Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Michael McDowell calls for radical Dáil shake-up

MacGill Summer School: Former tánaiste says next ceann comhairle by secret ballot.

   

Kevin O’ Malley, US ambassador to Ireland, and his wife Dena, with former tánaiste Michael McDowell SC and Dr Joe Mulholland, director of the Patrick MacGill Summer School at the opening in Glenties, Co Donegal on Sunday night

Former tánaiste Michael McDowell has called for urgent “now-or-never” change before the general election that would see the next ceann comhairle elected by secret ballot and not chosen by the incoming government.

Mr McDowell, a former minister for justice and attorney general, called for a number of radical changes to the Dáil and Seanad when giving the opening address of Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, last night.

He said the window for making the changes was narrowing fast and warned that if they were not agreed before this Dáil term comes to an end, then they would never happen.

Delivering the John Hume lecture, Mr McDowell said that Irish democracy was dysfunctional and the present system did not make the Executive or the government accountable to the Oireachtas.

“If the Standing Orders relating to the election of ceann comhairle are not changed now before the election,” he said, “the next ceann comhairle will inevitably be on the say-so of the next incoming government and, as present, on the basis of a whipped party vote.

“That office cannot continue to be a consolation prize for a disappointed would-be minister. It cannot remain in the gift of the incoming government, to be bartered away as part of the spoils of electoral victory between those who share ministerial power.

Pro-active champion

“Dáil Éireann, as our ‘House of Representatives’, badly needs an elected Speaker who is in reality, and is seen to be, wholly and unambiguously mandated and empowered to act as the pro-active champion of each and every single one of those elected TDs in vindicating their twin constitutional functions: firstly, of holding the executive power to democratic accountability and, secondly, as legislators,” he said.

To achieve that would require a free and secret ballot, he said, as happens in Westminster, where the perception of the Speaker is as a wholly independent office holder, with no ties to the government of the day.

He said the independence of the ceann comhairle could extend to him or her giving discretionary speaking preference to TDs who attend and participate in debates, rather than those who arrive in to read a script.

“It will become a mark office of State, reflecting the constitutional tripartite separation of powers,” he said.

A secret ballot

Mr McDowell also said that the chairs and vice-chairs of Oireachtas committees should also be elected by secret ballot, with each new holder giving, and being given, assurances on security of tenure, impartiality and independence.

“We badly need committees that will hold ministers to continual and effective scrutiny,” he said.

The proposals were practicable and achievable, he said.

“I am not aware that any party has opposed or would oppose such changes. On the contrary, a number of these proposals have received expressions of support in principle from a wide variety of elected politicians and commentators, including the Constitutional Convention . . . which deserves at least some recognition for some of its efforts.”

Mr McDowell said that such changes were anything but “populist gimmickry”.

Referring to his own experience as a backbench TD, attorney general, minister and tánaiste, he said: “When I was not an office holder, the culture and procedures of the Dáil prevented me and my colleagues from holding the Executive to adequate account.

“When I was an office holder, the same culture and procedures prevented me and my colleagues from being held to adequate account.

“In both circumstances, the result was seriously wrong and damaging.”

Michael D Higgins warns climate failure will lead to:

‘The destruction of life’

  

President speaking at ‘Summit of Consciences for the Climate’ in Paris.

President Higgins speaking to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during the Paris Summit of Conscience for the Climate.

A failure to respond to the “scientific reality of climate change” may lead to the “destruction of life on our planet”, President Michael D Higgins has told a climate change conference in Paris.

President Higgins is addressing the “Summit of Consciences for the Climate” organised by President François Hollande.

The purpose of the day-long conference is to raise consciousness of the threat posed by global warming, in the run-up to the COP 21 UN conference on climate change, which will be held in Paris next December.

Speakers at Tuesday’s conference are an eclectic and colourful mix ranging from an astro-physicist to the former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. They include religious leaders from all the world’s main faiths.

President Higgins said we must therefore “unequivocally reject the position of those who would obscure the scientific reality of climate change in their protection of any narrow and short-term self-interest. The first ethical test is in accepting that there can be no compromise with truth”.

“ Ours may be the final generation with the opportunity to effectively respond to the now urgent effects of climate change,” President Higgins said. “This year thus marks a defining moment for the future of humanity. In this year 2015 we will decide on what must be a shared universal response to climate change – and on a practical agenda for action.

We will also this year decide on what should be sought as ‘development’ in the wake of the Millennium Development Goals, in response to global poverty and increasing global inequality.”

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight targets introduced in 2000 aimed at halving extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, and halting the spread of HIV-Aids by 2015 – will be replaced by Sustainable Development Goals.

“The political and technical decisions that are to be made over the coming months may be complex, but ultimately the great challenges of our time are ethical and intellectual in their nature.”

The President said humans “must acknowledge that the human causes behind climate change have identifiable historical contexts, grounded in forms of development and industrialisation that were based on the exploitation of fossil fuels, with an assumption of infinite growth.

“Would it not be the greatest of all human achievements if we were to succeed in delivering the benefits of science, the shared wisdom, instinct and intuition of diverse cultures, and the products of reason and faith; and in delivering all of these through new, balanced models of development, ecology and society?”

Irish Government sidesteps increasing charges for residential care

Long-term sustainability of Fair Deal scheme remains to be seen, given demographics

    

Minister for Social Care Kathleen Lynch said Government would seek to generate efficiencies from administrative reforms in the Fair Deal nursing homes scheme.

The Government has sidestepped the potentially explosive issue of increasing charges for people in long-term residential care. However, it remains to be seen how sustainable the Fair Deal nursing home scheme is in the long run, given demographic pressures.

The review of the scheme has forecast that the number of people it would have to support will rise by about 9,000, to 33,000, by 2024.

Over that period the number of people older than 65 will rise by about 200,000, to 802,000, while those older than 85 will increase by nearly 30,000, to just under 96,000.

The cost of long-term residential care is financed by a combination of direct State support under the Fair Deal scheme, costing nearly €1 billion a year, and contributions from residents based on their means, whether this be pensions, other income or assets. The average contribution amounts to about 25 per cent of the cost of care.

Minister of State for Social Care Kathleen Lynch immediately indicated that the Government had decided not to adopt any of the options set out in the review for increased contributions to pay for future long-term care. Instead, the Government would seek to generate efficiencies from administrative reforms.

Additional cost of €49m

The Department of Health said that, by 2018, it was projected that the number of people benefiting from the Fair Deal scheme would grow by up to 1,126, at an additional exchequer cost of €49 million over the three-year period.

However, the review also made clear that after that point the numbers covered were expected to accelerate.

Meanwhile, private nursing homes operating the Fair Deal scheme are pressing for reforms in the funding model to recognise what they see as the true cost of care. Such a review might look at allocating funds based on a resident’s needs, rather than a simple capitation payment.

The cost of the scheme is not the only problem facing the Government in the area of long-term care. Private investment in the nursing home sector is certainly not running at the levels of the past, while the State sector is facing challenges in some areas in meeting standards set by the regulatory body Hiqa.

The review pointed out that while the average weekly cost in a public facility was nearly €1,400, the figure for a private or voluntary centre was just under €900 at the end of last year. While it was likely that residents in public units might have higher care needs, the review said costs in these centres “appear to be in excess of what applies in private centres”.

Minister Noonan promises property tax freeze expected for 2017

Noonan pledges ‘no sudden shocks’ as Cabinet meets in Lissadell House Sligo

   

A property tax frieze, adoption rights and future budget cuts are topping the agenda at Lissadell House for the final cabinet meeting before the summer recess for the government. Harry McGee reports.

The Government has committed itself to an effective freeze in property tax when the next revaluation occurs in 2017.

As the Cabinet prepared to meet in Lissadell House, Co Sligo on Wednesday Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said there would be no sudden shocks for property owners in terms of increased property taxes.

When homes and properties were given valuations in 2013, the Government gave a commitment that the tax would remain unchanged until 2017.

Mr Noonan said that since the valuations were done, property prices in Dublin have increased by 40% and around 20% in the rest of the country.

“I am not going to be in a situation if we are back in Government get into a situation where there is a huge jump in the take on property tax.

“We are examining ways of keeping the tax take about the same as it is now.

“What I am committing to the people in advance is there will be no sudden shocks in advance of the property tax.”

Mr Noonan said the report by Don Thornhill of his examination of this issue will be made public closer to the Budget. At the same time he undertook that there would be no sharp increases in the tax.

He was speaking in advance of the last Cabinet meeting of the year in Lissadell House.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and most Ministers arrived by bus at the historic Co Sligo house after midday and were greeted by the owners of the house, Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, as well as five of their seven children.

Tánaiste Joan Burton, who had an engagement in Sligo, arrived a short time later for the meeting, saying she was very glad to be a female Minister at the former home of Constance Markievicz, the first female Member of the Dáil and the first female cabinet minister.

The main items to be discussed at Cabinet are:

1. A memo on the latest budgetary situation brought by Mr Noonan;
2. A memorandum on a new childcare policy brought by Minister for Children James Reilly; and
3. A new Bill allowing adopted children the right to trace their parentage, also brought by Dr Reilly.

Speaking in advance of the meeting, which is the last before the summer recess, Mr Noonan said the economic recovery was becoming deeper and was extending to more of the population.

Mr Noonan said that the income tax situation was good and that the April forecasts of €1 billion of additional taxation was now being revised upwards to €1.5 billion .

He said that “because of fiscal rules it does not give us any additional budget space” and he was still working on the basis that the adjustments in the budget would be between €1.2 billion and €1.5 billion.

However, he said the Government deficit for 2015 was now being projected at 2.3 per cent, lower than earlier estimates.

He accepted there would be a health over-run for this year but said it would not be anywhere near €1 billion, as has been predicted in some quarters.

Minister for Communications Alex White told reporters that Labour’s budgetary priorities were to bring in a budget that was “fair and ensure we spread the opportunities across the society in a fair way.”

Humans may be able to live on Moon in the next decade:

A study says

  

According to a Nasa-funded study, humans may be able to live on the moon in a little more than a decade from now. The study outlines a plan to again take human missions to the moon, media reported.

The announcement was made on July 20 – the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 crew’s first steps on the lunar surface – The Verge reported.

The, study, undertaken by NexGen Space LLC, lays out a detailed roadmap for when and how to take the next step for a landing.

A robotic return to the moon could happen as soon as 2017, if Nasa were to adopt the plan right away. Rovers would scout the lunar poles for hydrogen in 2018 and prospecting could begin by 2019 or 2020.

Robotic construction of a permanent base would begin in 2021 in anticipation of landing humans on the moon later that year, it said.

The study said the space agency can do it all within the existing budget for human spaceflights. The way for Nasa to do this is to adopt the same method that it is using for re-supplying the International Space Station – a public-private partnership with companies like SpaceX, Orbital ATK or the United Launch Alliance.

SpaceX currently charges Nasa about $4,750 (roughly Rs. 3,02,300) for every kilogram of supplies sent to orbit aboard its Falcon 9 rocket, far less than the cost by the Apollo-era Saturn V ($46,000, or roughly Rs. 29,27,530 per kilogram) or even the space shuttle ($60,000, or roughly Rs. 38,18,350 per kilogram).

While the study does use SpaceX’s next generation rocket, the Falcon Heavy, as an example in its plans to get to the moon, SpaceX claims the Falcon Heavy will be as cheap or cheaper per kilogram than the Falcon 9.

Nasa is already planning to go back to the moon with its next generation rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), but there are no plans to land.

By using commercial partners, Nasa could reduce the number of planned SLS launches from 12 to around three, reducing the cost of the programme while still developing the technologies necessary to support it, the study said.

The study was vetted by a 21-person independent review team made up of former members of Nasa’s administration, members of the commercial spaceflight community and four former Nasa astronauts.     

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Where are these missing Irish children buried?

ASKS CATHERINE CORLESS

   

As a little girl in Galway, Catherine Corless was always curious about the St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in her hometown of Tuam, in County Galway, Ireland. 

She always wondered what happened inside the stone walls of the home for unwed mothers and babies run by the Catholic sisters of Bon Secours.

Decades later, as a local historian, she asked the Tuam registry office for the death records of children at the home from 1925 until its closure in 1961. She was horrified at what came back.

“Hundreds of names. I just couldn’t believe it,” Corless said. “Seven hundred and ninety-six names in all. And I wanted to know who these children were.”

That simple act of historical research sparked a nationwide outcry — and now a government investigation — into the conditions inside Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes that existed as recently as the 1980s.

Corless’ research raised several disturbing questions, including: How did the children die and what were the conditions inside the home? And, most important, for Corless, where were the children buried?

Corless says she asked Bon Secours for burial records but was told that none existed. She says her efforts to find burial records at local government archives also turned up empty. She then cross-referenced the death records with local cemetery records but found only two of the children buried nearby.

“I cannot understand why there isn’t a burial record for 796 little precious children,” she said.

But Corless now believes she knows where the children may be buried: on the site of the former Tuam home, now part of a housing estate.

All that is left of the home is a crumbling stone wall. But in an easily overlooked corner, there is a small walled garden dedicated to “those who are buried here.”

It’s been known as The Children’s Graveyard ever since 1975, when two boys playing in the neighborhood broke open a concrete slab and made a grisly discovery. One of them, Francis Hopkins, was 12 years old.

“We found a load of skeletons that were clearly that of children.” Francis said. “We were so frightened, we ran out and our parents told us not to go down there. The priest came to say a blessing and a few days later it was covered up again. And as far as we knew we called it a graveyard since then.”

Corless believes this small plot may be where at least some of the children are buried. It was once a disused sewage tank at the edge of the property to the Tuam home.

“If the children were not buried there and there are no burial records,” says Corless, “then we need to find out: where are they?”

During her research, Corless also found a 1947 state inspection report on the home: There are several descriptions of “emaciated” children in the report. One child is described as so thin that “flesh hanged loosely from limbs.”

The vast majority of the deaths are under the age of 1 but children as old as 9 are also recorded. Causes of death included measles, meningitis and whooping cough. During the worst years, particularly 1946 and 1947, several children were dying every month, sometimes even two in one day.

CNN News Service contacted representatives of the sisters of Bon Secours and asked them about the conditions inside the home and the children who died. In a statement they said:

“The Sisters of Bon Secours today said they were shocked and deeply saddened by recent reports about St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, which operated in Tuam, County Galway from 1925 to 1961. In 1961 the Home was closed. All records were returned to the local authority, and would now be within the Health Service Executive, County Galway.

“The Bon Secours Sisters are committed to engaging with Catherine Corless, the Graveyard Committee and the local residents as constructively as they can on the graves initiative connected with the site.

“The Sisters welcome the recent Government announcement to initiate an investigation, in an effort to establish the full truth of what happened.”

The Tuam case is the latest in a string of issues linked to Ireland’s former mother-and-baby homes, funded by the state but run by various religious orders. The government has now promised to investigate the many allegations, including forced separations, illegal adoptions and claims that children were subjected to vaccine trials without parental consent.

Specifically citing the work of Corless, the Irish government is also considering whether to excavate the possible burial site at Tuam.

“If this is not handled properly then Ireland’s soul will be, like babies of so many of these mothers, in an unmarked grave,” said Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny.

Corless says she will continue to dig for more records of the home in Tuam but she doesn’t necessarily want the site to be excavated. More important, she says, is erecting a memorial for the children — if they are indeed buried there.

“The least they might have is a name over them,” she said. “Those illegitimate children need to be respected as much as any other child born. It might bring some justice and maybe healing to those mothers and families.”

More than 3,500 women from Ireland travel to the UK for abortions last year 2013

 

Since 1980, at least 158,252 women have traveled to the UK to access abortion services.

Last year 2013 over 3,500 women from Ireland travelled to the UK for abortions.

The UK Department of Health published figures today on abortion Statistics for England and Wales in 2013.

It found that 3,679 women who gave Irish addresses had an abortion in the UK last year. Those figures are down from 3,982 in 2012, a decrease of 7.6 per cent.

The total number of abortions carried out in England and Wales during 2013 was 190,800, that is 0.1 per cent more than in 2012.

Last year, there were 5,469 abortions carried out on women living outside England and Wales, compared with 5,850 in 2012.

Sixty-seven per cent of them came from the Republic of Ireland, while 15 per cent were from Northern Ireland.

Since 1980, at least 158,252 women have travelled to the UK to access abortion services.

The figures published today do not give reasons for the drop in figures. Campaign groups from both sides of the abortion debate have commented on the findings.

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) described the numbers as a “modern indictment of the State’s treatment of women with unplanned or unwanted pregnancies”.

Every day our clients tell us about their experiences of being abandoned by the Irish health care system and forced to rely on the services of another country.

“These women are not criminals but the law treats them as such because they are seeking a service that is illegal in almost every circumstance in Ireland.”

Meanwhile, The Life Institute has welcome the decrease in the number of Irish women having abortions over the last year.

Spokeswoman Niamh Uí Bhriain said, “This is good news: the decrease is significant and, while every abortion is a tragedy, it was important that women continue to realise that there were always better options than abortion.

The number of Irish women travelling for abortions has been falling steadily since 2001, as supports for mothers in crisis have improved and awareness of the humanity of the unborn children has improved.

Irish Banks write off over €300m in three deals with Denis O’Brien

 

Deals saw the Irish businessman invest some €230 million to acquire the properties of Siteserv Group, Topaz Group and Beacon Private Hospital. 

The purchase of three major Irish businesses over the past two years by the billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien involved total bank write-offs of more than €300 million.

The deals saw the businessman invest €230 million to acquire the Siteserv Group, the Topaz Group and the Beacon Private Hospital.

The Siteserv deal saw the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which is now in liquidation, write off €110 million of the €150 million it was owed. Mr O’Brien’s move to become the major shareholder in the Topaz Group earlier this year involved the IBRC writing off slightly more than half of the €304 million it was owed.

The Beacon Hospital

Last month, Mr O’Brien bought debt of approximately €100 million due to Ulster Bank for a reported €35 million in a deal that gave him control of the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, Co Dublin.

Mr O’Brien, who has a 29.9 per cent stake, is the biggest shareholder in the Independent News & Media. In April last year the group did a deal with its eight banks, which include AIB and Bank of Ireland, where the banks wrote off €138 million of an overall debt of €422 million, in exchange for a shareholding in the group worth approximately €10 million.

The Topaz Group was purchased by Mr O’Brien using Kendrick Investments Ltd, an Isle of Man company incorporated in July of last year. Siteserv was bought using another Isle of Man company, Millington Ltd, incorporated in December 2011 to buy the Irish services group.

In March this year Kendrick entered into a mortgage arrangement with the Bank of Ireland, with the Topaz business among the mortgaged assets, according to its filings in the Isle of Man. No charge has been registered against Millington.

Mr O’Brien is not tax-resident in Ireland and his Digicel group is headquartered in Bermuda. The Isle of Man does not impose corporation tax on most companies and does not have capital gains tax.

Sligo’s Lissadell House in set to reopen to public next Friday

 

MOVE ENDS FIVE YEARS OF LEGAL DISPUTE OVER ACCESS

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to re-open Sligo’s Lissadell House and Gardens to the public on next Friday, five years after it closed due to a legal dispute over rights of way.

Senior barristers Eddie Walsh and Constance Cassidy, owners of the ancestral home of 1916 leader Constance Markievicz, said they believed it was time to “put aside negativity” , while stating that they believed “the actions of Sligo County Council were unnecessary”.

Speaking at a press conference in Lissadell House today, Mr Walsh said the litigation – which he and his wife Constance initiated back in 2009 – had a “massive impact” on their family, and was “traumatic, difficult and challenging”.

He credited the influence of their seven children and the goodwill messages they had received after last year’s Supreme Court ruling with their decision to re-open the 19th century house, closely associated with poet WB Yeats.

Mr Walsh also paid tribute to Minister of State for Small Business John Perry for his support and for highlighting the tourism and employment benefits of the house and gardens, and said he was aware that these views were shared by Mr Kenny.

The couple has spent over €9 million on the estate since they purchased it for €3.75 million from Josslyn Gore-Booth in 2003, he said. Since then, the couple have not drawn down “one penny” of State grants, Mr Walsh said.

Section 482 of the Finance Act, which allows for expenditure on restoration to be eligible for capital allowances, has been of no great advantage since it was capped some years ago, he noted.

Mr Walsh recalled how the Leonard Cohen performances on the estate in July 2010 had led to offers by other artists, but “all this came to nothing when the High Court case was lost”.

“All this is in the past, “he said. “We look forward to moving forward on a positive note.”

Estate manager Isobel Cassidy confirmed the Yeats and Markievicz galleries, the alpine and kitchen gardens and woodland walks were all ready to re-open. “To paraphrase The Terminator, we are back”, she said.

Mr. John Perry TD welcomed the decision on behalf of the Government as a “huge economic benefit to the region, to the Atlantic corridor and the west of Ireland”.

He recalled Lissadell’s associations with Countess that Markievicz, first female minister in a western democracy, and noted the 150th anniversary of Yeats’s birth is next year.

Recently appointed Sligo County Manager Ciaran Hayesalso welcomed the decision and confirmed that he hoped to meet the Lissadell owners shortly. “I’m drawing a line under the court case,” Mr Hayes said.

Former Fine Gael councillor Joe Leonard, who proposed the original motion that led to the couple’s legal action, said he did not wish to comment further.

Last November, the Supreme Court found in favour of the Lissadell owners when it overturned a High Court ruling that four rights of way existed on four avenues through the estate.

The Supreme Court found only one one right of way existed along part of a coastal route. Sligo County Council faces paying some 75 per cent of costs of the legal challenge, but the final figure will be decided by the taxing master and may take several years, Mr Hayes said.

The Supreme Court ruling has wider implications for public rights of way, with Mountaineering Ireland noting that it had set an “unreasonably high” burden of proof on anyone asserting a right of way anywhere in the State.

Fasting can reduce the risk of getting Diabetes

 

New research has found that fasting can lower rate of heart disease and diabetes. The study is done by researchers at Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.

Lead author Benjamin Horne wrote in a news release: “There are a lot of books out there recommending that people fast for two or three days a week,? he added, ?but there are risks with fasting and little evidence that these diets are safe.”

The researchers reported that 10-12 hours of hunger prompts the body to initiate the search for food and the body then starts utilizing the stored amounts of bad cholesterol, LDL, which is found in fat cells of the body.

The researchers claimed that this mechanism influences people suffering from diabetes directly. Horne noted that fasting can become an important diabetes intervention in the future.

“Though we’ve studied fasting and it’s health benefits for years, we didn’t know why fasting could provide the health benefits we observed related to the risk of diabetes,” Horne noted.

The study reported that after six week of fasting, the cholesterol level decreases by around 12 percent. Horne said that since we expect that the cholesterol was used for energy during the fasting episodes and likely came from fat cells, this shows that fasting can prove an effective diabetes intervention.

WATER DISCOVERED DEEP UNDER EARTH’S SURFACE, SCIENTISTS SAY

 

Scientists just found a new ocean, and it’s not where you think. According to a new study, a huge amount of water is trapped beneath Earth’s surface – enough to fill several oceans. At 440 miles beneath the planet’s surface, the water isn’t accessible for use right any time soon, but it does give clues as to where all our water came from and where we can go from here.

The water isn’t exactly usable in its present state. According to the authors of the study, it’s trapped within a layer of a crystalline mineral called ringwoodite, which acts like an extremely hard, subterranean sponge. Because of the way it’s trapped, the water isn’t even liquid (or ice or vapor), instead taking the form of hydroxide ions containing both hydrogen and oxygen. If it were liquid, though, the researchers say that the pockets of ions could fill the world’s oceans.

There’s one big catch: the size of the ringwoodite layer beneath the planet’s surface has yet to be confirmed. But the scientists did use anetwork of over 2,000 seismometers around the United States to make a map of Earth’s internal structure. They found that material flowing downward melts as it passes through the 400-mile-deep “transition zone” of the planet’s insides. ”If we are seeing this melting, then there has to be this water in the transition zone,” said the University of New Mexico’s Brandon Schmandt, a coauthor of the study. “The transition zone can hold a lot of water, and could potentially have the same amount of H2O as all the world’s oceans.”

The scientists believe their findings are evidence that the water on Earth’s surface originally came from somewhere underground – and that the water cycle extends much deeper than many people thought, perhaps even contributing to the stability of oceans today. ”The surface water we have now came from degassing of molten rock. It came from the original rock ingredients of Earth,” Schmandt said. “How much water is still inside the Earth today relative to the surface?