Hard done Irish Motorists face rising fuel prices again
Petrol prices are continuing to rise, and may hit the €1.70 lt. next week.
Hard-pressed motorists are facing further pressure next week, with AA Ireland predicting the price of petrol and diesel is set to reach a new record high.
According to the motoring organisation, petrol will reach €1.70 per litre next week, with diesel reaching €1.60.
The average price of petrol is currently €1.63, according to AA Ireland.
The bad news is according to industry sources we?ve been speaking to is that we?re expecting very significant price rises over the next week or two weeks, and we might see €1.70 per litre in the space of next week to 10 days for petrol,? AA?s Conor Faughnan told RTE Radio One’s Marian Finucane Show. ?That is by a country mile the most we?ve ever paid for it.?
Almost 60 per cent of the retail price of petrol is taxes levied by the state, Mr Faughnan said.
Other factors influencing fuel prices is the rising price in oil, and the strength of the euro against the dollar. The euro is currently about 16 per cent weaker against the dollar than it was a year ago.
?But the biggest factor of all is taxes imposed by the Dublin Government, and we shouldn?t lose sight of that,? Mr Faughnan said.
VHI to pay for skin cancer new wonder ‘Ipilimumab drug’
Cancer patients’ medical bills have been slashed as the cost of expensive drug Ipi will now be covered by Irish health insurer VHI.
VHI Healthcare said that it will provide cover for the medication used for treating skin cancer, which reaches €85,000 per patient.
The insurer said that Ipilimumab is now available to VHI customers who need it for the treatment of melanoma — the most serious form of skin cancer.
The Department of Health announced that the drug would be made available to eligible patients earlier this year.
It followed a successful campaign, which was spearheaded by 41-year-old Dublin mum Cathy Durkin (above) who passed away last month, to make it available in Ireland.
The move by VHI to cover the drug now means that its subscribers will be covered for the treatment in private hospitals, if it is deemed medically appropriate.
The health insurer said that it estimates that up to 25 of its subscribers will avail of the new drug over the next year.
Dr Bernadette Carr, its medical director, said: “Following intensive negotiations with the manufacturers of this drug, I am pleased to confirm that VHI Healthcare customers receiving Ipilimumab for treatment of malignant melanoma will be fully covered.
“Research data indicates that Ipilimumab improves outcomes for melanoma patients by delaying cancer progression and may improve overall survival among some patients with previously treated advanced melanoma.”
Dr Carr said that the VHI is very conscious of the development of new drugs for the treatment of all cancers.
Study shows marriage stops men drinking and their wives hit the bottle instead
Marriage appears to drive women to drink but has the opposite effect on men, a study has suggested.
The biggest difference in drinking levels was between men who were recently divorced and those happily married, suggesting that they turned to alcohol amid their marital break-up
Far from encouraging men to patronise a local pub to escape from domestic duties, marriage actively reduces their alcohol intake, according to research being presented at the American Sociological Association today.
However, the effect on women of walking down the aisle appears to be the opposite.
The researchers found that married women generally drink more heavily than single women, widows or divorcees.
By contrast, men who are happily married drink less than their bachelor friends and significantly less than divorced men.
The reason, the researchers conclude, is that while women can help keep their husbands’ drinking habits under control, men are simply a bad influence on their wives.
Previous studies have shown that, overall, married people tend to drink less than non-married people, suggesting that a more settled home life can promote good health.
But past research has not further separated married and non-married groups by gender.
A group of sociologists led by Corinne Reczek, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, reviewed data from a long-running study of behaviour involving thousands of people in Wisconsin.
They also looked at a separate set of 120 interviews with married, divorced, widowed and single people about their lifestyles.
They found that while, overall, men consistently drink more than women and were more likely to have an alcohol problem, married men tended to drink significantly less than their male counterparts in every other marital status group.
They concluded that getting married or divorced had a “dynamic relationship” on drinking habits, but in very different ways for men and women.
The biggest difference in drinking levels was between men who were happily married and those who were recently divorced, suggesting that they turned to alcohol during their marital break-up.
Among women, the pattern was the opposite. Despite the stress of a break-up: divorced women generally drank less than those still with their husbands.
“Our qualitative results suggest this occurs because men introduce and prompt women’s drinking, and because divorced women lose the influence of men’s alcohol use upon dissolution,” they concluded.
“Additionally, our survey results show that continuously married men drink less than men in all other marital status groups, especially recently divorced men.”
They said this suggested that marriage changes the social condition of men’s lives in ways that promote lower alcohol use, and that the stress of divorce promotes men’s drinking.
Last year, a study by researchers at Cardiff University suggested that married people were more likely to eat healthily than other people and had a 15 per cent lower incidence of premature death.
The Office for National Statistics’ “well-being” study also found last year that married people were generally more content with their lives.
Researchers find first hardy Irish plant in Sligo that beat the Ice Age (the Fringed Sandwort)
The history books will have to be rewritten after researchers uncovered a super resilient plant which survived the Ice Age in Ireland.
Up to now most scientists agreed that Ireland’s flora and fauna emerged or came here after the end of the Ice Age, some 15,000 years ago.
However, this latest discovery by a research team from NUI Maynooth, pushes back this date to a much earlier time.
The team, led by ecologist Dr Conor Meade, developed a new DNA analysis method to unravel the complex history of the Fringed Sandwort, a rare cold-loving herb that only grows on the high slopes of Ben-Bulben in Co Sligo.
Researchers collected the plant on mountain peaks all over Europe, from Spain and Italy up to Svalbard in the ArcticCircle, and then completed detailed genetic analyses.
The new analysis method, based on a process called DNA melting, greatly improves the accuracy of existing DNA analysis and helped to reveal previously unknown levels of genetic diversity in the Irish populations.
What emerged is that the plants on Ben-Bulben are just as genetically ancient as populations in southern Europe, indicating that they must have survived the Ice Age intact, just as they did in Spain and Italy.
Survived
This pattern has never been seen before in Ireland, and is exceptionally rare in northern Europe.
“We estimate the plants on Ben-Bulben mountain in Sligo have survived for perhaps 100,000 years in and around north-west Ireland,” said Dr Meade.
“We have much analysis left to do, but this discovery pushes us into a new understanding of Irish natural history.
“This plant survived, and so too, probably, did other plants and animals.
“Up until now when the natural history of Ireland was taught in schools and universities, students would be taught that no plant or animal around today pre-existed the Ice Age. Well this changes everything,” he said.
Formerly conjoined twins guests of honour at Keash Sligo festival
The Benhaffaf twin boys who are now able to walk
Well-known Irish twins Hussein and Hassan Benhaffaf will be guests of honour at the third annual Twin Fest in the Co Sligo village of Keash.
The festival is expected to attract up to 200 sets of twins from 15 countries.
Last year, 105 sets, including Hussein and Hassan, took part, along with five sets of triplets and one set of quads. This year will be different for the former conjoined twins, who are now walking, having each been fitted with a prosthetic leg earlier this year. They will be accompanied by their parents, Angie and Azzidene, and sisters Milaka and Iman. Angie is patron of Twin Fest.
Last year, the youngest set of twins at the Keash festival were three weeks old, while the oldest were entering their 90th year.
This year’s Twin Fest is in aid of Act for Meningitis, a charity launched by the Carroll family of Oranmore, Co Galway, whose daughter Aoibhe died of meningitis when she was four.
The festival was founded in memory of baby Katie Garvey from Keash, who was also a victim of meningitis.
17-year-old boy dies in Co Roscommon crash
A 17-year-old male has died following a single vehicle incident in Co Roscommon this morning.
Gardaí in Boyle are investigating the incident
The victim was a passenger in a car travelling on the Frenchpark to Boyle road when it hit a ditch at around 1.20am.
Four other males who were in the car at the time, all of whom were in their late teens, received minor injuries.
The incident is being investigated by gardaí in Boyle and the road is currently closed pending the completion of an examination. Local diversions are in place.
Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to contact Boyle Garda Station 071 9664620, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666111 or any Garda Station
