Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

2015 on track to be Ireland’s best-ever year for tourism

   

2015 is set to be a record year for tourism, according to a new report from the CSO.

Figures show that more than 1.5 million trips were made to Ireland by overseas visitors in the first three months of 2015.

That represents a 13% rise on the same period last year.

The news comes as Fáilte Ireland is reminding towns that today is the closing date for entrants to apply to the 2015 Tourism Towns Award.

Alex Connolly from Fáilte Ireland said that that these figures are good news for tourism operators across the country.

“The American market is extremely strong – that’s been helped by the fact that the American economy is improving – but also by the fact that the currency is currently working in favour of American visitors,” he said.

“Also the UK market, the British market, is very strong at the moment.

“We’ve recently surveyed the tourism businesses in Ireland and eight of 10 tourism operators are telling us that they reckon their business will be up this year.

“We could be looking at the best tourism year on record.”

Drumm, Fitzpatrick, McAteer, Whelan (The notorious four) given inquiry date

 

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern asked to appear on July 16th, before former Anglo executives.

Former Anglo Irish Bank executives David Drumm, Sean Fitzpatrick, Willie McAteer and Pat Whelan have been directed to appear before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry on July 29th.

Other high-profile Anglo executives John Bowe and Tom Browne have been directed to appear on July 24th. Mr Bowe was a former head of capital markets at the bank and featured prominently in the Anglo Tapes controversy.

Mr McAteer and Mr Whelan were found guilty last year of giving illegal loans to 10 developers to buy shares in the bank and ordered to do community service. This followed a 48-day trial.

In addition, former Irish Nationwide Building Society chairman Michael Walshhas been directed to attend on September 2nd, along with John Stanley Purcell, a former director with the institution.

Anglo and INBS received €34.7 billion in bailout cash from Irish taxpayers following the crash of the Irish financial sector in late 2008.

However, no date has yet been set for the appearance of INBS’s former chief executive Michael Fingleton, who was issued with a notice to attend the committee on May 21st.

Other high profile players in the financial sector before and after the crash who have yet to be given a date include, Alan Dukes, the former chairman of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, Mike Aynsley, IBRC’s ex chief executive, Gillian Bowler, a former chair of Irish Life & Permanent, Gary McGann, a former director of Anglo, Fergus Murphy, a former head of EBS Building Society who is now an executive with AIB, and Matt Moran, an executive with Anglo.

These directions were issued late yesterday as part of the latest tranche of communications by the Inquiry to witnesses to appear before the committee, which is investigating the events that led up to the financial crash in 2008.

The 11-person committee is being chaired by the Labour Party’s Ciarán Lynch.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been asked to appear on July 16th while the current holder of the office Enda Kenny will appear a week later, along with jobs ministerRichard Bruton.

Tánaiste Joan Burton will appear on the same date along with the former Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte.

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is set to go in front of the committee on September 10th.

It now remains to be seen if all of those directed to appear will actually turn up at the committee, in particular Mr Drumm, who moved to the United States after his exit from Anglo and has shown little interest in returning to Ireland.

Rethink again how you eat your vegetables

    

We’re always being told to eat our greens, pack our diet full of fruit and vegetables and get much-needed nutrients into our bodies.

But while many of us think that pinging a steam fresh bag of veg in the microwave or popping a few florets of broccoli in a pan to go with our dinner will do the job, it turns out that a lot of our storing, preparation and cooking methods of vegetables are actually diminishing their nutritional value.

In her new book Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health, journalist Jo Robinson has shared some top tips on how to make sure you are getting the most out of the veggies you eat.

Cook tomatoes for longer. The longer you cook tomatoes for, the more nutritious they become because the heat changes the lycopene within them into a form our bodies can process a lot easier. This means that canned tomatoes have more nutritional benefits than the fresh variety thanks to the cooking and canning process.

Boiling vegetables. Most of us will have heard before that boiling vegetables like spinach is wrong because water soluble vitamins like vitamin C seep out during the process. However Jo reveals that antioxidant levels also lower when boiled. Instead, try steaming, sautéing or roasting your veg to keep it nutritious.

Don’t cook chopped garlic straightaway. If you put chopped or minced garlic in a hot pan as soon as you’ve prepared it, you stand little chance of absorbing any allicin, the beneficial compound that makes garlic such a fundamental part of a healthy diet. This is because it hasn’t had chance to activate, so leave it for ten minutes after preparing before putting it on the heat as this will give the enzyme a chance to do its thing.

Cutting carrots before cooking. We’re all guilty of this mistake at some point: cutting carrots before cooking them. While it seems like the logical thing to do, cooking them whole, then chopping them into your desired shape helps keep more nutrients in the little orange numbers. Jo adds that cooked carrots are better for you than in their raw form, as it helps break down the cell walls, which means the nutrients are easier to get to.

Some 7,700+ patients on Irish Hospital trolleys during May

    

It’s the highest May figure since records began

Over 7,700 patients were left waiting on trolleys for an inpatient bed last month – a 31% increase on the same period last year, new figures have shown.

According to the latest ‘Trolley/Ward Watch’ figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 7,713 patients were left waiting on trolleys during May of this year compared to 5,891 during May of last year.

These are the highest May trolley figures seen since records began in 2006. In May of that year, 4,214 people were left waiting on trolleys, therefore last month’s figure of 7,713 represents an 83% increase.

The hospitals with the highest number of patients on trolleys last month included Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital (782), Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda (718), University Hospital Limerick (538) and University Hospital Galway (524).

The INMO pointed out that in recent weeks, two patients who were over 100 years old, were left waiting on trolleys for more than 24 hours. However, it insisted that ‘every day is the same inside Emergency Departments (EDs), with elderly people on trolleys lined up, head to toe, along small narrow corridors’.

The organisation said that there are not enough nurses to care for these patients and at this point, many of its members are ‘embarrassed to have to face patients and their families who have to suffer this indignity’.

INMO general secretary, Liam Doran, described the treatment of these elderly patients as ‘a damning indictment of our society’.

“While some investment has been made recently, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Government as a whole needs to take responsibility for this ongoing crisis as we continue to see a deterioration in the figures month on month,” he commented.

He added that the stated target of having a reduction in the level of daily overcrowding in EDs by October 1 ‘is merely a pipe dream’, unless there is major investment in acute beds, step-down beds, community services and recruitment initiatives for nursing and other staff.

Six care workers in court for alleged assault of Áras Attracta patients

  

Case put back until July 14th to allow disclosure of TV footage and various documents

Six people appeared in court on Friday for allegedly assaulting patients who are intellectually disabled at the HSE-run Áras Attracta centre in Swinford, Co Mayo

Six people appeared in court on Friday for allegedly assaulting patients who are intellectually disabled at the HSE-run Áras Attracta centre in Swinford, Co Mayo.

The cases against all six, five women and a man, were put back until July 14th for mention by Judge Mary Devins at a sitting of Ballina District Court.

The cases against the defendants were put back to allow for disclosure of TV footage and various documents and papers that the State is seeking to rely on.

The six accused, Joan Gill (62), Dublin Road, Swinford; Patrick McLoughlin (56), Lalibella, Mayfield, Claremorris;Christina Delaney (35), Seefin, Lissatava, Hollymount;Kathleen King (56), Knockshanbally, Straide, Foxford; Joan Walsh (42), Carrowilkeen, Curry, Co Sligo and Anna Ywunsong Botsimbo (34), Lowpark Avenue, Charlestown, were all present for this morning’s brief court hearing.

An intensive garda investigation into allegations of assault was mounted following a Prime Time TV investigation late last year.

Footage, which was secretly filmed by an undercover reporter, showed residents at the centre being forced fed, physically restrained, shouted at and slapped.

The assaults allegedly occurred in November at what is known as ‘Bungalow 3’ in the Áras Attracta complex.

One of the accused, Ms Gill, faces five assault charges, the others one each.

Judge Devins put back all the cases to July 14th for mention to allow disclosure be provided. A date for a full hearing will be decided thereafter.

Solicitors for five of the accused requested that an application for free legal aid be deferred until a later date.

On the instructions of the DPP charges against all six defendants have been brought under Section 2 of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

The penalties for conviction are a fine of €1,905 or six months in prison.

The State was represented at the hearing by the State Solicitor for Mayo, Vincent Deane.

Polar bears develop a taste for dolphins as the Arctic warms up

   

Norwegian scientists have seen polar bears eating dolphins in the Arctic for the first time ever and blame global warming for the bears expanding their diet.

Polar bears feed mainly on seals but Jon Aars at the Norwegian Polar Institute has photographed dolphins being devoured by a bear and published his findings in the latest edition of Polar Research this month.

“It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north,” he told AFP.

The first incident he documented was in April 2014 when his team came across a polar bear feeding on two white-beaked dolphins.

Although dolphins are regularly seen in the Norwegian Arctic in the summer when the ice has melted, they have never been observed during winter or spring when the sea is usually still covered in sheets of ice.

But Norwegian scientists have reported a strong retreat of ice and two nearly ice-free winters in recent years which they said could have attracted the dolphins further north, where they probably became trapped by the sudden arrival of dense ice blown into a fjord by strong northerly winds.

Aars said the bear he photographed had probably caught the two dolphins when they surfaced to breathe through a tiny hole in the ice.

“Even if they saw the bear, the dolphins did not necessarily have any other choice,” he said.

In the photos a skinny old male bear devours one of the dolphins and appeared to have stored a second one under snow for later – something which scientist had never seen before.

“We think that he tried to cover the dolphin in snow in the hope that other bears, foxes or birds would have less of a chance of finding it. Maybe to be able to eat it a day or two later, once he had digested the first one,” Aars said.

After the first incident in 2014, a further five cases of dolphins stranded or captured and then eaten by bears have been reported.

“I don’t think that this signifies a great upheaval” in the diet of the carnivores, Aars said. “It’s just that the polar bear is coming into contact with species they have not been used to meeting until now.”

Polar bears are opportunistic predators that are also known to feed on small whales if the opportunity arises.     

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Irish State’s elderly population set to increase significantly in next 45 years

 

A new EU report has said that the Republic’s elderly population is set to increase dramatically over the next 45 years.

The Irish State’s pension problems may be due to get worse, with new figures showing that the Republic’s elderly population is set to increase dramatically over the next 45 years.

The European Commission’s 2015 Ageing Report, published today, shows the national population is expected to rise to 5.3 million by 2060, with average life expectancy increasing from 79 to 85 for men and from 83 to 89 for women.

The elderly population, currently classified as those aged 80 and over, will rise from its current population share of 2.9% to as high as 10.2% over the same period.

Public spending demands will rise accordingly in the areas of healthcare and pension payments, the report says.

Unemployment benefits

Spending on unemployment benefits, however, will most likely decrease due to a decline in the younger population.

The report says that those aged up to 14 years will fall in proportional terms from 21.9% to 18.5% of the population, with unemployment rates in the 20 to 64 age bracket expected to decrease from 12.8% in 2013 to 6.5% in 2060.

In broader terms, the EU population is projected to increase by almost 5%, rising from 507 million in 2013 to as high as 526 million by 2050.

A decline in population to about 523 million is then forecast over the following decade, although that figure may be altered by variations due to immigration.

According to these projections, the UK would become the most populous country in the EU by 2060, with about 80 million people, followed by France (76 million), Germany(71 million), Italy (66 million) and Spain (46 million).

SuperValu and Tesco on Irish retailer’s top spot

  

The Irish supermarkets SuperValu and Tesco have now 25% market share each and are tied in first place, according to the latest figures from Kantor for the 12 weeks ending April.

“Over the past 12 weeks SuperValu and Tesco have each captured 25% of the grocery market, with SuperValu battling to hold on to the number one position it claimed last month and Tesco aiming to recover lost ground,” said David Berry, director at Kantar Worldpanel.

Among the big three retailers, Dunnes has posted the strongest sales growth of 3.6%, lifting its market share from 21.5% to 22%.

Dunnes has been benefiting from an offer that gives hefty discounts to customers who make big purchases.

It wasn’t good news for everybody.

“One of the most interesting trends in the latest data is the slowing growth rate of bothAldi and Lidl,” he added.

“While the 8.8% growth posted by Aldi and 7.8% for Lidl remains impressive, this is the first time since 2010 that both Aldi and Lidl have grown their sales by less than 10%.”

Classroom internet access linked to much higher Irish schools sucess test scores

 

Schools teaching design and graphics programme set to benefit from €7m in grants.

Researchers said “we cannot be certain that the use of internet in the class caused” the higher scores but a strong “relationship” was identified.

Primary school children who used the internet in the classroom had significantly higher mathematics and reading scores on average than peers who had no online access, a study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

The researchers said “we cannot be certain that the use of internet in the class caused” the higher scores but there was a strong “relationship” identified.

The study comes amid further investment in technology in schools, with the announcement of €7 million in grants to post-primary schools to support the implementation of Design and Communication Graphics (DCG) curriculum.

Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan announced the funding on Tuesday, which will see 450 schools get an average of €15,560 for the purchase of computers and software to encourage more students to take DCG in the Leaving Cert.

The ESRI study, published in the ‘Economic and Social Review’, identified “encouraging” returns from the state’s investment of €30 million in primary school broadband between 2005 and 2008.

The researchers found “no evidence for Ireland of the negative effects of broadband in schools reported in some studies internationally” but cited a time lapse in the positive results filtering through here.

“We found that on average teachers were more than twice as likely to use the internet in class after broadband service was installed under the programme, but it took about two years for this gain to emerge.

“This is not surprising, because it takes time for teachers to learn to use new technologies and to change their teaching practices.

“In addition, teachers in schools with better computer-related facilities were also more likely to use the internet in class.”

While many teachers and pupils express frustration at slow broadband speeds, the researchers found that having a faster connection speed had no statistically significant effect on educational outcomes.

Of the scale of these improvements, the authors noted, “the average difference in mathematics test scores between children in classes with and without internet use was as big as the rise enjoyed by children whose mothers had completed a degree rather than finishing at the Leaving Cert”.

ESRI and TCD researcher Seán Lyons, one of the authors of the study, said “we think the effect of the internet in the classroom depends on the context, and the way it’s used.

“So it may even differ from one school to another, and certainly from one country to another.”

A study in Portugal last year found that the roll out of broadband in schools led to negative educational outcomes for both male and female pupils.

But Mr Lyons said Portuguese schools appeared to have brought in internet access “in an unrestrictive way”.

The negative impact had been greatest in Portuguese schools where pupils were allowed to access websites such as YouTube.

For the study, the team of researchers, comprising Mr Lyons, Marie Hyland, Richard Layte, Selina McCoy and Mary Silles, examined data from standardised test scores, statistics on the broadband rollout, and figures from the Growing Up in Ireland survey.

Announcing the grants for the DCG programme, Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan says the subject incorporated principles of science, materials, manufacture, design, technology and information technology and as such “directly contributes to the key skills required in Ireland’s knowledge-based economy”.

In 2012, 5,319 candidates sat the exam, with the predicted 2015 figure standing at 5,705.

“The allocated funding has been increased accordingly and will ensure that this important subject continues to go from strength to strength,” she said.

Letters will issue to schools detailing the amount of money they’re being allocated, based on the number of students who had taken the subject in the past three-four years.

The Department has also purchased support software from Solid Solutions Ireland for six years and three months, at a cost of €299,000.

Tourism Ireland Board Meets in Sligo

  

The Sligo Park Hotel was the venue for the May board meeting of Tourism Ireland, which took place on Thursday, 7th May.

The board members took the opportunity to meet with local tourism operators prior to the meeting, to discuss the upcoming peak season and the extensive promotional programme which Tourism Ireland is undertaking to highlight Sligo, the North West and the island of Ireland around the world this year.

Speaking after the board meeting, Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “We were delighted to be in Sligo for this month’s board meeting and to have the chance to meet with representatives of the tourism industry from Sligo and to hear directly how business is shaping up for the upcoming peak season.”

Man falls flat on his face behind Vincent Browne live on air

  

TV3 broadcaster Vincent Browne can’t help but chuckle when somebody faceplants behind him as he says his intro on Tonight with Vincent Browne.

Watch the TV clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opGudV7EhXM

During the opening of the show, which was broadcast from the Headfort Arms Hotel in Kells, the unlucky man stumbles and falls, landing at the presenter’s feet, prompting

Vincent to look down in surprise and exclaim, “Somebody’s just fallen down beside me” much to the delight of audience and guests alike.

Robot pets way of future, could change human relationship with animals, researcher says

  

Robot pets could be common place in 10 years’ time and change the way we interact and relate with the real things, a Melbourne researcher believes.

Dr Jean-Loup Rault from Melbourne University studies animal welfare and the way humans and animals interact with each other.

Recently, he has been looking into how technology has changed the way we relate to animals and pets.

“We know very little about robotic pets, virtual animals online and what they actually do to people,” Dr Rault said.

“Is that going to change the way we relate to animals? Can that be a substitute to a live pet?

“Technology is moving very fast. The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really a prototype of a robotic pet and now Sony and other big companies have elaborated a lot on what have become robotic animals.”

He said humans were able to become emotionally attached to objects.

“There’s anecdotal evidence and a few studies that show people actually develop a bond, some kind of emotional attachment to those robots,” Dr Rault said.

“They know it’s not a live pet, they don’t consider it as a live animal but they also don’t consider it a mere object.

“It has an intermittent status between that of an animal and that of an object that projects some kind of personality.”

Dr Rault said robot pets could suit someone living in inner-city or high-density areas, as well as those with allergies and who were unable to look after a live animal.

But robotics expert Professor Maurice Pagnucco from the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales said there was still a big gap between the current technology and a “virtual pet”.

“I don’t think we’re at the point where you could have a reliable pet,” he said.

“They wouldn’t be at the same level as a real pet, at the moment they’re basically toys.

“But where we’ll be in the future, we can’t really say.”

Technology ‘now part of our normal lives’

Dr Rault said the growing popularity of robot pets also raised questions about the way humans developed socially.

“There are school programs that use animals to teach children about responsibility, if you replace those live animals with robotic animals that don’t need to feed, you just plug them in and turn them off, is that the same thing?” he said.

“Are they going to develop in a different way?

Maybe you have a dog that stays at home when you’re at work so you buy it a robotic companion, so it interacts with it when you’re gone.

Dr Jean-Loup Rault, researcher

“It raises some major ethical questions in the same way that Facebook has – does interacting with others on the site actually make you social or less social?”

Dr Rault said robot pets could also have a positive effect, with robotic baby seals being used in the United States to help people with Alzheimer’s.

“They found out if you gave them a robotic baby seal, people would interact with it and derive some benefits from it,” he said.

“Maybe you have a dog that stays at home when you’re at work so you buy it a robotic companion, so it interacts with it when you’re gone and it keep it company.

“It’s not replacing anything that we have, it’s creating something new.

“Now we think as them as strange, weird and perhaps creepy, but in 10 years’ time people may think it’s normal.

“The new generation is very different. This technology is part of their lives, it’s not seen as something extra.

“Will it change the way we interact with real animals? A difficult question to ask, but it is an interesting one.”

Donie's Ireland news BLOG Wednesday

Study confirms young Irish male suicide increase due to collapse of our economy

 

Men’s Health Forum in Ireland to launch all-Ireland ‘Young Men and Suicide Project’

Since March 2011, the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland (MHFI –http://www.mhfi.org) has been working on an all-Ireland ‘Young Men and Suicide Project’ (YMSP). This cross-Border initiative was jointly funded by the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and the National Office for Suicide Prevention in the Republic of Ireland.

On Wednesday 23rd January 2013, the report on this project will be launched at noon at two separate short events which are being held in Belfast and Dublin. In Belfast, the report will be officially launched by Minister for Health, Edwin Poots MLA, while Minister of State Kathleen Lynch TD will launch it in Dublin.

Launching the report, Edwin Poots MLA will tell the audience that: “Despite my Department‟s investment of over £32 million in suicide prevention since 2006, the suicide rate has not fallen. Around 300 people a year in Northern Ireland continue to die by suicide every year. Men aged from 18 to 54 who live in deprived areas face the greatest level of risk. In fact, males are three times as likely as females to die by suicide.

“Combating suicide is an immensely challenging task and there is no single miraculous intervention. We need to trial a range of interventions and persist with those that prove to be effective. That is one of the reasons why the Young Men and Suicide Project report is so valuable. It points us towards measures that have been tried and tested, and shown to be useful.”

Suicide is a major cause of death among young males on the island of Ireland. The recent spike in suicide rates among young males in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland coincides with the economic downturn and increasing levels of unemployment.

The aim of YMSP was to identify a range of possible means to promote positive mental health among young men, and to assess the effectiveness of these approaches. In essence, it sought to examine ‘what works with young men and what is needed.’

The lead author of the YMSP report, Dr Noel Richardson, states: “There can be no quick-fix solutions to tackling the very grave statistics on suicide in young men on the island of Ireland; but neither is there any place for inertia or ambivalence. There is both a public health and a moral requirement to act.

“There needs to be a concerted effort to engage more effectively, and in a more sustained way, with young men, and to plan services and programmes with young men in mind. This report provides a blueprint and a roadmap for action.”

The Northern Ireland launch will be held in YouthAction NI, 14 College Square North, Belfast BT1 6AS. It will include an address from Edwin Poots MLA, Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

The Republic of Ireland launch will be held in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. It will include an address from Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister of State, Department of Health and Department of Justice, Equality and Defence with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality and Mental Health.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar dismisses Kerry Council’s calls to legalise drink-driving

 

The Irish transport Minister Leo Varadkar has rubbished attempts by a county council to legalise drink-driving for people in rural areas.

Mr Varadkar said country roads are already the most dangerous in Ireland and granting some people a permit to flout the law sends the wrong message internationally.

“Most of the accidents that are happening are happening in rural areas and on country roads,” said Mr Varadkar.

“While rural isolation is a real problem, the solution to it is not to hand out drink driving permits.

“Obviously it’s something we very much disagree with.”

Kerry County Council sparked outrage among road safety chiefs after it voted in favour of a motion to exempt people in isolated areas from national drink-driving laws.

Councillor Danny Healy-Rae – a publican who proposed the move – argued that allowing people to drive while under the influence could save lives.

He said it would prevent depression and suicide among people living in remote areas by allowing them to drive to and from their nearest pub.

The five council members who voted in favour – Mr Healy-Rae, his son Johnny Healy-Rae, Michael Cahill, Bobby O’Connell and Michael O’Shea – are all publicans, former publicans or connected to the pub trade.

Twelve councillors were absent from the chamber when the move was passed, while seven other councillors abstained from the vote.

The council will now ask Justice Minister Alan Shatter to issue licences that would allow people living in remote countryside to drive home from their nearest pub while over the legal limit – provided they drive slowly.

As the transport minister and Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett officially launched new European standard credit card style driving licences for motorists, the pair insisted Ireland’s city roads and motorway network were among the safest in Europe as a result of the stringent drink-driving laws.

“Councils of course are entitled to pass any motion they like, that’s not for me to prescribe to them,” Mr Varadkar said.

“But what is the case, is our cities are now very safe. Dublin is now the safest city in Europe. Our motorway network is very safe.”

Road safety chief Mr Brett accused Kerry County Council of trying to drag Ireland back to “darker days”.

He said while Ireland was working hard to raise its profile as the sixth safest country in Europe in terms of road safety, this would undo all its good work.

“It’s not enforceable, it’s not insurable and it’s not practical,” Mr Brett added.

Ireland introduced random breath-testing at Garda checkpoints in 2006 and lower drink-drive limits in 2011.

Latest figures show 161 people lost their lives on Irish roads last year, a record low at 25 fewer than 2011 and 51 less than 2010.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates visits Dublin

 

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft pictured following a meeting with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, TD at Government Buildings, in Dublin this morning.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates was described as a “friend of Ireland” by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore following a one-hour meeting focused on overseas development aid this morning.

Mr Gates, the billionaire and philanthropist, met separately with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Government Buildings and will call on President Michael D Higgins.

Mr Gilmore said Mr Gates paid tribute to the work Ireland continued to do on development aid in difficult economic times.

“He had encouraging things to say to me about Ireland’s recovery. He expressed a very strong hope that Ireland would recover. He’s a very significant person in the world of business,” Mr Gilmore said.

“He’s very much a friend of Ireland. He expressed that friendship and that’s one of the reasons he was here today.”

Mr Gates is visiting a number of European countries ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Mr Gilmore said Mr Gates expressed concern about where the European Union budget “will land” in terms of its international budget, 90 per cent of which goes towards development aid at present.

Mr Gilmore said he told Mr Gates the objective was to try to agree the budget early next month.

The pair also discussed the drive to end polio. “Ireland is very much involved in making polio history,” Mr Gilmore said.

He said the disease had been eliminated in India but remained a problem in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Massive support grows for generic drugs in Ireland

  

Since 2008, the proportion of people reporting that their doctor or pharmacist had discussed prescription options has doubled.

There is growing public awareness and support for the use of cheaper generic drugs in the health system, according to a new survey.

Some 85 per cent of those surveyed said drug prices were too high and virtually all – 98 per cent – supported measures to cut the cost of medicines, according to the cost of medicines index published by Behaviour & Attitudes.

The survey carried out for Teva Pharmaceuticals also revealed high levels of acceptance of generic alternatives with 91 per cent of people agreeing they were as safe and effective as brand name drugs.

Since 2008, the proportion of people reporting that their doctor or pharmacist had discussed prescription options has doubled, to 41 per cent, and proportion of people offered a generic alternative when filling a prescription also increased from 39 per cent to 71 per cent.

Only one-third of respondents said they were aware of Government initiatives to reduce medicine costs, but 95 per cent expressed support for these measures.

Senator John Crown said that while greater use of generics was needed, drug prices were a “softer target” for criticism than other elements of health spending such as money used for ministerial advisers or the provision of Viagra on the medical card schemes.

He said low rates of corporation tax was the sole reason pharmaceutical multinationals were attracted to Ireland and the price charged for their drugs in the local market was insignificant by comparison. Ireland should have a 0 per cent corporation tax rate for companies engaging in R&D, he suggested.

Sandra Gannon, general manager of Teva, said alarmist newspaper headlines about high drug prices didn’t tell the full story.

While the price of generic drugs in the UK was much lower than in Ireland, this was the result of many years of focused effort, she said.

The Government could reduce its annual drugs bill but this would involve a wider programme of reforms rather than relying solely on “blunt” drug price cuts.

“Drug price cuts are not an infinite well. They can only deliver so much. Indeed, much has already been given,” she said. An increase in generic sales would have to accompany price cuts, as well as measures to ensure that patients were using their medication in the most effective and cost-effective manner.

New Ireland.com tourism website launched

  

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the website was built after a full open EU tender.

A new Tourism Ireland website built to attract overseas visitors to the island of Ireland was not designed here, it has emerged.

Described by Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar as “crucial in promoting The Gathering 2013”, the contract to design the new Ireland.com site was given to a UK agency.

Costing €3 million to develop, including the €500,000 purchase of the Ireland.com domain name from the Irish Times, the site launched in early January.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the site’s developer was chosen after a “full open EU tender” in which London-based agency Hugo & Cat offered “the best combination of capability and value”.

The agency, which has done campaigns for Sony and Nokia, had also been engaged by Failte Ireland to create a film showcasing Dublin as a Unesco City of Literature.

Tourism Ireland says Ireland.com, which features 1,700 images of Ireland and is being rolled out to 30 markets in 11 languages including Chinese and Russian, targets the 70 per cent of people who now research and book their holidays online.

Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and filmmaker, calls our humanity 

‘A plague on the Earth’

   

Sir David Attenborough above, the famed British naturalist and television presenter, has some harsh words for humanity and right the Great Barrier Reef.

“We are a plague on the Earth,” Attenborough told the Radio Times, as reported by the Telegraph. “It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so.”

Attenborough went on to say that both climate change and “sheer space” were looming problems for humanity.

“Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he said.

Sir David is not the only naturalist who has warned of population growth outstripping resources.  Paul Ehrlich, the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and author of “The Population Bomb” (Sierra Club-Ballantine, 1968) has long used language similar to Attenborough’s. And in 2011, an analysis of species loss suggested that humans are beginning to cause a mass extinction on the order of the one that killed the dinosaurs.

When asked about Attenborough’s comments on humanity as its own scourge, Ehrlich told LiveScience he “completely agree[d], as does every other scientist who understands the situation.” [Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth]

Even so, that doesn’t mean forceful measures must be taken. “Government propaganda, taxes, giving every sexually active human being access tomodern contraception and backup abortion, and, especially, giving women absolutely equal rights and opportunities with men might very well get the global population shrinkage required if a collapse is to be avoided,” Ehrlich said.

In fact, providing free, reliable birth control to women could prevent between 41 percent and 71 percent of abortions in the United States, according to a study detailed in the Oct. 4, 2012, issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Other scientists also agreed to some extent with the heart of Attenborough’s message.

“It’s clear that increasing population growth makes some of our biggest environmental challenges harder to solve, not easier,” said from Jerry Karnas, population campaign director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz.