Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Ireland’s existing health system demands an extra €1bn to run it?

Says Leo Varadkar

  

The Minister for Health Leo Varadker says serious questions about health funding must be answered.

The Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, says serious questions about the level of funding for current healthcare must be answered if the country aspires to an adequate health system.

The health service needs as much as another €1 billion of investment to simply meet existing demands, and even more is required to cope with a growing and ageing population, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar, writing in Wednesday’s Irish Times, also says serious questions about the level of funding for healthcare must be answered if the country aspires to an adequate health system.

“Questions remain, such as whether we are willing as a society to pay for it, and whether we are willing to embrace the major organisational changes required,” he says. “This will require courage and trust, but I am confident that with the right vision we can succeed.

“No form of universal healthcare is possible unless we are willing to find the resources needed to make it work.”

Underfunded service

He says an underfunded service will be a poor service, even if it is well organised.

“With the current staffing of specialist doctors, midwives and nurses, critical care beds and other capacity, no system of universal healthcare will be able to deal with unmet demand.

“What really matters is having adequate well-trained staff, sufficient capacity and infrastructure, good organisation, management and financial control, clinical governance, quality and safety systems.”

Meeting existing, unmet needs “would cost between €700 million and €1 billion, on top of the natural increase needed every year to cope with a rising and ageing population”, an amount he says seems like a lot but would only restore health budgets to where they were eight years ago.

Mr Varadkar also outlines how he believes primary care can be achieved over five years, effectively the duration of a second term in office.

Whether the funding for future health needs comes from the exchequer or an insurance-based system like Universal Health Insurance is secondary to whether enough money is made available, and whether it is correctly spent, he says.

The Irish Times reported earlier this week that the annual cost of UHI, championed by Mr Varadkar’s predecessor Dr James Reilly, could be between €2,000 and €3,000 to cover a standard package of benefits for one adult.

External consultants also told the Government in a confidential report the estimated cost of a more comprehensive series of benefits could be between €3,000 and €4,000 per year, far higher than previously estimated

About 70% of Irish households register with Irish Water on time for grant

But we still do not know exactly how many people have paid their first bills to the semi-state body.

 

An estimated 70% of householders had registered with Irish Water by Tuesday’s deadline date to allow them claim a €100 water conservation grant from the Government.

It is still not known exactly how many people have paid their first bills to the new semi-state company.

The first quarterly billing cycle for Irish Water was for January, February and March, with the first bills landing in April. The second round of bills will be sent out from July onwards.

It is understood the board of Ervia, Irish Water’s parent company, has been informed of the level of payments but is not yet known when the figures will be released.

A Government spokesman said on Tuesday the figures will be published “in due course” and added the Coalition would have “no issue” with publication of the figures once they have been finalised by Irish Water.

Under severe pressure

The Government has come under severe pressure from the Opposition to publish the figures, and another anti-water charges protest is planned for outside the Dáil tonight.

An Irish Water spokeswoman said over 1.32 million people, or 70 per cent of those who can register with the semi-state, had done so as of earlier this week.

Registering with the company does not mean a householder has to pay their water charges, and they are entitled to claim the €100 grant even if they do not pay.

The grant will be administered and paid by the Department of Social Protection, and a separate application process for the payment of the €100 will open later this year.

Of the 1.32 million who have registered, about 80 per cent are customers who will be billed for their water, while the remaining 20 per cent have their own water services, such as group water schemes.

An estimated 1.5 million households are either connected to mains water or waste water services, which means they will be billed by Irish Water. Some 1.05 million of those – 70 per cent – have registered.

The spokeswoman said while Irish Water experienced a lot of activity on Tuesday, it was not enough to hugely change those figures.

Meanwhile, the lifting of boil water notices for thousands of people “would simply not be possible” without Irish Water, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has said.

He was speaking after the company confirmed the HSE had lifted boil water notices for 11,300 customers in the Killeglan and Castlerea areas of Co Roscommon.

This came after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspections of related water treatment plants earlier this week.

A boil water notice for 6,000 customers in Boyle was lifted on May 1st.

“This now means that over 17,000 people can drink their water in Roscommon this year that couldn’t last year,” said Mr Kelly.

“This would simply not be possible without the creation of Irish Water. Irish Water was able to target and prioritise these vulnerable areas and bring to a close the sorry saga of boil water notices in quick fashion.

“I have no doubt that similar successes will be replicated throughout the country.”

John Tierney, Irish Water’s managing director, said dealing with the boil water notices had been a “top priority” since the utility came into existence.

“Irish Water as a national water utility has been able to fast-track and co-ordinate the completion of this and other projects in Co Roscommon so that boil water notices will be lifted for 22,700 customers in Roscommon by the end of this year,” he said.

“We acknowledge the work of the contractors and Roscommon County Council in helping us to achieve this.”

Ireland’s national house prices are up 1.7% in second quarter

Says Myhome.ie

   

The average asking price nationwide for a house is €202,000

House price growth continued in April, May and June with the national asking price rising by 1.7% in the three month period, while prices were up 6.1% on the year.

According to the latest house price survey from MyHome.ie, the rate of increase was higher in Dublin with prices up 2.3% over the three months, and 10.4% on the year.

The average asking price nationwide is €202,000, while in Dublin it is €282,000, according to today’s figures.

MyHome.ie also noted that cash buyers still account for over 50% of transactions in the housing market.

The author of today’s report, Conall MacCoille, chief economist at Davy, said the data pointed to a modest increase in house prices for the rest of the year.

The economist said that while the outlook remains uncertain, he believes house prices look set to rise by close to 10% for the calendar year.

“However as the figures for new instructions indicate, annual price inflation is likely to slow towards 5% by the end of the year. This is not a negative given that wages have not kept pace with house prices, stretching affordability,” he added.

Today’s report also found some evidence that the supply situation for housing was beginning to improve.

Angela Keegan, Managing Director of MyHome.ie, said the total number of homes listed on the site rose by 9.4% between the first quarter and the second quarter.

“The upward trend has been most marked in Dublin where we now have 5,550 properties listed, up 18.6% from March,” she added.

Ms Keegan also said that transaction levels remained strong early in 2015, but as with supply, they are coming off a low base.

In the first four months of the year for which the data is close to complete, transaction values are up 59% and by 48% in volume terms on the same time last year.

“While it is encouraging to see the market moving in the right direction the bigger picture continues to show that the Irish housing market remains illiquid. It’s clear we still have some way to go before we can say we have a properly functioning market,” Ms Keegan stated.

With a general election looming, Davy economist Conall MacCoille urged the Government to avoid introducing any measures aimed at relaxing credit constraints and inappropriately stimulating demand even further.

“The key to restoring a healthy Irish housing market is to implement sorely needed measures to alleviate planning and other bottlenecks that are holding back housing supply,” the economist stated.

BBC Three to be axed despite an outcry

   

The BBC’s director-general Tony Hall last week said the BBC needed to make some more cuts.

BBC3 has been the launchpad for hits such as Gavin and Stacey

BBC Three is to be axed from television despite evidence that moving the youth-oriented channel online will offer poor value for money.

The BBC Trust has given provisional approval to the plans, which, by its own analysis, are likely to limit the channel’s reach among young audiences and alienate viewers in ethnic-minority, lower-income and rural households.

The recommendations will disappoint actors such as Aidan Turner, Olivia Colman and Daniel Radcliffe, who joined the campaign to save the 12-year-old channel, praised as a seedbed of talent that has given many household names their first break.

The trust said the decision had

Children in Ireland who have been diagnosed with cancer

Will be issued with medical cards for five years

    

THE CHANGE WILL APPLY AUTOMATICALLY FROM TOMORROW,

Children under 18 who have been diagnosed with cancer will be issued with a medical cards for five years.

The change will apply automatically from tomorrow, July 1st, according to Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke and TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor.

On a support page for Lucy O’Connor – a nine-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer in September 2014, and was refused a medical card until February this year – her family writes “one of the positives of going public, with Lucy’s story, is that from July 1st 2015, all children under 18, diagnosed with cancer in Ireland, will receive a medical card for 5 years.”

“Delighted that no other family will have to go public with their story. In saying that, the support from you all has been amazing, so thank you,” the post adds.

Minister for Primary Care, Kathleen Lynch, says it is a key recommendation of the Clinical Advisory Group which was set up to look at medical card eligibility.

Deputy Lynch said, “this decision is welcome. It is in line with the more compassionate approach that we have adopted towards awarding discretionary medical cards.

“I support it and look forward to the HSE implementing it in an efficient and sensitive manner,” she adds.

The free GP care for children under six scheme is also set to commence tomorrow.

Northern Ireland firm 3fivetwo buys Sligo hospital 

  

A Northern Ireland’s large private healthcare firm is expanding into the Republic as part of its “multi-million pound” investment after buying a private hospital in Sligo.

3fivetwo is finalising a deal to acquire the 19-bed St Joseph’s Hospital, which is set to be rebranded as Kingsbridge Private Hospital Sligo, in a nod to the firm’s private business in Belfast.

The deal secures all 60 jobs at the hospital, and 3fivetwo has said it’s aiming to create new roles on the back of the deal.

The value has not been disclosed, but it is understood much of the “multi-million pound” figure will go towards the “expansion and development of services in the years ahead”.

And the final sale is expected to be agreed in the new few weeks.

Headquartered on the Lisburn Road in south Belfast, the group – which boasted increased turnover of more than £40m in its last set of published accounts – employs 240 staff. That’s alongside the services of a further of 400 consultants and 300 nursing staff.

St Joseph’s Hospital was founded in the 1950s and until early last year was part of the Mount Carmel Medical Group.

Mark Regan, 3fivetwo group development director, told the Belfast Telegraph: “It’s a multi-million pound investment, not in the purchase alone but in the expansion and development of services in the years ahead. You can’t put a price on the provision of healthcare to a local community.

“In addition to obvious benefits for patients, the securing of hundreds of jobs at KPH Sligo and peripheral suppliers is priceless.”

And earlier this month the firm revealed it was adding another 20 jobs as part of a £3m investment.

The company said plans for growth were in response to increasing demand for private health due to budget cuts, soaring waiting lists and pressure on public services.

It now has three facilities in south Belfast, including cosmetic surgery, dental and fertility businesses.

It also operates the Chelsea Private Clinic on King’s Road, London.

And Kingsbridge Private Hospital on Belfast’s Lisburn Road is now being extended in a £2.5m project.

Signs of human-esque communication discovered in babbler birds

A key element of the human language has been discovered in the Australian babbler bird.

  

A key element of human language has been discovered in the babbler bird.

Stringing together meaningless sounds to create meaningful signals was previously thought to be the preserve of humans alone, but the new study has revealed that babbler birds are also able to communicate in this way.

Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich discovered that the chestnut-crowned babbler, a highly social bird found in the Australian Outback, has the ability to convey new meaning by rearranging the meaningless sounds in its calls.

This babbler bird communication is reminiscent of the way humans form meaningful words. The research findings, which are reveal a potential early step in the emergence of the elaborate language systems we use today.

Lead author Sabrina Engesser from the University of Zurich said that although previous studies indicate that animals, particularly birds, are capable of stringing different sounds together as part of a complex song, these songs generally lack a specific meaning and changing the arrangement of sounds within a song does not seem to alter its overall message.

In contrast to most songbirds, chestnut-crowned babblers do not sing. Instead its extensive vocal repertoire is characterised by discrete calls made up of smaller acoustically distinct individual sounds, she added.

Researcher think that babbler birds may choose to rearrange sounds to code new meaning because doing so through combining two existing sounds is quicker than evolving a new sound altogether, said co-author Andy Russell.

The researchers noticed that chestnut-crowned babblers reused two sounds “A” and “B” in different arrangements when performing specific behaviours. When flying, the birds produced a flight call “AB”, but when feeding chicks in the nest they emitted “BAB” prompt calls.

The authors report that in the chestnut-crowned babbler, the first sound element “B” is what seems to differentiate the meaning between flight and prompt vocalisations, akin to cat and at in English, where the c represents the meaning differentiating element, or phoneme.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Euro zone falls deeper into trouble and deflation as collapse in oil prices bites

 

Prices in the euro zone drop 0.6% in the year to January, echoing 2009 low.

The government of Spain’s Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, which faces an election towards the end of the year, predicts Spain will grow by at least 2% this year.

The collapse in oil prices has helped to push the euro zone deeper into deflation, strengthening the case for the European Central Bank’s landmark decision to begin buying government bonds later this year to stave off a serious bout of falling prices in the region.

Prices dropped 0.6% in the year to January, a figure on a par with the lowest reading recorded since the 18-country currency area’s creation, according to Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics bureau. The flash estimate is the same as the record low recorded in July 2009, during the sovereign debt crisis.

Energy costs, which make up about a 10th of the basket of goods used to measure inflation, had tumbled 8.9% over the past year on the back of a near 60% fall in the price of Brent crude.

The core measure of inflation, which strips out more volatile goods such as food and energy, slowed to a new record low of 0.6%, down from 0.7% in December. The dip in core inflation is concerning as the measure is seen as better reflection of the weakness of domestic demand.

Both estimates will bolster support for the ECB’s quantitative easing package, unleashed by policy makers earlier this month.

Government debt

The ECB will buy €60 billion worth of government debt, asset-backed securities and corporate bonds a month from March until September 2016 to counter a prolonged bout of deflation that threatens to wipe out the region’s stuttering economic recovery.

The fear is that falling prices will prompt consumers to delay purchases, denting already weak demand.

Deflation also exacerbates high debt burdens in parts of the region’s periphery.

Monetary policy makers have said they will keep buying until inflation is headirng towards the central bank’s target of below but close to 2 per cent.

But the fall in oil prices could spur growth in the region by lifting spending on other goods. That appears to have happened in Spain, the region’s fourth- largest economy, which is growing at its fastest pace in seven years despite prices falling by 1.4% in the year to January.

German retail sales figures, also out yesterday, suggested falling oil prices had boosted consumption – though not by as much as expected. A rise in retail sales of 0.2% between November and December missed expectations of a bigger spending surge in the Eurozone’s largest economy.

Spending up

In France, the region’s second-largest economy, consumer spending by volume rose by 1.5% as lower energy costs boosted the amount of energy and food bought by households.

But economists fear the high unemployment rate in the eurozone will constrain prices. The region’s unemployment rate remained high at 11.4%, down just 0.1 per cent from November, according to Eurostat figures published yesterday. That is more than double the US jobless rate.

Half (50%) of Irish households have registered details with Irish Water

 

Irish Water sets February 2nd registration deadline to ensure accurate water bills in April.

Protesters take part in anti-water charge demonstration before Christmas outside the Irish Water Head Office on Talbot Street, Dublin.

Just over half of the households expected to pay bills to Irish Water have registered their details with the new utility.

The latest figures from Irish Water show 837,400 homes (56%) have given their details out of the estimated 1.5 million customers that will receive their first water bills in April.

Irish Water estimates that up to 1.9 million households will need to respond with registration details.

Irish Water has set a February 2nd deadline for registration to ensure people receive accurate water bills in April. There is no penalty for not registering by this date.

Of that total, an estimated 400,000 households will not be required to pay bills because they deal with water in (drinking water) and water out (waste water) themselves – eg having a private well and septic tank.

About 35,000 households returned their registration packages with no details, according to the water company.

All households, including those who are not Irish Water customers, are eligible to apply for the water conservation grant of €100 but need to register with the company to apply.

The Department of Social Protection has set aside a budget of €130 million to pay for the €100 euro water conservation grant – equivalent to paying the fee to 1.3 million households.

The Department of Environment has confirmed that there is no deadline for households to apply for this grant – which will be paid from September.

“There are no plans currently to introduce a cut-off date,” a spokesman from the Department of Environment said, adding that the budget allocation was based on the 2011 census and feedback from other “demand-led schemes”.

The spokesman said the grant only applied to principal residencies and if applications exceeded the 1.3 million estimate these would be paid.

“Every household who applies and is eligible for the water conservation grant will receive it.”

The total number of households on the 2011 Census in the State was 1.66 million.

The Department of Social Welfare said: “The grant will be paid to the registered householders annually in respect of their primary dwellings, with the first payment to be paid in September 2015 and each subsequent year up to and including 2018.”

An Irish Water spokeswoman said a total of 1,060,000 households have sent back details to the utility company to date on Friday, including around 180,000 responses from homes which are not Irish Water customers.

“We’re anticipating we’ll have a high level compliance in terms of payment but we do have means at our disposal to add charges,” she said.

Irish Water will use the Revenue Commissioner’s local property database to send out bills to those who do not register their details.

The spokeswoman said the company’s focus next month would be properties owned by landlords.

“It’s not the landlord’s bill, it’s the tenant’s bill because they are using the service,” she said.

There has been a surge in phone calls to their help line in the last week with an average of 5,000 a day, up from 1,500 before Christmas.

She said there were no queues or backlogs and the numbers were much lower than the 25,000 calls received daily in October.

The spokeswoman said 565,000 water meters had been installed to date, halfway to the planned total to be installed of 1.03 million.

Gerry Adams blames the Taoiseach Kenny for Dáil debate collapse

  

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams says his party is not trying to undermine the Ceann Comhairle.

Opposition parties criticised Sean Barrett for cancelling a Dáil debate on a Commission of Inquiry into Garda malpractice.

The Ceann Comhairle said it may overlap with a High Court case being taken by Alan Shatter.

Fianna Fáil has called on Mr Barrett to withdraw claims that the Opposition is trying to undermine him.

Deputy Adams has said that responsibility for the cancellation of the debate lies with the Taoiseach.

“There’s no plan by Sinn Féin to undermine the Ceann Comhairle,” he said.

“There always has t be somebody who chairs the meetings and makes sure that everybody’s within Standing Orders, and we may have concerns about how he did that, but the Taoiseach is the person who allowed the controversy to build, and refused to take a sensible approach.”

How a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of Gallstones

    

A healthy diet and lifestyle is key to avoiding most health problems. But with gallstones, thought to affect as many as one in six people, with famous sufferers including the likes of Eric Clapton and the Dalai Lama, it’s not quite that simple.

In fact some lifestyle factors which may seem healthy, like low-fat diets and losing weight quickly, plus not drinking alcohol, can actually make gallstones more likely.

One of the most common medical and surgical conditions, it’s believed they occur due to chemical imbalances in bile stored in the gallbladder; this leads to tiny crystals developing, which can grow into gallstones, ranging from many as small as grains of sand, to one the size of a pebble.

  GP Dr Sarah Brewer, whose book Overcoming Gallstones has just been published, points out that 70% of gallstones are made from cholesterol, and a diet high in saturated fat and pre-formed cholesterol increases the amount of the substance being pumped by the liver into bile, making it more likely gallstones will form.

However, she warns that “the opposite is also true”. A diet that’s unusually low in fat can promote gallstones, as the gallbladder mainly contracts in response to dietary fats, so it empties less frequently if a low-fat diet is followed, or if dieters eat less regularly than normal. Bile can pool in the gallbladder, giving gallstones more chance to form.

Dr Brewer references a study of almost 90,000 nurses, which found that losing 4kg-10kg in weight over a two year period increased the risk of gallstones by 44%, and those who lost more than 10kg were almost twice as likely to develop them, with a 94% increased risk. Avoiding gallstones may even be aided by a moderate intake of alcohol.

Dr Brewer says: “Alcohol acts as a solvent, helping to stop the components of gallstones precipitating out of the solution in stored bile. This is probably the main way in which a moderate intake of alcohol reduces gallstone formation but please don’t use this as an excuse to increase your intake!

“And you may think you’re doing good by trying to lose weight, cutting back on fats and being really strict on your diet, but your gallbladder can become under-active, the bile in it sludges, and you’re more likely to develop stones.But other than that, it’s all the usual messages? 

Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, high fibre, nuts.

You can take steps to reduce the risk, and even if you do develop gallstones, not everybody has symptoms. “Where lifestyle factors are a probably cause, there’s lots you can do to ensure … you don’t develop more gallstones,” advises Dr Brewer, who’s also a registered nutritionist.

She says plant sterols, fibre and vitamin C can all help prevent the condition, and a diet rich in monounsaturated fats from foods like olive, Macadamia nut and avocado oils can also be beneficial, as can omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, like those found in flaxseed, walnut and fish oils.

Dr Brewer says nutritional and herbal supplements, like vitamin C, magnesium and lecithin, may help to reduce stone formation or enlargement. “If you eat the right food and take the right supplements, and avoid things that are going to make gallstones worse, then you can live with them quite happily— and many people do, without even knowing they’ve got them.”

After I moved back home to Ireland, ‘Lucy Michael said nothing felt normal’

 

It was exhilarating at first, but the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating, and I felt the absence of everything I had left behind. 

Lucy Michael says  “Nothing felt normal. The exhilaration of the move home had dissipated, the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating and I had started to feel the absence of everything I had left behind. I worried.”

Suddenly, in the midst of a cold English winter, I decided I was going home. I held my decision close for months. I had applied for jobs in Ireland selectively over the years, repeating my intention to make a life there, but my colleagues had heard it from Irish people before, and I think they never really believed it. When I finally did hand in my notice they counselled against such a rash move. I still had no job to go home to.

My professional work is about immigration, so alongside job-hunting I read everything I could about returning migrants. I listened to Irish radio to catch up on the chat. I planned for the higher living costs. I even learned to declutter by giving away my books, which prompted friends to take my departure rather more seriously.

Back in Dublin my impending return was no secret. We celebrated my decision. I laughed and joked with friends about what great times we would have when we were all together again, with their kids who had been born and become people while I was away.

I finally found a good job in Ireland, packed up my flat and was grateful to family and friends for welcoming me home with open arms. My boyfriend booked almost weekly visits for the first few months, to help me settle into my new job without the pressure to travel. I was in the best position anybody coming home could hope for.

I read another story in the Generation Emigration section of The Irish Times about a woman who, home from the US after 30 years, was shocked by the difference and prepared to feel like an outsider for a long time to come. For me it was different. I had been home every two months right through the 12 years I was away. I thought I would slip easily into Dublin life.

It started after about a month. I couldn’t place the breathlessness that would hit me out of nowhere, making me exhausted and tearful. I blamed exhaustion and ongoing bronchitis, but I knew it was more than that.

Nothing felt normal. The exhilaration of the move home had dissipated, the pressures of a new job and a long commute were isolating, and I had started to feel the absence of everything I had left behind. I worried.

For three months I could not put words to the roller coaster I was on. I couldn’t explain it to family and friends in Ireland; it felt like disloyalty to admit missing my other life. I missed my friends in England. A while back a few of us had talked about quitting our jobs and moving to other places. It seemed exciting at the time, but I moved before they did, and then suddenly I was here and they were still there together – and I had left a hole in a fabric I could not see while I was still part of the pattern.

None of my friends could imagine that moving home to Ireland would have any trace of sadness for me; I had talked so much about Dublin. I never expected to grieve for a life overseas I willingly gave up. I suspect at least one close friend in England has not yet forgiven me for the betrayal of leaving. She no longer tells me her secrets, denies me the privileges of our close friendship. I don’t think she really believed I would leave either.

Other close friends acknowledged my future absence and planned early visits. In turn I accepted their need to make plans without me, even though it stung.

But now, the other side of Christmas, it’s easier to see the bigger picture. The “Goodbye and Good Luck!” cards on the wall in my new home don’t make me so sad any more. Photos of friends start to populate the wall, too, reminding me that I used to love living across two countries and travelled easily between them – and to remind me not to be too careless with the friends I left behind.

A 5 metre female killer whale washed up on beach in Co Waterford

 

Biologists say 5 metre carcass is so large it must be cut up on beach before being removed

A female killer whale is seen on the beach at Saleens near Tramore, Co Waterford.

Marine biologists are working to remove the body of a killer whale which washed up on a beach near Tramore in Waterford on Friday morning.

The five metre whale was spotted by a passerby who alerted members of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG).

It is believed the predatory mammal may have died of malnutrition and was dead before it washed up on shore.

“It’s probably a young female, but its teeth are worn down which is kind of surprising. Looking at the teeth you’d think it’s a very old animal,” said Andrew Malcolm of the IWDG.

“When you see the teeth as worn down as that you would speculate that it could be malnourished, and that it wasn’t getting enough to eat.

“It doesn’t look particularly malnourished to me compared to some I’ve seen washed up, but we won’t be able to tell for sure until after the postmortem,” he added.

The large size of the creature means that it will have to be removed from the beach on a phased basis.

Members of the marine biology unit at Galway Mayo IT are currently working on extracting vital organs and blubber from the stricken animal. It is hoped its skeleton can be preserved and mounted in the local area following the postmortem.

“The cutting up of the animal would be done on the beach. If it was a smaller animal they’d probably stick it on a trailer and take it back, but because it’s such a big animal stranded on the beach means that it will have to be done on-site,” said Mr Malcolm.

Sightings of orca whales in Irish waters are rare and just 15 carcasses have been recovered from these shores over the course of the last century.

The last such record was at Tullaghan Bay, Co Mayo in 2010.

The whale’s location has perplexed some, given that virtually all killer whale sightings occur along the west and south west coast. Indeed, the last sighting in the Dunmore East area was recorded four decades ago, according to Mr Malcolm.

He says that although a pod of nine whales regularly visits the waters off Ireland’s west coast it is not thought the Tramore whale belongs to that group.

Saleen beach has been busy since the discovery was made with people visiting the site to look at the deceased animal.

“It’s pretty mad down here, there’s just a constant stream of people coming, taking selfies of themselves with the whale,” said Mr Malcolm.

He also cautioned against any physical contact with the whale’s remains, as it is not yet certain as to whether it died of some kind of contractible illness or disease.

Members of the IWDG are on site to protect the scene from vandals.

This follows the carving of names and initials into the body of a sperm whale which washed up in nearby Dungarvan two years ago.