Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Ireland’s jobless rate falls to under 10% but more than 200,000 still out of work

 

Data shows economy continues to create jobs at a steady rate as recovery continues.

Ireland had an unemployment rate of just 4.5% in the first quarter of 2007, but that rate peaked at 15.1% in 2012. In the first quarter of 2015, it dropped to 9.9%.

New data show Ireland’s unemployment rate fell to 9.9% in the first quarter of the year, the first time since the fateful year of 2008 that the rate came in below 10%. This represents a key psychological threshold, although the figures show that more than 200,000 people are still without work.

The good news here is that the economy continues to create jobs at a steady clip. In the year to March, Central Statistics data indicates 41,300 jobs were created and the number people unemployed dropped by 45,300. Employment increased by 12,500 in the first quarter of the year on a seasonally adjusted basis, following on from an increase of 13,000 in the final quarter of 2014 .

All of this is in line with trend growth since the recovery began, with 11 successive quarters of annualised decline in unemployment bringing the rate down from the 15.1% reached at the very height of the jobs crisis in the first quarter of 2012.

The sweep of figures is salutory. Ireland had an unemployment rate of just 4.5% in the first quarter of 2007, when the emergence of distress in the US subprime mortgage market was but a distant sign of woe to come. Conditions changed rather suddenly as the economy stalled and the banking sector teetered on the brink. Ireland’s unemployment rate doubled between 2008 and 2009, as the official rate advanced to 10.2% in the first quarter of 2009 from 5% only one year previously. The annual decrease in the number of employed people in that single year was 158,500, a terrible toll .

It is in the nature of economic crises that recovery takes longer to bed down than the precipitous losses endured in a crash. Thus the rate at which jobs are being created now does not match the sickening speed at which they were lost when Ireland was on the rocks. But that is not to take from the signs that recovery is deepening.

For one thing, the latest CSO data indicates that the rate of long-term unemployment declined to 5.9% in the first months of 2015 from 7.3% a year earlier. For another, the data shows that more full-time jobs are being created now than part-time posts. The increase in full-time employment was 52,100 and there was a decrease in part-time employment. The benefit of all this is clear. More people at work means more people spending, more paying tax and fewer drawing payments.

These figures also provide a glimpse into the shape of recovery. The largest rates of employment increase were recorded in the construction sector, where 19,600 jobs were created, and in the financial, insurance and real estate activities, where employment is up by 4,600. At the same time, the greatest rate of decline was recorded in professional, scientific and technical activities, where the number working dclined by 6,400.

The Minister for Finance’s push for a better deal from the banks

  

Lending institutions have to accept standard variable mortgage rates are simply too high

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will complete his meeting with bank chief executives today and will presumably make some statement about the outcome of his talks. A report on the cost of standard variable rate mortgages, which has been compiled by the Central Bank, may also be published. The indications are that the banks may slowly start to move on mortgage rates, though what precise form this will take remains to be seen. Standard variable mortgage rates are too high. As the banking market starts to normalise, the banks should have reduced their rates by now, given the generally low interest rate environment.

The Central Bank report makes this point, and refers to the danger to the banks of a political response if they do not act in the near future. What that political response might be is not clear, although Mr Noonan does have options, even if he would prefer not to have to use them.

There are some points needed to put the argument in context. The banks all have large books of tracker mortgages, on which customers are paying rock bottom rates, a point also underlined in the Central Bank report. The Government also needs the banks to be profitable, particularly in the case of AIB, on which it hopes to start selling down its shareholding late this year or early next year. Falling lending rates may also, in some cases, mean a drop in returns to savers, via lower deposit rates. All that said, it is unreasonable to expect existing standard rate mortgage holders to have to pay so far above European norms. Apart from Permanent TSB, the banks are now back in profit and their cost of funding has fallen. In this environment, the margins they are making on standard variable mortgages are unreasonably high.

Government interventions, which go beyond urging the banks, can be hard to target to achieve the right result. Of course politics are at play here. With a general election in the offing, the Government is keen to get a “win” and to be seen to persuade the banks to offer a better deal to customers. The fact that Minister Noonan is calling in all the main lenders suggests he feels something can, indeed by achieved. The indications are that this might come through a mix of cuts to standard variable mortgage rates along with the option for existing mortgage holders to move to competitively priced fixed rate mortgages for a period of years.

The banks may feel they are being unfairly treated, particularly as in overall terms their profit margins are probably not excessive. But they should have realised by now that their standard variable mortgage rates are simply too high. Sustainable business models involve being fair to customers and there is a manifestly undue burden on existing standard variable mortgage holders. The banks should offer them a better deal.

Charles remembers the ‘grandfather he never had’

Mountbatten states in his Sligo speech

       

Prince Charles paid tribute to the “grandfather he never had”, the assassinated Lord Mountbatten, in a speech this afternoon in which he said friendship with Ireland cannot be based on “pretending the past did not happen”.

Prince Charles began by saying “I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is to be in Ireland once again,” and attempting a few words of Irish in greeting.

  He said the “ancient land of Ireland … can be a great source of inspiration for some” and cites the poetry of WB Yeats, much of which was inspired by the Sligo landscape.

“It is not a stretch to say that it is through Yeats’ work that many British people are first introduced to Ireland.”

He said relations between Britain and Ireland had “changed dramatically” since his last trip in the 1990s, through the Good Friday agreement.

He said the Queen’s recent visit – and the return visit by President Higgins, was “clear evidence of the maturity of our relations, which are now better than ever …[due to] respect between two sovereign nations.”

However, he said “our current blessed era of friendship and cooperation is not based on pretending the past did not happen.”

“I am only too deeply aware of the long history of suffering which Ireland has endured, not only in recent decades, but over the course of its history.

“It is a history which I know has caused much pain and much resentment, in a world of imperfect human beings.

“In the end, our acquaintance has been long, and we can turn that … into something new. We need no longer be victims … we can integrate our history and memory in order to reap the subtle harvest of history.

“Let us, then, endeavour to become the subjects of our history, and not its prisoners.”

The royals traveled to Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, where Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA along with three others when the IRA detonated a bomb on his boat on August 27 1979.

Charles said Mountbatten represented “the grandfather I never had.” But he said through that tragedy, he had learned to understand the agony of those in Ireland who suffered in conflict.

After a prayer service for peace and reconciliation in nearby Drumcliffe, Charles will meet some of those who were in the seaside village on the day of the atrocity and others who pulled survivors and bodies from the Atlantic.

The royals will also have the chance to visit the burial site of WB Yeats in the church cemetery and under the shadow of Benbulben and plant a tree in the grounds.

Other engagements include a view of the Niland Art Collection and music and poetry recitals to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Yeats’ birth

Permission refused for Coillte wind farm in Bellacorick Co Mayo

      

Decision on separate, adjoining scheme delayed until November

An Bord Pléanála refused the Cluddaun project over concerns relating to peat slippage and the flows of streams and rivers.

A 48-turbine wind farm proposed for Co Mayo has been refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanála.

Coillte’s project, on lands at Cluddaun, was to be complemented by an adjoining 112-turbine, €600-million scheme at Bellacorick, put forward by an ESB/Bord na Móna consortium, Oweninny Power Ltd.

Together the two schemes represented a potential €825-million investment that, if approved, would have been the country’s largest onshore wind farm, potentially generating 521 megawatts of power.

A decision on the larger Oweninny proposal is not expected until at least November.

Refusing the Cluddaun application yesterday, An Bord Pleanála specifically said it was “not satisfied that the developments as proposed would not have the potential to impact negatively on the surface and groundwater hydrology”.

These concerns relate to the potential for peat slippage and changes in the flows of natural streams and rivers.

  Protected habitats reasons?

Other reasons cited included the scale of the development, the “exceptionally sensitive” nature of the location in close proximity to designated and protected habitats and a landscape “characterised by blanket bog, lakes, ponds and watercourses”. The isolation of the site from public roads, which would have necessitated access through third-party land, was also of concern.

Responding to the decision, the Moy Valley ProtectionGroup, which had opposed the scheme, said it “condemns the wasting of public money by Coillte and the Government in attempting to build a wind farm in an unsuitable area of outstanding beauty against the wishes of the local community and without any consideration of their wellbeing”.

Planning permission was sought under strategic infrastructure legislation that allows the application to bypass the local authority and proceed directly to An Bord Pleanála.

A Judicial review: While this is the final stage in the planning process, it is now open to Coillte, a natural resources management company, to apply for judicial review. In a statement, it said it “notes the decision” and will not comment further at this stage.

Attention will now focus on the remaining part of the overall scheme. An Bord Pleanála has written to the ESB requesting further information on its Oweninny Power proposal, specifically a revised environmental impact statement. A decision will not be reached until at least November, although this time-frame could be extended.

An oral hearing on both projects was conducted in Ballina, Co Mayo, in April 2014. Eighteen submissions were filed in relation to the Oweninny proposal, and 17 for Cluddaun.

Issues of concern raised by various groups at the time included health and safety, proximity to homes, noise, “flicker” from turbines, the effect on property values, construction, noise and travel. Concerns about landslides, impact on the land and tourism also featured.

Global news organisations agree to share climate change content

    

The Guardian, El País, Le Monde and China Daily are among 25 publishers aiming to raise awareness in the runup to the next UN summit

Environmental activists hold banners during a rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate near the venue for the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin.

An unprecedented alliance of news publishers including the Guardian, El País, Le Monde and China Daily have agreed to share climate change content to raise awareness in the runup to the next UN summit.

More than two dozen publishers from around the world – from the Sydney Morning Herald to India Today and the Seattle Times – have agreed to scrap licensing fees for climate change content so that members of the alliance can freely republish articles.

The initiative, called the Climate Publishers Network, aims to create a global pool of content to provide a resource for publishers to widen coverage ahead of the UN climate change summit in Paris in December.

The goal is to expand the network beyond its founding partners, brought together with help from the Global Editors Network, until the initiative disbands on the last day of the COP 21 summit on 11 December.

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, El Pais editor-in-chief Antonio Cano and Global Editors Network president Ricardo Kirschbaum said: “We very much hope that publications across the political spectrum will join us either in using some of our material or, ideally, offering their own material as well.”

Publishers that are members of the network can cherry-pick the articles they want and, if necessary, can have them translated for use on their own websites.

Guardian director of digital strategy Wolfgang Blau said that the 25 founding partners represented an unprecedented mix of political leanings and geographical spread to have pulled together for such a content-sharing initiative.

“It is unprecedented that such a diverse and large group of news organisations from all continents decides to collaborate in this way,” he said. “Climate change is the biggest challenge humanity is currently facing and requires new ways of collaborating across geographic as well as political boundaries.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Tánaiste says procedure in place to deal with social welfare recipients in debt 

   

JOAN BURTON DEFENDS GOVERNMENT’S DECISION TO LEGISLATE FOR ATTACHMENT ORDERS

The Department of Social Protection used long-established principles in dealing with social welfare recipients with debts, Tánaiste Joan Burton told the Dáil.

She said the procedure remained “absolutely intact” in the deduction of money for a debt. “It has been subjected to very detailed discussion in this House at different times and actually deals with very small amounts,” Mr Burton added.

The Tánaiste was responding to Opposition criticism of the decision to introduce legislation allowing for attachment orders to the welfare and wages of customers in debt with their utility bills.

She said the Government’s decision was essentially to distinguish between those who could not pay and those who would not pay. It would lay out a clear path for the recovery of civil debt, she added.

Ms Burton said the legislation would remove from people any threat of imprisonment regarding civil debt, which went back to the times of Charles Dickens.

“It is a very fundamental reform to take that threat away,” she added. “I have to say I am very pleased that various organisations have welcomed the legislation.”

Ms Burton sharply criticised TDs who have said they would not pay water charges.

“Our salaries and conditions are pretty good and, yet, there are a lot of people here who are saying they won’t pay,” she said.

“They are not suggesting they can’t pay, but they are saying that somebody on a very handsome salary should get the compliant pensioner to pay.”

Her remarks were made during heated exchanges with Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald.

Ms Burton said the Law Reform Commission report on the issue clearly set out “mechanisms and methods” whereby people who were unable to pay would be assisted in dealing with debt issues.

Ms McDonald said she had asked the Tánaiste, over several months, to explain how families bearing the brunt of the Government’s austerity policies were meant to pay the “unjust and unfair” water tax.

Sneaky and cowardly She told Ms Burton the Government’s decision to allow attachment orders was “low, sneaky and a cowardly proposition in the face of mass public opposition to your water tax”.

Ms McDonald said it was all about Irish Water and the public resistance to an unfair imposition on struggling families.

“People see that this is the Government saying to the working poor – many of those struggling are at work, as I presume the Tánaiste knows – that it does not care about their living standards or their day-to-day struggles and, if they do not cough up, it is going to stick its hand in their pockets anyway,” she said.

Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher asked where Labour’s “basic decency” had gone to.

“There is huge pressure on families, yet we now have a situation in which people in extreme poverty will be dragged to the courts and attachment orders will be made to their social welfare payments or their basic wages,” he said.

County Sligo village of Mullaghmore prepares for rare visit by Prince Charles and Camilla

     

Mullaghmore historian Joe McGowan hopes Prince Charles may be shown the effects of the Famine when he visits the Co. Sligo harbor village.

Joe McGowan is one of the few in the village who believes the visit of the prince should be private and not the public affair planned on a date between May 19 and 22.

The historian said he fears that the public visit will once again focus world attention on the death of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the prince’s godfather and great uncle who was killed by an IRA bomb on his boat Shadow V in the harbor in 1979.

  Joe McGowan a native said, “That could re-focus negativity on Mullaghmore.”

Clarence House, Prince Charles’s official residence in London, has confirmed the visit to both parts of Ireland. Further details have not yet been released but it is generally assumed the prince will be the first member of the royal family to visit where Mountbatten was killed.

“Prince Charles is probably not fully aware of the past history in Mullaghmore. I would hope that during his visit he will be briefed on the numbers of people forced to sail from there on Famine coffin ships,” McGowan said.

If a visit is to be included for the prince to Eithna O’Sullivan’s prize-winning restaurant directly opposite where Mountbatten’s boat Shadow V was berthed he will have an opportunity to learn of the effects of the Famine on Mullaghmore.

There will be a pictorial exhibition of old and new Mullaghmore in the restaurant which will feature nine Famine coffin ships that sailed from Sligo to Canada.

Their passages were “assisted” by Lord Palmerston, who was twice prime minister of England and who built Classiebawn Castle, Lord Mountbatten’s Mullaghmore holiday home. Several people died on the ships on the way to Canada.

McGowan’s reticence about Prince Charles’s public visit is not shared by the majority of the villagers who believe the royal trip will boost Mullaghmore on the tourism map.

Grainne McHugh, who was a young nurse treating the casualties on Shadow V — four died including Mountbatten — in common with most locals, is delighted Charles will have an opportunity for solace at the spot where the man he called Uncle Dickie died.

Mullaghmore Active campaigner Peter McHugh believes Charles’ profile, and that he was so closely aligned to Mountbatten, will be very positive for Mullaghmore.

“We really don’t think it strange that he would want to see the area where his uncle enjoyed a lot of holiday time,” McHugh said.

Six small meals are key to diet success

  

There’s so much advice around when it comes to eating that it can be tricky to know what to follow. Some diet plans encourage three meals a day plus regular snacks, while others state that sticking to just breakfast, lunch and dinner and nothing else is the key. It’s also been suggested that small, regular meals might help with weight-loss, an idea which has been backed by new research.

According to a study conducted by experts at California and New Mexico universities, having more small meals will help you drop the pounds.

To help them come to this conclusion the group looked at two different ways of eating over a fortnight. One set of people were given two meals a day and the others received six, but the total amount of calories for both sets was the same.

Both groups of people ended up losing weight, but those who had more regular meals boasted a healthier body composition. In line with this, they didn’t see as much of their fat-free body mass decrease and their levels of glucose, cholesterol and insulin were better.

People who had two meals a day saw their fat-free body mass cut by 3%, while the others only had a 1.2% reduction.

The study was published in science journal Nutrition Research, with researchers stating the findings point towards smaller meals being the key to staying trim.

Fat-free body mass is your body mass which doesn’t include fat, so it takes in everything else such as organs, bones, skin, ligaments and water content. If you have a high fat-free mass it means you are lean and healthy, which is why it isn’t good if a diet sees it reduced too much.

Don’t start to think you need to completely cut the fat from your frame though, as a certain amount is needed to stay healthy. Men need around 3% to be in peak condition and it’s more for women because they have sex-specific fat, so it comes in at 12%.

Thousands of Irish people prepare for Darkness Into Light event tonight

   

Over 100,000 people in 80 venues across three continents are preparing to take part in Pieta House’s annual Darkness Into Light 5k walk and run.

Suicide and self-harm charity Pieta House’s annual Darkness Into Light fundraising and awareness event will take place in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Participants will begin walking or running the 5km route at 4.15am on Saturday morning. The charity say the early dawn represents hope and is symbolic of their work, bringing people from darkness back into the light.

Louise McEvoy lost her brother through suicide eight years ago. Adrian was 28 when he took his own life and Louise said it was completely unexpected.

“It devastated us. We couldn’t believe it, that he took his own life and we didn’t know anything about the fact he was in so much trouble.

“But it didn’t tear us apart. We are a very strong family and we stuck together and we decided that fundraising and trying to raise awareness was probably the positive thing to do out of this terrible tragedy,” she said.

Louise is taking part in this year’s Darkness Into Light walk in Skerries, Co Dublin on Saturday.

Emily Diebold from the tourist office in the seaside town said they have been taking in over €1000 every day in registration fees.

“There has actually been a queue out the door. We had no idea that there was going to be so many people registering. We have been getting more t-shirts every day. We have been running out of the sizes and the application forms,” she said.

Founder of Pieta House Joan Freeman explained: “People start the walk at a quarter past four in the morning but as they cross the finish line dawn is breaking which is very symbolic of the work that we do in Pieta House – we bring people from the dark into the light.

“It is often said the darkest hour is before dawn. It is the same when someone is in a suicidal crisis, just before they come to Pieta House it is their darkest time,” he said.

The walk will be timed to coincide with several others taking place elsewhere in the country and abroad, including Australia, Canada, England, Scotland and the USA.

This Bear walking upright like a person on his hind legs will mesmerize & terrify us

    

Animals dressed as humans are usually unsettling sights (save a few chihuahua holiday sweaters here and there, and of course cat bow ties). But animals ACTING as humans? Pure comedy. And in a life-affirming nod from the TGIF gods, here’s video evidence of a bear walking like a person.

At the Laos Wildlife Center, an especially tiny and precious Asiatic black bear rose up on both hind legs to take a stroll of his enclosed perimeter. I love its casual approach as if it were to ask in passing, “Hey Norman, what happened to the hazelnut coffee blend? I loved that stuff. Now it’s vanilla, which is fine—I guess. Let’s go to Panera for lunch, yeah?” Very chill ‘tude, bear friend. Very chill, indeed.

Except not really—apparently this specific bear was a past resident of a very cruel bear bile farm. FYI, some farms keep bears—mostly Asiatic black bears and sunbears—in cramped cages to extract their bile, which is sold at an exorbitant price to cure various ailments. It’s very cruel and scary and sometimes permanently affects the bears’ bodies in a way like the one caught on camera. Even though there’s a sad history as to why this bear walks in such a fashion, it’s still mesmerizing to see in action. Seriously:

At least he is safe now on the reservation and getting the attention he needs. The veterinarian Eliza Jinata who posted the video further explains:

Before his current place was turned into a rescue center, it functioned as a zoo where visitors could feed him and other bears by throwing food from outside the fence. With his smaller and malnourished body, it is easier for him to stand on his hind leg because his spine can support his light body weight. Standing up and waiting for food slowly became a habit which he does on a daily basis now.

Ugh, it’s the worst when something cute is actually the result of something terrible. See the whole video below:

Focus your eyes on the first ‘images’ of thunder

  

The first images of thunder, created by visualizing the sound waves created by artificially triggered lightning, have been taken by an international team of researchers. The novel experimental approach provides an entirely new way of investigating lightning, which may help to answer outstanding questions about the physics that underlies this intense natural phenomenon.

Although bolts of lightning strike the Earth more than four million times each day, much of the specific physics behind this process remains a mystery. “While we understand the general mechanics of thunder generation, it’s not particularly clear which physical processes of the lightning discharge contribute to the thunder we hear,” says group leader Maher Dayeh, of the Southwest Research Institute in the US, who developed the new method together with colleagues in Australia and the US. Dayeh explains that some outstanding questions include how lightning is initiated, what controls its movement through the atmosphere, and how it strikes objects near the ground.

Forked leaders

Lightning strikes begin with the build-up of electrostatic charges in storm clouds – these form channels of negatively charged, ionized air, or “leaders”, which fork downwards. When they reach the ground, these leaders create a bridge of low resistance, through which discharge can occur – with positive charge racing up the channel in a series of nearly instantaneous return strokes. “When lightning does strike something, very large currents flow, heating up the channel to about 27,760 °C. The hot channel rapidly expands, making the thunder that we hear and can measure,” explains Joseph Dwyer, of the University of New Hampshire, who is part of the team. He adds that because “the thunder is created close to the time that all this is happening, it provides a window into what’s going on when lightning strikes”.

As lightning’s unpredictable nature makes it difficult to study in the field, the researchers conducted their experiments on artificially triggered strikes instead. To generate lightning, the team launched small rockets into storm clouds as they passed overhead. The rockets had long, trailing copper wires attached – these provided a conductive channel through which lightning would predictably strike – onto which the team could focus their instruments.

Lightning rockets

The rockets were launched from the International Center for Lightning Research, which is based in Florida in the US. The centre’s location takes advantage of the state’s record high frequency of lightning strikes, with the geography of the Florida peninsula promoting the formation of warm, humid updrafts, which generate very active thunderclouds at high altitudes.

To record the acoustic signature of thunder, Dayeh and colleagues designed a large array of 16 microphones, each spaced one metre apart. These were lined up 95 metres from the launch pad where the lightning would hit. Following each strike, post-processing and directional-amplification techniques were used to convert the recordings into a vertical acoustic profile of the lightning bolt. With sound waves from higher up in the atmosphere taking longer to reach the receivers, each return-stroke signal has a characteristically curved appearance. In their study, the researchers imaged strikes with at least nine separate return strokes and found that the loudest part of the thunderclap comes from where the bolt meets the ground.

Craig Rodger – a physicist at the University of Otago in New Zealand who was not involved in this study – commends the work for offering a new way to investigate lightning, which he expects will lead to interesting new knowledge. “Even now, we are learning totally new things about lightning and the processes that take place during a discharge,” he says.

With their proof-of-concept study complete, Dayeh’s team is now working on refining its technique to better explore the outstanding mysteries around lightning generation. One potential avenue of investigation, for example, would be in triggering lightning with a more natural, zigzag appearance – rather than the straight form created by the wires in the current set-up. From this, they might distinguish between the different components of lightning – current pulses, discharge-channel zigzags and step-leader branches – and analysing their acoustic signals independently.