Donie's news Ireland BLOG Saturday

Vincent Browne says he is not anti-Semitic

   

The TV3 broadcaster Vincent Browne insists he is not anti-Semitic after branding Israel a “cancer” in foreign affairs.

But Israel’s deputy ambassador to Ireland said she never believed the day would come when an Irish TV presenter would make “racist, anti-Semitic remarks”.

Mr Browne, pictured, had been complaining on his show about the lack of discussion of Israel during the last US presidential debate between Republican nominee Mitt Romney and US President Barack Obama.

“Israel is the cancer in foreign affairs. It polarises the Islamic community of the world against the rest of the world,” he said.

“Unless you deal with the problem of Israel and the Palestinians in that part of the world, there’s going to be conflict and disharmony. It’s a massive injustice — they stole the land from the Arabs.”

Mr Browne admitted that his choice of language could have been better but insisted that the criticism was justified.

“What I resent is the suggestion that because you’re critical of Israel, you’re automatically anti-Semitic. I don’t think that’s acceptable,” he said.

Mr Browne refused to apologise for his remarks, saying that Israel was founded in 1948 by taking land from the Arabs.

He said it was “blackmail” to try to brand everyone who was critical of Israel as anti-Semitic. “I don’t think I differ too much from Irish or European foreign policy,” he said.

But his remarks drew a strong reaction from Israel’s deputy ambassador to Ireland Nurit Tinari-Modai, who said her grandparents were brutally murdered during the Holocaust.

“I would have never believed that the day would come when a presenter on an Irish TV station would make racist, anti-Semitic remarks,” she said.

She made her comments to the ‘Jewish Chronicle’ newspaper, the most widely read Jewish newspaper in Britain.

A TV3 spokeswoman said she was not aware of any complaints being made about Mr Browne’s remarks.

The price of Ireland’s Electricity likely to rise 9% in peak months

    

Businesses and consumers in Ireland could face further electricity price increases of up to 9 % under a proposal being considered by the State’s energy industry watchdog.

Electricity suppliers, including ESB subsidiary Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis and Airtricity, recently increased their charges to both businesses and consumers, adding between €50 and €60 a year to the average household bill.

The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) is now consulting with power plant operators on a technical issue relating to how they pass on charges for supplies of natural gas that they burn to generate electricity.

According to independent supplier Vayu, the changes being considered could add up to 9 per cent to the cost of electricity during the peak demand months in the winter and about 1 per cent when demand is at its lowest, during the summer.

The company’s head of regulation, Bryan Hennessy, said yesterday that the increase would hit businesses, particularly industries that employ large numbers of workers, and households if it were applied.

The consultation deals specifically with charges for short-term use of the natural gas network. Electricity companies have to book space on this system to ensure the natural gas supplies they need are shipped to them. The space can be booked on a yearly, monthly or daily basis. The daily, or short-term rate, is almost three times the yearly rate and is about twice what companies are charged for booking capacity a month in advance.

Power plant operators such as the ESB and Huntstown Power owner Energia did not comment yesterday. However, it is understood that industry players want the regulator to give them the green light to pass on these charges to customers.

The CER spokesman said the commission was investigating whether Huntstown has already begun passing on the charge.

Industry sources say that there is debate on whether or not the regulator can prevent companies from passing on the charge in the first place.

Recent changes in the energy market have left key sectors such as pharmaceutical manufacturers and food processors facing six-figure increases in their annual electricity bills. The end of a special rebate on electricity bills paid to large energy users and recently introduced extra network and public service charges are adding between 7-8 per cent to bills paid by organisations such as manufacturers and hospitals.

Women who quit smoking by 40 can live an extra ten years

 

Women who stop smoking by the age of 40 dramatically cut risk of early death, enjoying up to ten more years of life, a major new study has found.

The study of 1.3 million women found that quitting smoking by the age of 30 allowed women to avoid up to 97 per cent of the extra risk of premature death.

The results, which are published in The Lancet medical journal, showed that lifelong smokers died a decade earlier than those who did not smoke at all.

Those who stopped at thirty lost an average of a month of life and if they stopped at 40 they died a year younger.

Most of the increased death rate resulted from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease or stroke.

The risk rose steeply with the quantity of tobacco smoked, but even light smokers who puffed fewer than 10 cigarettes a day doubled their likelihood of dying.

The authors of the Million Women Study wrote: “Smokers lose at least 10 years of lifespan. Although the hazards of smoking until age 40 years and then stopping are substantial, the hazards of continuing are 10 times greater.”

Women aged 50 to 65 were enrolled into the study, designed to investigate links between health and lifestyle, from 1996 to 2001.

Participants completed a questionnaire about living habits, medical and social factors and were re-surveyed three years later. Women were monitored for a total of 12 years on average, during which there were 66,000 deaths.

Initially, 20% of the women were smokers, 28% were ex-smokers, and 52% had never smoked.

Those who still smoked at the three year re-survey were almost three times more likely than non-smokers to die over the next nine years.

Both the hazards of smoking and the benefits of quitting were greater than previous studies had suggested, said the researchers.

Professor Sir Richard Peto, one of the co-authors at Oxford University, said: “If women smoke like men, they die like men – but, whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life.”

He added: “Both in the UK and in the USA, women born around 1940 were the first generation in which many smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life.

“Hence, only in the 21st century could we observe directly the full effects of prolonged smoking, and of prolonged cessation, on premature mortality among women.”

Professor Rachel Huxley, from the University of Minnesota, said: “In most of Europe and the USA, the popularity of smoking among young women reached its peak in the 1960s, decades later than for men.

“Hence, previous studies have underestimated the full eventual impact of smoking on mortality in women, simply because of the lengthy time lag between smoking uptake by young women and disease onset in middle and old age.”

Spookey Pumpkin games at Dublin Zoo for Upali’ and Co.

 

To celebrate the annual Halloween spooktacular Boo at the Zoo on Sunday, October 28 and Wednesday, October 31, Dublin Zoo’s new bull elephant Upali and his ladies have taken part in some pumpkin fun on the Kaziranga Forest Trail.

Ciarán McMahon, team leader of the East Section of the Zoo, said: “Since Upali’s arrival in July he has settled in very well. He parades around with a lot of swagger and authority but he is calm in nature and never gets too worked up.

“Upali spends a lot of time with Bernhardine, who is the matriarch of the herd, while the two younger females Asha and Anak follow him around. At times, we even notice flashes of jealous behaviour between the girls as they are all vying for his attention and affections.”

McMahon continued: “Pumpkins are a once a year treat for the elephants so they love this time of year.”

There will be Spooktacular tricks and treats for families and friends at Dublin Zoo on Sunday, October 28 and Wednesday, October 31 from 12:00pm to 3:00pm.

There will also be face-painting, a monster disco, scary arts and spooky Halloween keeper talks.

2 new Red Panda Cubs introduced at Dublin Zoo

  

Dublin Zoo announced today Saturday the birth of two red panda cubs. 

The twins were born in fact last June, however before this week they had only ventured out of their den at night. Both cubs are female and are the second litter born to parents Angelina and Chota, who gave birth to another set of twins this time last year.

Team Leader Eddie O’Brien said, “Red pandas are endangered in the wild so we are over the moon that this is the second litter born at Dublin Zoo within a year. They are both doing very well and getting more adventurous and confident as they can be seen exploring their habitat during the day now.”

Names

Dublin Zoo Facebook fans were asked to send in name suggestions for the two cubs, and keepers were delighted with the amount of great name suggestions submitted. After much delibteration the names chosen are:

Tara which is the name of a goddess in Tibetan Buddhism who represents compassion and is known as the ‘mother of liberation’ and Nima meaning ‘sun’ in Tibetan.

Facts about Red Panda’s:

-        Red pandas have thick, dense fur and a long, bushy tail to keep them warm

-        The fur on the soles of their feet also prevents them from slipping on wet branches

-        Mainly active at sunrise and sunset, they spend the rest of their time asleep in the trees

-        Red pandas are endangered in the wild

    

Donie's news Ireland Blog Saturday

Reason why women live longer than men 

‘Cells has fewer harmful flaws’

 

The reason why women tend to live longer than men could be because a crucial part of their cells has fewer harmful flaws than men, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found that faults in a part of the “engine rooms” of cells known as the mitochondria have a greater effect on men than women.

That’s because of a quirk of evolution their make-up or DNA is inherited solely from the mother and so is only screened by natural selection for mutations harmful to women.

Any that are damaging to men but not women slip through the net and slowly over time undermine the health of male cells.

“While children receive copies of most of their genes from both their mothers and fathers, they only receive mitochondrial genes from their mothers,” said lead scientist Dr Damian Dowling, from Monash University in Australia.

“This means that evolution’s quality control process, known as natural selection, only screens the quality of mitochondrial genes in mothers.

“If a mitochondrial mutation occurs that harms fathers, but has no effect on mothers, this mutation will slip through the gaze of natural selection, unnoticed.

“Over thousands of generations, many such mutations have accumulated that harm only males, while leaving females unscathed.”

Co-researcher Dr David Clancy from the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University said this is a major advance in biology.

“We show that Mother’s Curse is much broader in its effects on male life history than previously envisaged, resulting in the build-up of mutations that cause males to age faster, and live shorter lives than females.

“These findings …offer a new and compelling explanation to one of life’s greatest puzzles – why the female of many species, including humans, live longer than the males. “

The evidence emerged from studies of male and female fruit flies.

The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Current Biology.

It found that genetic variation across mitochondria was a reliable predictor of life expectancy in male, but not female, flies.

Most inherited DNA, comprising the majority of genes, is wrapped up in the nucleus at a cell’s heart.

The mitochondria have their own separate DNA, which is also passed down to offspring – but only by mothers.

In earlier research, Dr Dowling’s team linked the maternal inheritance of mitochondria to male infertility.

“Together, our research shows that the mitochondria are hot spots for mutations affecting male health,” said the doctor.

“What we seek to do now is investigate the genetic mechanisms that males might arm themselves with to nullify the effects of these harmful mutations and remain healthy.”

The average life expectancy for women in the UK is 82.1 compared with 78.1 in men.

Around the world there are nine times as many women over the age of 100 than there are men.

Katherine Jackson regains guardianship of her grandchildren

      

Katherine Jackson said she had been resting at a spa under doctor’s orders, Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine has been re-instated as guardian of his three children by a court in Los Angeles.

She will share custody with their cousin TJ, who was made temporary guardian last week after the 82-year-old was reported missing.

She had not had contact with her grandchildren for ten days, but was later found at a spa in Arizona.

A hearing on 22 August will decide if the arrangement will be made permanent.

Tito Jackson Jr, the 34-year-old son of Michael’s brother Tito, stepped in as guardian for Prince Michael, 15, Paris, 14 and 10 year-old Blanket.

However, his lawyer Charles Shultz said he “in no way was trying to displace his grandmother” as “they respect each other”.

Under the new agreement, TJ Jackson remains as co-guardian, with control over the staff and day-to-day operations of the family home.

Perry Sanders Jr, Katherine Jackson’s lawyer, has said the arrangement will allow his client to focus on the children’s upbringing and not on financial or logistics issues.

The co-guardianship arrangement would also allow either adult to serve as sole guardian if the other were no longer able to serve

In a sworn statement, Katherine Jackson said: “I am, and have been, very close with my grandson TJ and have relied on him to help me raise Prince, Paris and Blanket since the death of their father.

“While I was away, I assumed that (the children) would be secure and safe in the hands of the person who had essentially been acting as an informal co-guardian on many matters with me since my appointment as guardian.”

The Jackson family have been involved in legal and financial disputes since the singer’s sudden death in June 2009.

His will left nothing to his siblings and last week several of them signed a letter claiming it was a fake, calling on executors of the estate to resign.

However Jermaine Jackson withdrew his support for the letter on Wednesday and issued a plea on Twitter for peace in the family.

He wrote that the family is still raw from Michael Jackson’s death, and his mother has endured incredible stress and pressures since then.

No communication

Katherine Jackson returned to the family compound near Los Angeles last week after publicly denying rumours she had been kidnapped by some of her adult children.

She said she was unaware she had even been reported missing during her stay at the luxury spa in Tucson, Arizona last month, from where she said was unable to communicate with the outside world.

Katherine Jackson said she was told her grandchildren Prince, Blanket and Paris Jackson were fine

Ms Jackson claims she was not allowed access to a phone or her iPad after being sent there following doctor’s orders to rest, but was told that the kids were fine.

Court documents revealed that she had only learned she was the subject of a search when she accidentally heard a TV report.

“While there was a telephone in my room, the telephone was not functioning and I could not dial out,” she said in the documents.

“In addition, there was no picture on the television in my room,” she added, and said she had repeatedly asked to have the TV fixed.

“One morning I woke up to the sound of the television,” she said. “While there was no picture, I heard a broadcast that stated I was missing.”

‘Bunch of lies’

Katherine Jackson made a statement to ABC News before she left Tucson, seated with her children Randy, Janet and Rebbie next to her, denying that she had been prevented from leaving.

“My children would never do a thing to me like that, holding me against my will,” she said. “It’s very stupid for people to think that.”

She also said she was devastated she had lost guardianship of her grandchildren “based on a bunch of lies.”

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said an investigator who looked into the children’s care found the late singer’s mother was an excellent guardian and the children love her.

Michael Jackson died aged 50 from an overdose of the surgical anaesthetic propofol.

His former doctor Conrad Murray was jailed for four years in November, after being convicted of the singer’s involuntary manslaughter.

New ways viruses affect human immune response now found  ‘TCD scientists discover’

      

Scanning electron micrograph of HIV-1, colored green, budding from a cultured lymphocyte. TCD Dublin right.

New ways that viruses manipulate the human immune response have been revealed in a research paper just published in Nature involving TCD scientists. Dr Orla Mulhern and Professor Andrew Bowie, School of Biochemistry and Immunology based in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute were part of the multi-disciplinary, multi-centre study comprising immunologists, virologists, biochemists and bioinformaticians from across Europe.

This research is the most comprehensive study to date analysing strategies used by over 30 viruses to target defence networks in human cells, and provides many new insights into how viruses seek to avoid and weaken the immune response. The research findings could ultimately lead to the development of broad and specific antiviral therapies and new ways to treat patients with infectious diseases.

Scientists at the Centre for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CeMM) gathered 70 viral genes known to modulate the immune response from collaborators across Europe, including Trinity, and systematically inserted these genes into human cells. The genes were derived from 30 different viruses, including poxviruses, herpesviruses, influenza virus and hepatitis C virus.

They then used mass spectrometry to identify all the human proteins targeted by the viral protein products of the inserted genes, and bioinformatics to comprehensively analyse the viral-human protein interactions. Collaborating labs, including Trinity, then verified and validated some of the most exciting new viral-human interactions discovered.

Commenting on the significance of the research, Professor Bowie, Head of Immunology, School of Biochemistry and Immunology, TCD stated: “The data shows that viruses target a much wider array of cellular processes than was previously anticipated. At least some of these cellular processes will have important but previously unrecognised anti-viral roles.

Thus follow-on studies in our lab and others will reveal new anti-viral immune defences operating in human cells. Also since we could identify both common and unique targets for viruses in cells, future work will also help towards designing antiviral therapies both for specific viruses and for broad classes of viruses.”

London publishing Group Lafferty’s  to create 40 jobs in Mayo

    

London-based research and publishing company Lafferty Group is to create 40 jobs in Co Mayo over the next three years

The group is locating key educational and publishing activities for the global banking industry in Westport, backed by IDA Ireland.

The move will see the research and content division of the International Academy of Retail Banking (IARB) locate in the Mayo town.

A new element to the Lafferty Group, IARB provides professional education programmes and examinations for the retail banking sector, and also functions as an international professional body for retail bankers.

“Specialist retail banking education is not provided anywhere in the world – despite the fact that retail banking is the main source of bank profits,” said group chairman Michael Lafferty.

“The IARB has been created in the belief that retail banking should be a profession, like accountancy and law and offers similar professional education programmes and examinations. The guiding philosophy of the IARB is that banks should get away from pushing products at customers and instead focus on the overall customer relationship.”

The academy already has clients in more than 20 countries around the world. Its faculty consists of current and former retail bankers, card and payments executives, and academics from across the globe.

The academy offers a mixture of open courses and classroom tuition within banks.

“This announcement by the Lafferty Group is great news for Mayo and for the Western region,” Taoiseach Enda Kenny said. “The region offers excellent opportunities to companies locating here. Our talented and flexible workforce, which is of particular interest to service providers, is one of the many strengths that makes Ireland’s offering unique.”

Lafferty Group was set up more than 30 years ago by Michael Lafferty, a Roscommon native.

News Ireland as told by Donie on Wednesday

‘And now’ Minister Hogan wants Irish householders to register their septic tanks at €5 a go

  

The Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has stated that septic tanks can be registered for €5 for the next three months but inspections will not commence until next year.

Mr Hogan told the Oireachtas environment committee there was no doubt remediation work on some systems would be necessary, but he could not make any commitments in relation to potential grant assistance. “As inspections will not commence until next year and as it is not possible to predict the future, it is not possible for me to make any commitments in relation to potential grant assistance for owners whose systems might be found to require remediation.”

Mr Hogan stressed that any grant scheme he might introduce would have to take “budgetary constraints” into consideration, as well as the financial circumstances of the households concerned.

He said an information campaign would inform householders on registering their systems before the February 1st, 2013, deadline.

The maximum registration fee payable under the Water Services Amendment Act 2012 will be €50, but Mr Hogan previously said a reduced amount of €5 would apply until September 28th of this year.

“I would encourage all owners of properties connected to domestic waste water treatment systems to take advantage of the reduced fee,” he said.

The meeting was heated at times. Independent TD Mattie McGrath said everyone was in favour of compliance, but there had been “deliberate confusion and blackguarding of the public”.

When Mr McGrath claimed “lies were told”, committee chairman Ciarán Lynch of Labour urged him to be “more temperate”. Mr McGrath then complained of “total dissimulation”, and left the committee room after being asked to do so by Mr Lynch.

‘Will he’ ‘Wont she’? 

The handshake that the world wants to see

IS THE LATEST STEP ON THE NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE PROCESS

   

For Martin McGuinness, shaking Queen Elizabeth II’s hand will be the biggest single step yet on his road from feared paramilitary commander to politician.

It’s a transformation that has taken place over decades: From the shaggy haired, scrawny commander of Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen in the early 1970s, to the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, where he represents the province’s most popular Catholic party.

In his home city of Londonderry I saw that fear firsthand while shooting a documentary about him a little over a decade ago.

McGuinness had long been rumored to have had a direct hand in the killing of an IRA man turned informer. I visited the man’s mother, who lived just a few streets away from McGuinness’s modest terraced house in the city’s notorious Bay Side neighborhood. The killing had allegedly taken place decades earlier but the man’s mother was still too afraid to talk.

Derry, as he would call his city, or Londonderry, as the province’s Protestants refer to it, was where McGuinness first tried his hand at politics.

While shooting a documentary we met with one of his former political colleagues who also was a secret agent for the British government. He had been pulled out and relocated to mainland Britain when his cover was blown a long time ago, but he told me he warned his British government handlers that McGuinness’s early ballot box victories were a fraud: Countless ballots cast in clear infringement of the law.

He says his handlers turned a blind eye, and he concluded even at that early stage, 10 years after violence broke out, that British government officials had calculated McGuinness was someone they wanted in a suit and tie at the table talking to them, and not on the streets waging war.

As we concluded that documentary, I struggled to balance all I had seen with the question, is this transition reversible? Is McGuinness committed to peace? Back then, the IRA had still not decommissioned its weapons, and the door seemed open to a return to violence.

Later McGuinness’s Sinn Fein colleagues told me I’d set him up for assassination as a leader who’d used back channels to secretly negotiate peace with the British government. I was told “we expected something more like Nelson Mandela,” but that was a leap of faith I didn’t have the evidence to take.

Dislike for McGuinness is not limited to those on the opposite side of the sectarian divide. His readiness to make peace with the British — never mind shake the queen’s hand — has made him some powerful enemies in his own community.

When McGuinness and the IRA gave up their guns, even more extreme republicans picked up where they left off. The Real IRA has continued, its hard core of supporters making bombs and killing policemen.

In the Derry streets where McGuinness still lives, violent vigilante gangs mete out their own informal justice on the community, shooting drug pushers. They boast more arms than the IRA ever had, and have filled the void left as McGuinness and the social order the IRA enforced fade into the past.

Meeting the queen means McGuinness loses the legitimacy of hardcore Republicans — he can no longer sway them as he once did. So while he’ll still call for the British government to investigate its own actions of brutality, collusion with Protestant paramilitaries and the alleged shoot-to-kill policy of IRA volunteers, his calls will ring hollow for some.

But all along, McGuinness’s every move, from IRA commander, to deputy first minister, seems to have been an ever more calculated step.

The vast majority of Catholics — and everyone else in Northern Ireland, for that matter — only ever wanted a fair deal, peace, jobs and a good education for their children. McGuinness seems to have read that well.

An IRA military victory over “Queen and Country” was never really an option. It was a dream whose time came and went riding on the back of bigotry, sectarian violence, social injustice and the civil rights movement of the late 1960s.

The London-backed, Protestant-dominated governments in Belfast had long run roughshod over Catholic aspirations.

In a handshake, McGuinness will banish that to the history books for ever. An acknowledgment sealed in a formality that the violent divided past should be laid to rest.

For a man of peace — which is how McGuinness wants to be remembered — he has come a long way, and so have the Catholics of Ireland.

The Irish Government approves the draft car smoking ban laws

  

The Irish Government has approved the drafting of new laws to ban smoking in cars where children are present.

Minister for Health James Reilly was given the go-ahead to draw up amendments to a Seanad Private Members Bill on the issue.

The Bill, introduced by Senators John Crown, Jillian van Turnhout and Mark Daly, advocated a ban on all smoking in cars when children are in the vehicle.

Irish Hospitals will shut if they 

‘fail to meet expected new standards’

        

Minister for Health James Reilly stressed the importance of adhering to the new standards in healthcare

Our hospital will be shut down if they fail to meet new standards of healthcare, Minister for Health James Reilly has warned.

The new standards which follow critical reports on Ennis hospital in 2009, Mallow hospital in 2011 and Tallaght hospital last year, come into effect immediately.

Launching National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare for the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) yesterday, Dr Reilly said failure by any hospital to meet the standards would result in it being closed “down the line”.

The new standards apply to all healthcare services provided by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive with the exception of mental health services.

Services covered include hospital care, ambulance services, community care and primary care.

Likening the new system to the work of health inspectors, Dr Reilly said “a lot of people have remarked on the fact that you can be in the middle of a meal in a restaurant and a health inspector can come in and take the meal from in front of you and say ‘I am closing this place, it is not safe’.”

“Yet we know in the past there has been very unsafe practices and very unsafe conditions in some of our hospitals.

“That has to be addressed, and people have to take it seriously,” he warned.

Dr Reilly said the standards were the precursor to a new licensing system for all hospitals which would come later in the year.

However, he said the new standards were now law. They were “mandated from today, from this moment on”.

Some 45 separate standards have been developed to cover patient safety and wellbeing, hospital leadership, governance and management, and use of resources and provision of information among others.

According to the authority, the move is designed to place patients at the heart of the care process, with a major focus on dignity, respect, efficiency and safety.

The authority said patients may have a clear expectation of the standard of care they can expect to receive. The authority also said service providers would be clear on what is expected of them.

Speaking at the announcement of the standards, chief executive Dr Tracey Cooper said the authority had found that “strong leadership, governance and management are essential for the delivery of safe care for patients”.

She said “effective leadership and clear accountability, responsibility, planning and management throughout each service” were now among the requirements for hospitals.

She described the standards as “a vision for safer, better healthcare in Ireland”.

The standards were produced following a consultation process conducted by the authority in which more than 200 submissions were received from members of the public and from interested parties.

NATIONAL STANDARDS PATIENT-DRIVEN AGENDA

THE NEW standards are designed to place patients at the heart of the care process, with a focus on dignity, respect, efficiency and safety, according to the Health Information and Quality Authority.

The 45 standards are grouped into eight “themes” covering the following areas:

“Person-centred” care and support;

Effective care and support;

Safe care and support;

Better health and wellbeing;

Leadership, governance and management;

Workforce standards;

Use of resources;

Use of information.

The full range of standards, along with an explanatory guide and a short video, are available on hiqa.ieor.

Heart disease to rise 25% by 2020

‘An Irish study states’

   

The number of adults with coronary heart disease is expected to rise by a quarter during this decade, a report has said.

By 2020 132,000 people are expected to have angina or a heart attack, researchers added.

Heart disease remains one of the main killers in Northern Ireland despite huge improvements in its treatment over many years, the Public Health Agency said.

Dr Christine McMaster, public health consultant at the agency, warned: “We clearly have to do more to prevent and treat it so that people here have a better chance to remain healthy and live independently in their communities as they grow up and old.”

In 2010 it was estimated that more than 107,000 adults had been diagnosed with coronary heart disease.

Other key findings of the research include that diagnosed heart disease is more common among older people, with almost a quarter of pensioners affected in 2010. Rates of diagnosis are higher among men than women.

By 2020 the number of diagnosed adults is expected to rise to almost 132,000, a 23% increase over ten years from 2010. Researchers said the implications could be even greater than the statistics suggested because they did not include people with undiagnosed heart disease.

Dr McMaster added: “Heart disease remains one of the main killers in Northern Ireland and this is despite huge improvements in its treatment over many years.”

She said other government departments needed to play their part in creating healthier and safer environments for people.

The research was conducted by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Public Health Northern Ireland at Queen’s University Belfast and Health Research Board Centre for Diet and Health Research at University College Cork. It is based on the 2005/06 Northern Ireland Health and Social Wellbeing Survey.