Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Nuns say they will not pay compensation to the Magdalene laundries fund

FOUR CONGREGATIONS WILL NOT CONTRIBUTE TO FUND, WHICH COULD COST STATE UP TO €58 MILLION

     

The four religious congregations that ran the Magdalene laundries have told the Government they will not make any financial contribution to the multi-million-euro fund set up to recompense former residents.

The Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters have informed Minister for Justice Alan Shatter in recent days that they will not pay into the fund, which could cost up to €58 million.

However, it is understood they have said they are willing to assist fully in all other aspects of the package recommended by MrJustice John Quirke in his recent report, including the assembly of records and looking after former residents who remain in their care.

A spokeswoman for Mr Shatter said he was “disappointed” with the decision of the four orders not to make a financial contribution.

He will brief his ministerial colleagues about the situation at the weekly Cabinet meeting this morning.

No comment
Three of the four orders contacted through a spokesman were not prepared to make any comment at this point in time.

The Government announced the scheme last month after Mr Justice Quirke had conducted an examination of the various options to compensate the women who lived in the laundries, many of whom are now elderly.

The minimum payment was €11,500 for women who spent three months or less in a laundry and the maximum approved was €100,000 for those who were residents for 10 years or more.

Groups representing the women argued that higher awards should have been made available to those who had been long-term residents.

There was no onus on any applicant to show they had suffered hardship, injury or abuse. Some 600 women are reckoned to be eligible. The scheme is expected to cost between €34.5 million and €58 million.

When the scheme was announced, Mr Shatter said taxpayers expected the four religious orders to share the burden and make a contribution to the scheme. He would not be drawn on the amount he expected them to contribute.

State apology
The scheme follows on from a full apology on behalf of the State made to the survivors by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the Dáil this year, in which he said that nobody should have been subjected to the conditions they endured.

That apology came in the wake an investigation by former senator Martin McAleese into the running and conditions within the laundries which were in operation for the best part of a century.

The report also established that the State had played a significant role in the continued operation of the laundries.

Fewer Irish people saving now as austerity erodes our disposable income

 

PROPORTION OF PEOPLE NOT SAVING AT ALL INCREASES TO 46 PER CENT AS AUSTERITY BITES

Fewer Irish people are saving money because of the ongoing pressure on disposable income caused by austerity and recent hikes in Dirt tax.

According to the Nationwide UK (Ireland)/ESRI Savings Index, regular saving has declined across all age groups with only 32 per cent of people putting money aside regularly compared with 36 per cent a year ago.

The proportion of people who are not saving at all increased to 46 per cent in June from 43 per cent a year ago.

The overall index remained flat at 86 in June but was down 15 points on the same month last year on account of “increasing negativity about the amount being saved and the environment for saving”.

The report suggested negativity towards saving, however, was different for each age group.

People under 50 are concerned with the amounts they are currently saving, with 68 per cent saving less then they think they should and only 12 per cent happy with the amount they are saving, the report revealed.

In contrast, those over 50 are more concerned with the savings environment as 62 per cent believe that Government policy discourages saving, an increase from 53 per cent a year ago.

Managing director of Nationwide UK (Ireland) Brendan Synnott said: “In the past year sentiment towards saving has decreased considerably as people continue to manage their way through austerity.

“We are now seeing clearly diverging opinions being expressed by those aged under 50s compared to those aged over 50.”

“The younger consumer is clearly not satisfied with their ability to save, presumably due to their on-going day to day expenses and reduced disposable income.”

“The over 50s are the traditional saver in the economy and this group has seen the return on their savings reduced as Dirt tax has increased and savings rates for the most part have decreased.”

“Despite these immediate concerns around saving, the fact that 37 per cent of people would save any spare cash available is a positive indicator about the overall savings culture in Ireland. ”

Pension bonanza for retiring senior members of An Garda Siochana

Assistant Garda commissioner received golden handshake of over €200,000 last year

New figures show that one retiring assistant Garda commissioner received a golden handshake of over €200,000 last year as part of a pension arrangement.

According to figures released by the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act, the State paid out €41.94 million in lump sums to retiring gardai of all ranks last year. This followed a lump sum pension pay-out of €46.81 million in 2011.

The pension lump sum payout last year is slightly more than the entire Garda overtime bill of €41.5 million in 2012.

The figures show that the only assistant commissioner to retire last year received a lump sum of €207,927 with five chief superintendents receiving pension lump sums of between €170,000 and €183,005.

The department confirmed that 81 retirees received lump sum payments of over €100,000 in 2012.

The statistics show that the top 25 recipients – made up of the assistant commissioner, five chief superintendents and 19 superintendents – last year shared a pension payout of €3.8 million.

The department also confirmed that there are five retired members of the force receiving annual pension payments in excess of €100,000 with a further two receiving annual payments of between €70,000 and €79,999.

The figures reveal that 30 retired members are in receipt of annual pension payouts of between €60,000 and €69,999, with 120 in receipt of pension payouts of €50,000 and €59,999 per annum.

The deptartment did not disclose the location details of the top 25 recipients “as it may lead to identification of the individuals concerned”.

Last year, 462 gardai retired receiving on average lump sum of €90,799 each.

Separate figures provided by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter show that last year one assistant commissioner retired along with five chief superintendents and 19 superintendents.

They were joined by 24 inspectors, 119 sergeants and 294 rank and file gardai.

The 462 gardai who retired last year followed 480 who retired in 2011. This followed 407 who retired in 2010; 776 in 2009 and 341 in 2008.

Since 2008, 143 members of the force with a rank of superintendent or higher have received the bumper pension lump sums after retiring from the force.

According to Mr Shatter in a written Dail response to Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle, 95 superintendents have retired; 34 chief superintendents; 12 assistant commissioners; one deputy commissioner and one commissioner have retired during that time.

Fianna Fail justice spokesman Niall Collins said yesterday the large number of retirements from senior ranks from the force “has left a leadership vacuum in the force and it is demoralising for the force to see vacancies unfilled up along the chain of command”.

Mick Wallace TD calls for stronger oversight of the An Garda Síochána

  

INDEPENDENT TD MICK WALLACE HAS PROPOSED RADICAL CHANGES TO THE SYSTEM OF OVERSIGHT OF AN GARDA SÍOCHÁNA.

At a news conference, Mr Wallace claimed there is a serious lack of democratic accountability of the force.

  In the Dáil today, he proposed a bill aimed at strengthening the independence of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

He it was motivated by any antipathy to the force, saying he had a good relationship with the force.

He insisted that the increased accountability would make for better policing, and that a return to what he called policing by consent would make for a better force.

Six in 10 cancer sufferers in Ireland beat the disease

 

SIX OUT OF 10 PEOPLE ARE NOW SURVIVING CANCER IN IRELAND THANKS TO ADVANCES IN EARLY DETECTION AND TREATMENT.

The Irish Cancer Society said that while cases are rising, more people are surviving cancer and going on to live a normal and healthy life.

Figures show that there are now 100,000 people living with cancer here, meaning there is a growing need to understand the “life-changing implications a cancer diagnosis brings,” the charity said.

The society is set to hold a free conference in Dublin for cancer survivors and their families, which will address the needs of cancer survivors across the country.

The two-day National Conference for Cancer Survivorship event will run on September 21 and 22 at the Aviva Stadium, with up to 800 cancer survivors attending.

Dublin to host cancer survivors Ireland event next September

  

UP TO 800 CANCER SURVIVORS AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND A FREE TWO-DAY EVENT IN DUBLIN THIS SEPTEMBER.

The National Conference for Cancer Survivorship will take place on September 20 and 21 at the Aviva Stadium, with the theme ‘Living Well with Cancer’.

More than 60% of Irish people diagnosed with cancer in Ireland survive for five years or longer.

Although the number of cancer cases is increasing in Ireland, with around 100,000 people living with the disease, advances in early detection and treatment have led to more people going on to live a normal and healthy life.

Olwyn Ryan, Patients Support Services Manager at the Irish Cancer Society said: “The transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor can be difficult for those on a cancer journey.

“While many people adapt well, others experience problems in adjusting to life after a cancer diagnosis.

“Access to information and support to deal with issues such as fear of the cancer coming back, financial strain and long-term side-effects of treatment is vital.

“The aim of this unique conference is to identify the issues and support patients and those close to them need to make the necessary adjustments in order to live as well as they can following a diagnosis.

“Delegates will be offered the opportunity to engage with experts in the field of cancer with a particular emphasis on psycho-social adjustment and keeping well into the future.

“Bringing survivors together so that they may befriend, help and support each other is a powerful way of improving the lives of those living with cancer.”

The two-day programme includes practical information on treatment advances, dealing with fatigue, exercise and diet as well as dealing with the emotional and psychological effects of cancer.

There will also be separate tracks for healthcare professionals and affiliated support groups.

Tyrannosaur left a tooth behind in another dinosaur

 

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, even when you are the King of Dinosaurs. A dinosaur discovery points to the hunting strategy of Tyrannosaurus rex.

• Tyrannosaurus rex was a massive meat-eating dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago
• A T. rex tooth left lodged in the healed tail of a plant-eating hadrosaur dinosaur says it was a hunter

Even Tyrannosaurus rex missed a meal now and then, paleontologists report Monday, noting the discovery of a big tooth left in the tail of a plant-eating dinosaur.

Some 40 feet long at full size, T. rex was surely a fearsome beast, famed for its massive jaws, but how much of its diet consisted of captured prey as opposed to scavenged has remained unclear. But this discovery shows T. rex tried to take a bite out of a live hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, and lost a tooth in the process, says the tooth discovery team led by Robert DePalma of the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History, in Fort Lauderdale.

“We now have conclusive evidence that T. rex indeed engaged in predatory behavior,” they say in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Looking at two healed tail bones of the roughly 66 million-year-old hadrosaur uncovered at the Hell Creek site in South Dakota, the team reports the discovery of a T. rex tooth — “indistinguishable,” from ones in the fossilized skulls of other T. rex specimens — lodged therein. This hadrosaur managed to escape from T. rex and keep a souvenir, a dagger-like tooth crown about 1.5 inches tall and 1 inch wide, the discovery team reports.

Modern predators, such as wolves and lions, lose their prey 45% to 62% of the time too, notes the study. So, T. rex can still hold its head high.

Past dinosaur discoveries such as crunched up hadrosaur bones found in the belly positions of T. rex fossils have already pointed to T. rex being a hunter, notes paleontologist Thomas Holtz of the University of Maryland, who was not part of the study team. “So this isn’t the One Key Specimen, but it *is* an important specimen in the argument,” he says, by e-mail.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG Sunday

Roman Catholic Cardinals offer prayers in conclave to choose new pope this week

 

Sri Lanka’s Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, arrives to lead Mass at the San Lorenzo In Lucino church in Rome today. Right picture shows the chimney being erected that will puff the white smoke when the new pope is elected

With the vast majority of Catholics now living outside Europe, there is growing pressure for a pontiff from another part of the world.

Church leaders seek guidance ahead of private vote next week

Roman Catholic Cardinals prayed today for spiritual guidance ahead of a closed-door conclave to choose a new pope to lead the church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

Cardinals will hold a last pre-conclave meeting tomorrow to fine-tune a job description for the man they think would be best suited to lead a church hit by sexual abuse scandals around the world as well as allegations of corruption in the Vatican itself.

The 115 cardinals who will take part in the election as of Tuesday were subsequently celebrating Masses in Rome today, either in the quiet of private chapels or in the grandeur of Rome’s great cathedrals and basilicas.

“The conclave is just around the corner. Let us pray that the holy spirit gives the church a man who can lead her in the footsteps of the great pontiffs of the past 150 years,” said Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, at his Mass in Rome.

Scola (71), is considered the leading Italian candidate to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who cast the 1.2. billion-member church into uncertainty last month when he became the first pontiff in six centuries to abdicate instead of ruling for life.

“We need to make the right decision,” Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo (63), who is considered Latin America’s leading candidate, said at his public Mass in a small, Baroque church packed with wellwishers and reporters.

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley asked God to “enlighten the church” so the cardinals would choose a pope to confirm everyone in the faith.

Other cardinals such as Manila’s Luis Antonio Tagle (55), considered a long-shot because of his relatively young age, kept a lower profile, mostly staying inside the walls of seminaries or other religious institutions.

At the Vatican, St Peter’s Square was eerily quiet, without a pope for a second consecutive Sunday. The windows of the papal apartments overlooking the square remained closed.

Benedict, who is now “Pope Emeritus” and has no residual authority over the church, is at the papal summer retreat south of Rome while his permanent residence in a Vatican convent is being prepared.

“This is a time of overall crisis but also a time of crisis in faith,” Italian bishop Rino Fisichella told Italy’s Tgcom24 television, adding that he hoped a new pope would appear from the window next Sunday.

A Non-European pope?

  The 115 cardinal electors under the age of 80 will enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday afternoon and hold one vote that evening. They will vote repeatedly thereafter until one of their number receives a two-thirds majority, or 77 votes.

If a pope is not elected in two or three days it means cardinals are probably severely divided and might have to turn to a dark horse candidate to find consensus.

No conclave has lasted than more than five days in the past century. Pope Benedict was elected within barely 24 hours in 2005 after four rounds of voting.

But this time, no clear favourites have emerged to take the helm of the troubled church.

“Prior to the last conclave, everyone recognised Ratzinger was the frontrunner on the day the conclave began. The same was true for Paul VI (in 1963) and Pius XII (in 1939),” said Father Tom Reese, Jesuit historian and author of Inside the Vatican.

Apart from Italy’s Scola and Brazil’s Scherer, others who have been mentioned the most are Canada’s Marc Ouellet. US cardinals such as O’Malley or Timothy Dolan of New York have also been cited as candidates.

With the vast majority of Catholics now living outside Europe, there is growing pressure for a pontiff from another part of the world.

Many observers believe a Latin American, Asian or African pope could bring attention to the poverty of the southern hemisphere in the same way the Polish-born John Paul put a spotlight on the East-West divide after he was elected in 1978.

The Sistine Chapel has been readied to receive the sequestered cardinals, who will use stoves to tell the outside world whether or not they have chosen a new leader – black smoke signifying no decision and white smoke announcing a new pontiff.

One stove, made of cast iron and used in every conclave since 1939, will be used to burn ballots. The second stove is an electronic one which will use electronically ignited flares to send out either white or black smoke.

Workmen have built rows of tables where the cardinals will sit under the gaze of Jesus in Michelangelo’s massive Last Judgment panel on the wall behind the altar.

Around 1,000 calls have been made to Magdalene laundries fund

   

Mr Justice Quirke met with the Magdalene Survivors Together group

The Department of Justice said it has received around 1,000 calls about the fund which is to be set up for former residents of Magdalene laundries.

  Mr Justice John Quirke left pic, who is carrying out a review to devise recommendations on payments and support, has been meeting Magdalene Survivor representative groups this week.

He met the Magdalene Survivors Together group, and the UK-based Irish Womens Survivors Support Network, to discuss the fund.

The Government is asking the four religious orders concerned to make what it calls an appropriate contribution to the fund, and the Department said contact is ongoing with the Orders about the issue.Asked if Mr Justice Quirke would be seeking access to the congregations’ financial records as part of his review, a department spokesperson said it was not aware of this, and that the department had not sought any access to those records at this stage.

Irish homeowners to calculate value on new property tax web site

 

WEBSITE WILL ALLOW HOMEOWNERS TO CALCULATE HOW MUCH THEY WILL HAVE TO PAY

Irish homeowners can now assess what their likely property tax will be using an online guide which went live this afternoon.

  Revenue chairwoman Josephine Feehily. The guide, from the Revenue Commissioners, allows people to identify the area in which their home is located and find out what their annual tax is likely to be.

But they have warned that it only provides a guide to “average market values” in a given locality, based on the type of property, age and location.

This means that people with, for example, large gardens, a house extension or other features which add value to the property must make sure they are not under-paying the tax.

This is because does not provide a guide for individual properties – meaning that homeowners may be forced to seek an independent valuation to ensure they are paying the correct tax.

“The guidance is primarily based on the market value of properties sold since the year 2010 in the area, adjusted for average price movements in the interim,” the Revenue said.

“This guidance will be helpful in the majority of cases but there are always properties in an area that differ from the average.

“Self assessment requires property owners to honestly assess the market value of their own property. If a property is smaller or larger than the average for the area, is in a significantly poor state of repair or has exceptional or unique features, these will have to be factored into the assessment.”

The guide is available here by clicking the link at: 

PROPERTY VALUATION GUIDE - REVENUE COMMISSIONERS 

Declan Ganley among ‘Sunday B/ness Post’ bidders

 

Declan Ganley

Four parties have so far expressed interest in buying The Sunday Business Post, which went into examinership last Thursday, including Better Capital, a private equity firm led by John Moulton.

It has also emerged that Webprint Concepts Ltd’s lawyers – Mason, Hayes & Curran – plan next week to take legal action to have the firm reinstated as printers to Landmark, the new Crosbie-owned company that took over the Irish Examiner and other regional titles last week.

Other bidders for the Post include Key Capital, a financial adviser co-founded by Conor Killeen and entrepreneur Declan Ganley, who has teamed up with a Spanish media magnate.

The founder of television group Setanta, Michael O’Rourke, is also mulling a bid.

Meanwhile Donagh O’Doherty, managing director of Webprint, said the decision to halt the TCH titles’ printing with his company was “extraordinarily unfair and simply wrong. We intend to sue to vindicate our rights”.

The Crosbies will defend the actions.

Rising CO2 means rising temperature

 

“Ice cores and other data provide evidence that the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, and Earth’s temperature, have fluctuated in a cyclical pattern through time. These cycles of cooling and warming are natural, and caused, over the last 750,000 years, primarily by cyclic changes in Earth’s orbit. During that time frame we have experienced alternating periods of warmth and periods of glaciations.

  “However, at present, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere far exceed even the highest levels of the past half-million years. Our global temperature is increasing in response to this added greenhouse gas.”

There are two charts below. The first one shows the rise and fall of CO2 and temperature over the last 400,000 years. As CO2 rises, it invariably drags temperature with it. As it falls, the Earth cools. And so it must be. Only humans can lie. Only humans can deceive. Only humans can imagine a false reality and pretend it is true. Physics cannot lie. The laws of nature must be obeyed. Our Earth must grow hotter under the command of the gases we emit.

        

In the second chart the black line shows us the observed REAL climate change. The blue line represents a computer model of NATURAL climate. The red line represents our NATURAL climate with greenhouse gases. Without greenhouse gases the temperature of our climate remains level. Only when greenhouse gases are added does the computer model match up with the observed REAL climate change.