumers at home and abroad,” he said.

“This is having a knock on effect on employment, up by around 370 between 2013 and 2014 to almost 44,800 jobs,” he said.

Seamus O’Hara, managing director, Carlow Brewing Company (O’Hara’s Craft Beers), is the new chairman of the Irish Brewers Association, the representative industry group for brewers and beer distributors.

He grew up in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow. After completing a master’s degree in biotechnology at UCD, he moved to Britain, where he worked in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors with firms such as AstraZenca and Glaxo Smith Kline.

It was during this time that he was first exposed to the diversity and flavours of craft beers. In 1991, he moved back to Ireland, where he took up a position with Enterprise Ireland and 10 years later he left to co-found a new venture-capital firm, Seroba-Kernel.

In 1996, he and his brother Eamon set up Carlow Brewing Company on a small-scale part-time basis. In 2011, Seamus made the decision to move full-time into brewing.

The company’s website says there has never been a more exciting time to be part of the craft beer scene in Ireland.

“Craft beer consumers are becoming more numerous, confident and adventurous than ever before leading to demand for a wide variety of flavours and styles.

“Pubs and off-licenses are playing their part too and many now stock a broad range of Irish craft beer to meet customer demand,” it says.

Half of everything that the Carlow brewery produces is exported to more than 25 countries, including the US, France, Italy, Russia, Norway and Croatia.

Mr O’Hara, one of the craft brewing industry’s most recognisable pioneers, told the recent Teagasc National Malting Barely Growers Association conference that the sector is a growing business.

The craft beer products are still relatively small at 1.5% to 2% of the overall beer market in Ireland but with the right momentum there is a potential to grow this to 10%. “It is a great honour to be entrusted with the role of chairperson of the Irish Brewers Association, particularly as the Carlow Brewing Company celebrates its 20 year anniversary this year.

“The Irish Brewers Association, has represented the interest of brewers in Ireland since 1908. Since then the industry has changed drastically and in 2016 we continue to experience exciting developments, with new breweries opening across the country and established players expanding and investing,” he said.

Mr O’Hara said the number of microbreweries operating here has more than trebled since 2012. Consumers have never had more choice. His appointment association chairman was another acknowledgement of the importance of the craft sector to the wider brewing industry.

“I hope that I can use my experience in developing a small but successful brewery within a fledgling industry to guide the Irish Brewers Association over the next two years,” he said.

British pet insurers paid out record claims for last year 2015

  

PET INSURERS DEALT WITH 686,000 CLAIMS FOR DOGS.

Pet insurers paid out a record £657 million in claims in 2015 – equating to £1.8 million every day – according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The figures show that in 2015, t he number and cost of claims reached record levels, with 911,000 pet insurance claims made, up 9% on 2014. Their cost, at £657 million, was also up 9% on the previous year.

The average claim was for £721 last year, while the average pet insurance premium was £241.

Pet insurers dealt with 686,000 claims for dogs costing £501 million. For cats, 193,000 claims were handled, worth £105 million.

Despite the record payouts last year, most pet owners remain uninsured, the ABI said. Only one in four of the nine million dog owners and one in seven of the 7.9 million cat owners are thought to have pet insurance.

The ABI said some of the more unusual pet insurance claims handled include the r emoval of a sock eaten by a dog, and treatment for a cat which fell from a fourth floor window.

Mark Shepherd, general insurance manager at the ABI, said: “The record levels of claims handled by pet insurers highlights that owning a pet can be costly as well as rewarding.”

Protein rich weight loss diet can lead to a better night’s sleep

   

Previous studies have already linked the effect of sleep on weight loss and diet but a new study looked on the opposite perspective and focused on the effect of protein weight loss diet on sleep.

A group of researchers from the Purdue University in Indiana found out that obese and overweight people who follow a high protein-diet for several months have better sleep at night. The study initially involved 14 participants – 11 women and 3 men – who were asked to follow a high-protein diet based on pork and beef or soy and legume products in the first pilot study. On the other hand, the main study focused on 44 obese and overweight participants with ages 35 to 65 years old who were assigned into two groups; the first group was asked to follow a normal protein diet while the other group was given a high protein weight loss diet.  The study was led by Wayne Campbell, a professor of nutrition science at Purdue University, and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The protein diets given to the participants were designed by a dietitian who ensured that the participants’ daily recommended energy intakes were met. Furthermore, a total of 750 calories worth of carbohydrates and fats were removed from the diets per day while maintaining the amount of protein assigned to each group. The protein sources for the diets were beef, pork, soy, legumes and milk protein.

The participants of the main study were able to adapt to the diet after three weeks and continued on their protein diets for 16 weeks. During this period, the participants were able to consume 0.8 or 1.5 kilograms of protein for each kg of body weight daily. They were also given a survey every month to assess the quality of their sleep during the course of the study.

In the pilot study, results showed that the 14 participants reported to have better sleep after four weeks of consuming a high protein weight loss diet. The same trend was observed in the sleep quality of participants who followed the high protein diet in the main study after three to four months.

ANTARCTIC BIRDS CAN RECOGNIZE INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE, AND ATTACK INTRUDERS

    

ANTARCTIC BROWN SKUAS ARE CAPABLE OF RECOGNIZING INDIVIDUAL HUMANS, A NEW PAPER HAS SHOWN.

Birds living among people are able to differentiate between individual humans but scientists have now found that skuas (above right) living in remote Antarctica can also recognise people who had previously accessed their nests. The researchers from Inha University and Korea Polar Research Institute in South Korea performed a series of experiments on brown skuas living in Antarctica.

Antarctic brown skuas are large brownish birds that eat fish and other small animals, and they have been known to steal prey from other predators. They’ve even been observed pilfering sips of breast milk from nursing elephant seals. Living life as a food thief, or a kleptoparasite as biologists call it, requires a relatively high level of intelligence.

But brown skuas (Stercorarius antarcticus) may be even smarter than we thought. A study published in March in the journal Animal Cognition found that these large birds can recognize individual people.

Korean scientists at a research station on King George Island, off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, embarked on a study of seven brown skua nests, to see if the birds were breeding and how many young they were having. However, they noticed that the birds would begin to act much more aggressively and even attack—swooping in on researchers and hitting them on the head with their feet—after the researcher had visited the nest a couple times.

Antarctic brown skuas are capable of recognizing individual humans, a new paper has shown.

But it didn’t stop there. “When I was with other researchers, the birds flew over me and tried to hit me,” said Yeong-Deok Han, a doctoral student at Inha University, in a statement. “Even when I changed my field clothes, they followed me. The birds seemed to know me no matter what I wear.”

This strongly suggested that the brown skuas were recognizing Han. Other birds such as crows, ravens and magpies have already been shown to recognize individual humans. However, this ability remains rare among birds, so far as we know.  To further explore this possibility, the scientists set up an experiment in which a pair of researchers—one who had approached the nest before (labeled as the “intruder), and one who hadn’t—walked toward the nest and waited for a few seconds as the birds flew toward them. They then walked in different directions (away from the nest). In each case, for all seven breeding pairs of birds tested, the skuas followed the intruder and ignored the newcomer.

“It is amazing that brown skuas, which evolved and lived in human-free habitats, recognized individual humans just after three or four visits,” said Won Young Lee, a senior researcher from Korea Polar Research Institute. “It seems that they have very high levels of cognitive abilities.”

Since the change of clothes didn’t deter the birds, it suggests they are able to recognize humans by looking at their face, or perhaps recognizing differences in body posture and gait, according to the study.

Most birds that can recognize human individuals, like crows, have lived in the same area as humans for longer, so it’s possible that evolution could have helped select for this human-identifying ability. With brown skuas, however, they have only been exposed to humans since the 1950s, so evolutionary pressures almost certainly haven’t played a role in developing this ability, the researchers wrote.