Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG Tuesday

Hurricane Sandy reeks havoc in New York & New Jersey as storm hits land

  

Left picture a man made his way along a flooded street in Lower Manhattan and the Inlet section of Atlantic City, N.J., was flooded

Deaths reported in New York as the historic storm hits land in southern New Jersey.

 Death toll climbs as storm hits New Jersey 
• More than 2.5 million people without power
• Sandy unravels into post-tropical storm
• Obama and Romney cancel campaign events
• One HMS Bounty sailor found dead, other missing

More than two million Americans in 11 states and the District of Columbia were without electricity last night, when Hurricane Sandy, believed to be the biggest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, made landfall in southern New Jersey.

The mammoth and merciless storm made landfall near Atlantic City around 8 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. That was shortly after the center had reclassified the storm as a post-tropical cyclone, a scientific renaming that had no bearing on the powerful winds, driving rains and life-threatening storm surge expected to accompany its push onto land.

The storm had unexpectedly picked up speed as it roared over the Atlantic Ocean on a slate-gray day and went on to paralyse life for millions of people in more than a half-dozen states, with extensive evacuations that turned shore-fronts & neighbourhoods into ghost towns.

The police said a tree fell on a house in Queens New York shortly after 7 p.m., killing a 30-year-old man. In Manhattan a few hours earlier, a construction crane atop one of the tallest buildings in the city came loose and dangled 80 stories over West 57th Street, across the street from Carnegie Hall.

  Soon power was going out and water was rushing in. Waves topped the sea wall in the financial district in Manhattan, sending cars floating downstream. West Street, along the western edge of Lower Manhattan, looked like a river. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, known officially as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel in memory of a former governor, flooded hours after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York ordered it closed to traffic.

The US Coastguard said Claudene Christian, a sailor from the HMS Bounty, a replica of the historic ship, was found dead after it sank off the coast of North Carolina. Fourteen crew members were rescued, but the captain, Robin Walbridge, was still missing. Dubbed “the Frankenstorm” because of her hybrid, monster nature, Sandy killed 67 people in the Caribbean last week.

 High winds and rising flood waters battered the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas to Maine. The façade of a building collapsed in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, and much of West 57th street had to be evacuated because a construction crane dangled precariously over the street.

  Cars were under water in Atlantic City, where part of the fabled boardwalk was torn up by the storm on the northern coast of Long Island, 94 mph winds were recorded.

In the same area, water surged 12.4 feet above its normal level. Nine eastern US states have declared a state of emergency.

Sixty million people, or almost 20 per cent of the US population, live in the path of the storm.

As the storm approached the Atlantic seaboard, some Americans tempted fate. Gamblers squeezed in a few more games of blackjack in Atlantic City casinos before Governor Chris Christie shut them down on Sunday night.

  Thrill-seekers walked on a jetty in the Rockaways section of Queens.

At least one surfer flew from California to New Jersey to ride the waves as the storm hit. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police had to arrest surfers.

In the hours before the storm, shoppers hoarded tinned food, bottled water, candles, torches and batteries, and filled their bathtubs. Electrical generators sold out. Petrol stations in Connecticut ran out of fuel during the exodus from New York.

Shopkeepers and restaurateurs took out plywood sheets they’d used to protect their businesses from Hurricane Irene last year. They used black spray paint to cross out “Irene,” so the graffiti now reads “Go Away Sandy” and “Be kind to us Sandy”.

Just one week before the presidential election, neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama wants to appear to exploit the hurricane for political advantage. Both men called off campaign events yesterday and today. “The election will take care of itself next week,” Mr Obama said.

Mr. Obama dispatched the former president Bill Clinton to campaign for him in Minnesota and Colorado.

In Virginia, where two former governors are embroiled in a race for the US Senate, both candidates asked supporters to take down yard signs. “The last thing we want is for yard signs to become projectiles,” the Democratic candidate Tim Kaine said in an email.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg once more urged residents to stay indoors. “This is a storm that could easily kill you,” he said.

The mayor’s office has advised almost 400,000 people to evacuate the city, and shelters have already accepted 3,000 residents affected by the hurricane.

A spokeswoman for the NYC Department of Education said that 76 public school buildings are being used as evacuation centres across the city.

High Intake of Omega-3 Enhances Working memory and body functions

     

Omega-3 fatty acids have now and then been linked by studies with boosting memories. A recent study has suggested that higher the intake of these fatty acids, the more one can enhance their working memory and also can improve their body functioning.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have asserted that young adults aged between 18 and 25 can attain the benefits of Omega-3 essential fatty acids by increasing the intake of foods rich in it, including fish and grass-fed livestock.

The study led by Rajesh Narendarn, project principal investigator and associate professor of radiology, included healthy young women and men and provided them with supplements, Lovaza, for six months to increase their omega-3 fatty acid consumption.

Prior to providing the supplements, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and blood test of each of the participant was carried out.

Further, the participants were asked to undergo a working memory test, during which they were shown letters and numbers. The participants were to memorize the sequence of the series.

After six months of intake of supplement, the young adults were requested to complete the series again. Narendarn said, “Diets enriched with Omega-3 fatty acid can enhance cognition. It was a bit disappointing that our imaging studies were unable to clarify the mechanisms by which it enhances working memory”.

‘Smoking will kill up to a billion people this century’

  

Smoking, which is described as the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world with its perpetrators likened to terrorists, will kill up to a billion people worldwide this century unless governments across the world stamp down on the half-trillion-dollar tobacco industry, cancer experts have warned.

John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, issued this warning while speaking at a high-level forum of the world’s 100 leading cancer experts gathered in the Swiss resort of Lugano.

They said governments must do far more than they have done to control the global tobacco industry, either by raising cigarette prices dramatically, outlawing tobacco marketing or by taxing the multinational profits of the big cigarette firms.

European countries need to raise cigarette prices significantly because this is the one proven method of reducing consumption, Sir Richard said. They should adopt a “triple-half-double” strategy, which was tried in France in the 1990s, when cigarette prices were tripled, consumption halved and the tobacco tax revenues to the French government doubled.

  According to scientists, smoking kills more than half of all smokers, mostly from cancer, and yet despite it being the single biggest avoidable risk of premature death, there are about 30 million new smokers a year.

They said that if the current trends continue – with cigarette companies targeting the non-smoking populations of the developing world – then hundreds of millions of people will be dying of cancer in the second half of this century.

Some of the experts attending the World Oncology Forum went further by calling for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets with a product that it knows to be deadly when used as intended.

“We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it. It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century,” the Independentquoted Dr Seffrin as saying.

“It killed 100 million in the last century and we thought that was outrageous, but this will be the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, bar none. It all could be avoided if we could prevent the terroristic tactics of the tobacco industry in marketing its products to children.

“There is a purposeful intent to market a product that they know full well will harm their customers and over time will kill more than half of them. The industry needs to be reined in and regulated,” he said.

Worldwide, tobacco causes about 22 percent of cancer deaths each year, killing some 1.7 million people, with almost 1 million of them dying from lung cancer. Yet the numbers of new smokers among the young is rising faster than the numbers giving up.

 Healthy Lungs vs Smokers Lungs.  The latest study into the health effects of smoking, which was published in The Lancet and involved 1.3 million women, showed that tobacco is even more dangerous than previously supposed but the benefits of giving up smoking are greater than expected.

Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University, a co-author of the Million Women study who worked closely with Sir Richard Doll, is also the scientist who first calculated how many people this century will die from tobacco-induced cancers.

“We have about 30 million new smokers a year in the world. On present patterns, most of them are not going to stop, and if they don’t stop, and if half of them die from it, then that means more than 10 million a year will die – that’s 100 million a decade in the second half of the century,” Professor Peto said.

“So this century we’re going to see something like a billion deaths from smoking if we carry on as we are. In Europe we have about 1.3 million premature deaths per year now, of which about 0.3 million are deaths by tobacco. There’s nothing else as big as that.

“If you put all causes together, you wouldn’t get a total that’s half of that caused by tobacco, and tobacco kills more people by cancer than other diseases. Smoking is still the most important cause of cancer… If you smoke a few cigarettes a day, it will be the most dangerous thing you do,” he added.

Irish retail sales post first annual rise this year

      

Irish retail sales volumes posted their first growth this year on an annualised basis, climbing 1.4 percent in September from a year earlier after eight months of contraction, government figures showed on Friday. Volumes were 0.9 percent higher in September than in August, their largest monthly rise since July, data from the Central Statistics office showed.

The statistics office confirmed provisional data that retail volumes climbed 0.4 percent in August. Sales volumes fell 0.7 percent in the year to August, compared to a fall of 0.6 percent indicated in provisional figures last month. Economists expect retail sales to fall 2.3 percent this year, according to the latest Reuters poll.

Just how are our Dail ministers & TD’s’ pensions worked out?

 

A TD who has also served at least two years as a minister receives a pension based on service as a TD plus a separate pension based on service as a minister, which are calculated on different criteria. The two sums are then added

1 Working out a TD’s pension entitlement.

To work out a TD’s basic pension you divide his or her salary by 40 and then multiply it by the number of years they’ve served in the Dáil. A cap of 20 years service applies.

If we take a TD with 20 years’ service, whose salary is €92,672, then to calculate that TD’s pension entitlement, we divide the salary by 40 and multiply it by 20, which means the TD is entitled to a €46,336 a year pension once they reach retirement age. TDs are also entitled to a one-off pension lump sum of three times their pension. So, in this example, the TD would receive three times €46,336 – a lump sum of €139,008

On top of this, TDs who have served more than six months in the Oireachtas are also entitled to a termination lump sum equal to two months’ salary (€15,445).

If TDs have served for longer than three years they are also entitled to up to 12 monthly payments based on their length of service (for a TD the maximum payment total over 12 months is €57,920). Only after these payments end do they receive their pension proper.

2 Working out the pension of a minister.

A number of positions attract a pension entitlement over and above that earned by a TD or senator. These positions are taoiseach, tánaiste, minister, attorney general and ceann comhairle (called “ministerial” offices for pension purposes) and minister of state, leas cheann comhairle, cathaoirleach, leas-chathaoirleach and leader of the Seanad (called “secretarial” posts for pension purposes).

To receive this pension entitlement you have to have served for at least two years in one of these offices. The pension is then worked out as a percentage of the office holder’s salary. After two years a retiring minister is entitled to a pension equal to 20 per cent of his or her salary. After three years this becomes 25 per cent, four years 30 per cent, and five years 35 per cent.

The maximum entitlement is 60 per cent after 10 years’ service. Service as a minister of state is reckonable for ministerial pension calculations, with half the service accrued being counted for pension purposes.

If you are entitled to receive a “ministerial” pension but previously served in a “secretarial” post then half the time you spent in the latter post is reckonable at the “ministerial” rate.

So a minister with the standard salary of €76,603 (this excludes the €92,672 they earn as a TD) and a maximum 10 years’ “ministerial” service would be entitled to 60 per cent of €76,603, making for a “ministerial” pension of €45,962.

3 Working out an office-holder’s long-term pension projection (ie how much the annuities would cost in the private sector).

Add together the pension entitlements reached in steps 1 and 2 above. So a senior minister who has served 20 years or more would be entitled to €46,336 (their TD pension) plus €45,962 (their “ministerial” pension), making a total pension entitlement of €92,298.

This sum is then entered into a pension calculator using an inflation cap of 3 per cent.

4 Working out an office-holder’s long-term pension projection (ie how much the annuities would cost in the private sector) in cases where the TD is not yet the requisite age to receive a pension.

In the case of office holders who would not yet be entitled to a pension, you use a further calculation to work out the annuity cost.

You first calculate how much the pension would cost in the private sector (as per steps 1, 2 and 3 above).

The resulting figure is then divided by 1.02 (where 1.02 represents a 3 per cent inflation cap and a 5 per cent return on investment – a net 2 per cent).

This figure (which we will call x) is put to the power of the number of years until the minister reaches retirement age.

(So if a minister has seven years before he/she reaches retirement age, the calculation is x to the power of 7.)

THE SMALL PRINT

All calculations (both here and in the accompanying table) are estimations based on Oireachtas/government guidelines and are based on “new scheme” pension arrangements that have been in place since 1993. Lengths of service were based on information on the Oireachtas website.

Those entitled to “ministerial” or “secretarial” pensions can either take their pension straight away or avail of a ministerial lump sum and a ministerial severance payment (payable for up to two years) – but they cannot draw down both at once.

All TDs elected after April 1st, 2004, cannot receive a pension or pension lump sum until they reach 65 years of age unless they served in a public service body prior to April 1st, 2004.

Those who served in the Dáil prior to this date are not entitled to a full pension until they reach the age of 50 (although they may receive a reduced pension and pension lump sum at any time between the ages of 45 and 49).

In calculating an officeholder’s long-term pension projection, spouses were included in the calculation where the officeholder is married. On the death of a former officeholder, his/her spouse is eligible for 50 per cent of the pension.

For the purposes of calculating an officeholder’s long-term pension projection, where he or she was married, wives were assumed to be two years younger than their husbands while husbands were assumed to be two years older than their wives.

Since May 1st, 2009, public servants’ remuneration is subject to the following annual pension-related deductions: up to €15,000 – exempt; between €15,000 and €20,000 – 5 per cent; between €20,000 and €60,000 – 10 per cent; above €60,000 – 10.5 per cent.

Is it any wonder we are gone bust in this wee country of ours?

Donie's News Ireland update Friday

Ireland’s Obesity time-bomb with 20% of young people badly overweight?

   

Walk along any main street or visit any shopping centre and one of the first things that will become apparent is the large number of seriously obese young people.

In recent years more and more of us have fallen into the trap of eating more and exercising less.

The result has been an explosion in obesity with a fifth of all children now overweight while over a fifth of all adult females and more than a quarter of adult males now estimated to be obese.

This massive increase in the incidence of obesity is a public health timebomb. Research published yesterday by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland predicted that the number of adults aged over 45 with diabetes would jump by 30pc to 175,000 by 2020.

That’s an increase of 40,000 in the space of just eight years.

  Diabetes is not just expensive to treat, it also brings with it all sorts of unpleasant side-effects ranging from blindness to nerve damage to kidney disease and much else besides. And the tragedy is that adult-onset Type-2 diabetes is usually preventable. Unlike Type-1 childhood diabetes, Type-2 diabetes is almost always the product of the patient’s lifestyle.

Being seriously obese increases your chances of developing Type-2 diabetes almost sixty-fold.

So for everyone who wants to reduce their chances of developing this debilitating illness the advice is simple: cut back on the calories and take more exercise.

On-line Shopping is hitting Ireland’s economy big time

   

On-line shopping could harm Ireland’s economy as consumers choose to buy products from companies overseas, experts have warned.

Irish shoppers are expected to spend more than €20bn a year online by 2017, but there are no plans to ensure that money stays in Ireland.

Government-backed Digital Hub Development Agency said a strategy is needed to ensure indigenous companies strengthen their share of the online market place to prevent an “immense” loss to the economy.

Chairman Leonard Donnelly said 75pc of the four billion euro currently spent online goes overseas, mainly to the UK.

“The Digital Hub has projected that, by 2017, the online consumptive economy will be valued at 21 billion euro in Ireland,” said Mr Donnelly.

“If the trend for favouring overseas outlets for online purchases continues, however, the revenue loss to the domestic productive sectors will be immense.”

The agency said it had been working with Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte to develop a national digital strategy.

Opposition party Sinn Fein said part of that plan should be an increase in broadband coverage across the country.

Jobs, enterprise and innovation spokesman Peadar Toibin criticised the minister for failing to roll out any fibre optic cable in his first year in office.

“We have the skills, expertise and entrepreneurial drive within the Irish technology sector to begin to realise the potential of this sector for economic growth and job creation,” said Mr Toibin.

“However this potential is being squandered by government inaction.”

Meanwhile, Mr Donnelly said measures should include a focus on the new “video-net era.”

Critical: “The choice for how far Ireland reaches with a next-generation network is actually critical to our future success,” he said.

“If you were offered the choice of a tricycle or a supersonic jet, which would you choose?”

Mr Donnelly added that Ireland must mirror and surpass its biggest competitors in the sector — India and the UK. He said the Government could achieve this by ensuring “digital is at the heart of the economic agenda”.

Spending in Ireland 10% down but exports growth at 8% doing well

  

The recovery in the Irish economy has shown great improvement and shown to be stronger than initially reported.

The news comes following the latest round of data revisions.

Real GDP is over 2pc above the low recorded in the final quarter of 2009 and last year’s growth is now put at 1.4pc, double the first estimate, according to Bank of Ireland’s Quarterly Economic Outlook.

But the improvements remain slow and uneven and are still driven solely by the external sector.

The continuing poor state of the domestic economy explains why few people consider that the recession has actually ended.

Consumer spending is now a massive 10% below its pre-recession level, with capital spending down an extraordinary 50pc.

Meanwhile, exports have risen by 8pc, the review found.

Dr Dan McLaughlin (pictured), group chief economist with the bank, stated the trend of falling domestic demand and rising net exports reversed in the first quarter of 2012, largely due to a surge in imports.

This in turn reflected a second consecutive quarterly increase in business spending on machinery and equipment, he added.

Donie's news Ireland update Blog Friday

Irish retail sales volume falls by 0.7% for June 2012

   

Irish retail sales volume fell 0.7% in June 2012 according to the Central Statistics office.

The volume of retail sales (i.e. excluding price effects) decreased by 0.7% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012 and there was an annual fall of 5.5%. If Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales dipped by 1.5% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012, while there was also an annual decrease of 1.7% when compared to June 2011.

The sectors with the largest month on month volume falls are Food beverages & Tobacco (-9.7%), Hardware Paints & Glass (-4.8%), Fuel (-3.9%). A monthly increase was seen in Electrical Goods (2.9%), and in Books, Newspapers and Stationery (2.6%).

The value of retail sales declined by 1.3% in June 2012 when compared with May 2012 and there was an annual decrease of 4.9%. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was a monthly decrease of 2.1% in the value of retail sales and an annual decrease of 1.0%.

Dermot O’Leary of goody commented: Weather hits June sales –  Weather effects are mainly to blame for the volatility in retail sales trends over recent months. Following growth in core sales of 1.3% mom in May, sales volumes fell by 1.5% mom in June in what was an exceptionally poor month for weather. On an annual basis core sales were down by 1.7% relative to the 1.1% annual gain  in May. Over the quarter, the 1% annual fall in core retail sales gives a pretty good indication of the continued underlying weakness in Irish consumer spending. Including the motor trade, the sales performance was much weaker – down 5.5% yoy in June and -3.3% yoy in Q2 overall.

Motor trade sales volumes down 13% yoy -  Over the second quarter as a whole, the motor trade sector is the weakest performing, falling by 13% yoy. The second weakest sector was the hardware, paints and glass category (our proxy for DIY).

Ten out of thirteen categories in decline –  Of the thirteen categories reported by the CSO, only three witnessed increases on an annual basis in Q2. Within this, only one category – electrical goods – witnessed a meaningful increase in sales volumes over the past twelve months (+11% yoy). However, this increase has come at the expense of significant price reductions, with the value of sales up by only 5% yoy. Price deflation is still a feature in eight of the retail sales categories, highlighting the still tough environment for retailers.

Familiar headwinds to consumer spending - The return of economic growth to Ireland is still exclusively due to net exports with the outlook for domestic demand remaining poor over the next two years. With the collapse in investment close to complete, the biggest driver of domestic demand will be consumption. The headwinds of weak employment and earnings growth and deleveraging continue to weigh on prospects for consumer spending.

Retail Ireland, an IBEC sectoral group, said the CSO Retail Sales Index for June shows the continued difficulty retailers are facing. The annual fall in retail sales accelerated again in June to 1.7%. Sales since Christmas are down by 3%. Government must do more to stimulate demand, unlock savings and get consumers spending again.

Commenting on the figures released today, Retail Ireland Director Stephen Lynam said:“It is difficult to overstate the devastation felt in the retail sector. Sales have fallen by almost every measure. The hardware and garden sector has been particularly badly hit, with a fall of 10.4% on the foot of a particularly bad summer. Furniture, books and clothing are all also well down.

“The only positive news is the increase in electrical sales, which may be partly explained by the digital TV switch over and investment in new sets for Euro 2012 and the Olympics. Supermarket sales have also held up.

“Since the Government increased VAT, the downward trend in retail sales has hit with renewed force. While the  targets for VAT collection may be being met, this is only happening due to higher VAT receipts on utility bills and professional charges – items consumers cannot cut back on. When it comes to discretionary spending, consumers have voted with their feet and stayed out of the shops.

“Uncertainty is another factor contributing to weak sales. Consumer sentiment remains near record-lows and data released by the CSO this week shows that the household savings ratio increased in the first quarter of 2012. More must be done to stimulate demand, unlock savings and get consumers spending. Otherwise, a difficult winter for retailers, and the domestic economy, awaits.”

Brendan McGovern Leitrim teenager found guilty of manslaughter

   

A Carrigallen teenager with intellectual difficulties was found guilty of killing the pensioner he claimed sexually abused him when he was younger.

Brendan McGovern of Killahurk, Carrigallen, Leitrim was on trial at the Central Criminal Court, charged with murdering 73-year-old John Golden in Co Cavan on October 6, 2010. The 19-year-old pleaded not guilty, but admitted assaulting the pensioner in his home in Nedd, Doogarry, Killeshandra.

The jury found him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter after two hours deliberating on Thursday, July 26.

The five-day trial heard that the pensioner was rushed to hospital on September 7th 2010, after a neighbour found him unconscious under his bed in his prefabricated house. He died of septicaemia and other hospital-related complications a month later.

The teenager said he had gone to Mr Golden’s home to confront him about his continued taunts. However, he said that Mr Golden presumed he had arrived for sex and handed him a condom and took off his trousers. The defendant said this made him angry, that he put the condom on his fist and punched the pensioner in his back passage before kicking and beating him.

The trial heard that Mr Golden had been the subject of a garda investigation during the 1990s, when he admitted showing pornographic videos to young teenaged boys.The trial also heard from a clinical psychologist, who said the accused would have difficulties thinking through the consequences of his actions due to Borderline Intellectual Functioning.

The prosecution had argued that even if the jury took the view that John Golden had interfered with the accused, no person had the right to take the law into his own hands.

“We don’t live in the Wild West,” said Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, in his closing speech.

“If John Golden was a sex abuser, he was entitled to a fair trial,” he continued. “What he was not entitled to happen to him was to be beaten on the ground in his bedroom, violated in the way he was, and left on the flat of his back for several hours.”

Mr Condon said that there may be portions of his life which the jury found unpleasant, but that did not mean he was not entitled to fairness. He said that sexual assault was a common experience in our society, but assured the jury that a verdict of murder was not an approval of sexual assault.

“You’re not here to approve of the life of John Golden. You’re here to decide if Brendan McGovern killed him,” said the prosecutor. “You’re not here to right other wrongs.”

“This is a difficult case. There’s sympathy swirling,” he said, adding that this would not be helpful in their deliberations.

He said there was ample evidence to convict the teenager of murder.

Patrick Gageby SC, defending, said there was no question of justifying a beating to someone, ‘no-matter what he has done to you’. “I’m not inviting you to apply emotional standards here, other than your knowledge of human nature, of young people being abused and how they might respond,” he said. He pointed out that Mr Golden’s cause of death was given as a hospital-acquired illness and noted that his original head and rectal injuries were healing when he died. “The prosecution must prove that Brendan McGovern caused the death of John Golden in the legal sense,” he said.

He also noted that the definition of murder stated that a person was presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his actions, but that this could be rebutted. “Utterly different considerations apply when you know where Brendan McGovern functions on the intellectual scale,” he said, adding that his client was legally a child at the time.

“The issue is not what the reasonable man would do,” he said. “The mental condition of the accused would clearly indicate that he would not foresee matters as others would.” He said that maybe a boy of better abilities would have gone to the gardai or his parents.

“That’s not Brendan McGovern,” he said. He said that if the jury was satisfied that his client had caused Mr Golden’s death and had intent, it was time to examine provocation, which can reduce murder to manslaughter.

He said there was no violence until Mr Golden took off his trousers.“What precipitated the violence was the way he was treated by the man who had sexually abused him in the past,” he said.

“Mr Golden had taken off his trousers and expected that the person he’d abused as a boy was going to pleasure him sexually,” he said, suggesting that it would be amazing if he didn’t lose self control then.

“Brendan McGovern didn’t do anything until he behaved as though all his Sundays had come at once,” he said. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The jury of six men and five women reached a unanimous verdict of guilty of manslaughter.

Mr Justice Carney remanded Brendan McGovern on continuing bail for sentencing in October.

Irish Gas prices set to rise again

   

Bord Gais Energy is the only company to have its prices controlled by the CER and the increase, if granted, will add around ?60 on to the average household’s annual gas bill.

There was more bad news for Irish consumers today as Bord Gáis Energy announced that it has applied to the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) for a 7.54 per cent rise in its residential gas tariffs from October.

The price increase is being sought despite a fall in the wholesale price of gas on international markets in recent months but the company insisted it was unavoidable.

Bord Gáis Energy is the only company to have its prices controlled by the CER and the increase, if granted, will add around €60 on to the average household’s annual gas bill. It comes after the company was granted a 22 per cent increase in residential gas prices this time last year.

The cumulative impact of the two increases will see the average bill go up from about €700 a year to close to €1,000 in just 12 months. The company has defended the price increases by insisting that domestic gas prices in the Republic are still below the EU average.

The CER published a public consultation paper on the gas price increase today and it is almost certain to confirm it in early September.

Bord Gáis Energy said the increase was beyond its control because a weak euro had seen its costs spike while it was also paying more in gas network tariffs.

Gas prices have fallen slightly on world markets in recent weeks, but the prices Bord Gáis Energy has had to pay have increased because the value of the euro has decreased considerably over the last year. It buys virtually all of its gas from Britain and is required to pay in sterling.

The upward pressure on network tariffs is due to a reduction in gas demand and higher financing costs for Bord Gáis Networks, both of which are related to the recession at home and abroad. The CER assured consumers it would only allow “efficiently-incurred costs from BG Energy to be passed through to customers”.

It said that if the gas price rise is granted “it would be with regret given the current difficult economic climate”.

It pointed out, however, that there had been significant gas price rises across many EU countries over the last two years and that Eurostat data shows Ireland’s residential gas prices are generally lower than the EU average.

“We expect Ireland’s gas prices to remain relatively competitive, even if an increase is decided on for this October,” the CER said in a statement. It also encouraged consumers to shop-around for the best tariff and service deal.

Bord Gáis Energy said it has “worked hard to keep the increase to a minimum but has no control over either wholesale prices or networks charges, which account collectively for 90 per cent of the total costs of supply”.

A Thursday news Ireland update

A vaccine jab that prevents & stops people from smoking for life being developed

     

The vaccine works by genetically engineering an antibody that filters out nicotine when it enters the blood

SCIENTISTS have invented a jab that takes the pleasure out of smoking, it has emerged.

Just one injection could provide lifelong protection from the cravings of nicotine and prevent the physical effects of smoking such as relaxation and lowering of the heart rate.

It could be used to "vaccinate" children from ever smoking and help smokers to quit.

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have tested the vaccine on mice but could soon start human trials.

Mice which had been given the jab stayed just as active as previously, while those not administered with the vaccine relaxed and their blood pressure and heart activity lowered – classic signs nicotine had reached the brain.

Dr Ronald Crystal, professor of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and research leader said the jab could help committed quitters beat physical nicotine cravings.

He said: "They will know if they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit.

"Smoking affects a huge number of people worldwide, and there are many people who would like to quit, but need effective help. This novel vaccine may offer a much-needed solution."

The vaccine works by genetically engineering an antibody that filters out nicotine when it enters the blood.

The body then replicates the antibody – creating a never-ending supply of immunity.

Dr Crystal said: "As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect.

"Our vaccine allows the body to make its own monoclonal antibodies against nicotine, and in that way, develop a workable immunity.

"While we have only tested mice to date, we are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches."

Studies show that between 70 and 80 per cent of smokers who try to quit light up again within six months.

Dr Crystal says the vaccine could be rolled out to non-smokers to prevent them starting in the first place, just as jabs are used to prevent infections.

He added: "Just as parents decide to give their children an HPV vaccine, they might decide to use a nicotine vaccine.

"But that is only theoretically an option at this point. We would of course have to weightbenefit versus risk, and it would take years of studies to establish such a threshold."

The team are planning to test the jab on rats, animals and then eventually humans.

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The volume of Irish retail sales slightly down for May 2012

 
The CSO reported today that the volume of Irish retail sales (i.e. excluding price effects) decreased by 0.1% in May 2012 when compared with April 2012 and there was an annual fall of 2.1%. If Motor Trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales increased by 0.8% in May 2012 when compared with April 2012, while there was also an annual rise of 0.8%.
The sectors with the largest month on month volume decreases are Bars (-4.2%), Books, Newspapers and Stationery (-2.8%), Electrical Goods (-2.5%) and Motor Trade (-1.9%). A monthly increase was seen in Food beverages & Tobacco (6.5%), Hardware, Paints & Glass (6.3%) and Pharmaceuticals Medical & Cosmetic Articles (3.8%).
The value of retail sales decreased by 0.4% in May 2012 when compared with April 2012 and there was an annual change of –1.5%. If Motor Trades are excluded, there was a monthly increase of 0.7% in the value of retail sales and an annual increase of 1.5%.
Dermot O'Leary, chief economist of Goodbody Stockbrokers said:
May was a better month for retail sales but consumer spending is effectively bouncing along the bottom, with drivers to remain weak in 2012 and 2013.


Better month for sales in May…
While retail sales are volatile on a monthly basis, the trend since the start of the year is effectively flat. In May, retail sales volumes fell modestly (-0.1% mom), but our preferred core measure (i.e. excluding the motor trade) showed an increase of 0.8% mom. This follows an upwardly revised fall of 0.6% mom in April. On an annual basis, core retail sales also grew by 0.8%, improving from -2% yoy in April.
…but sales volumes are bouncing along the bottom -Weather effects can play a big role in these fluctuations. May 2012 was a better than average month for the weather, while May 2011 was particularly wet. With weather in June 2012 being wet we are likely to see a fall in sales this month. Due to this volatility, it is sometimes better to look at the level of spending rather than the change. The chart attached shows that after falling by 15% from the peak retail sales volumes are now fluctuating around this trough level.
A “green army” effect? -On an annual basis, the best performing category by far is “electrical goods” which was up by 9% yoy in volume terms and up by 3% in value terms. Despite still having to reduce prices to clear stock, there may be a “European Championship”effect at play here as demand increased for electrical goods ahead of the football finals. Annual volume growth was also experienced in five other categories (see table).
Drivers of spending still weak -The most important driver of consumer spending will be disposable income which in turn will be driven by employment, earnings and taxation. While we will undoubtedly see fluctuations on a monthly basis, the outlook for consumption is weak in Ireland for the next two years at least. In the short-term, continued uncertainty about the external environment is also likely to keep precautionary savings high in the short term also. We remain comfortable with our forecast of a decline in consumer spending for both 2012 and 2013.

Irish bank crash the worst & most costly since great Depression

     

Ireland’s bank crash is the most expensive and deepest of any economy since the Great Depression, says a new IMF report.

The fund said that Ireland is the only country to suffer from fiscal costs, increases in public debt and output losses due to a banking crisis. And it said there is no sign of conclusion in the debt crisis.

"Ireland holds the undesirable position of being the only country currently undergoing a banking crisis that features among the top 10 of costliest banking crises along all three dimensions, making it the costliest banking crisis in advanced economies since at least the Great Depression," according to the IMF paper, entitled Systemic Banking Crises Database: An Update.

"And the crisis in Ireland is still ongoing."

The authors believe that advanced economies have more options available to exit the downturn.

They also have more credibility with the markets, which allows them time to manoeuvre and use options such as bank guarantees.

"Deposit freezes, while rare, are most frequently used by emerging economies, whereas guarantees on bank liabilities are more common among advanced economies," the authors said.

"Guarantees are more common among advanced economies, perhaps because of generally better institutions and access to international capital markets, rendering the announcement of guarantees more credible."