Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Total Irish employment figures set to top 2 million after strong quarter of growth

LATEST FIGURES SHOW SIGNIFICANT DROP IN YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

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The total number of people in the labour force in the first quarter of 2016 was 2.16 million, an increase of 13,600 over the year. The number of people not in the labour force in the first quarter was 1.47 million, a rise of 5,300 in the year.

The number of people working in the State is on course to reach two million this year, analysts said, after the jobless rate dipped below 8% for the first time since the crash.

Female employment is rising at a faster rate than male employment, but new data also points to a strong rebound in construction employment. As recovery proceeds, the high rate of youth unemployment is also in decline.

The Central Statistics office said the official unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% in the first three months of the year from 9% in the final quarter of 2015.

In addition, a revision of monthly data in the lastest quarterly household survey showed the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.9% in April from 8.1% in March. The jobless rate in April 2015 was 9.8% and it was 11.8% in April 2014.

“The data released today show that the numbers at work continue to grow and that the level of employment is now just shy of the two million mark. We have now seen 14 consecutive quarters of employment growth,” said Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Merrion strockbrokers, said the labour market had improved dramatically. This was in keeping with the accelerating recovery, even though emigration had been a factor to some extent in keeping unemployment down.

“Consecutive gains in employment have been posted in the past three years and the Department of Finance is projecting that Ireland will pass the two million people in employment mark in 2016 and replace all of the jobs lost during the downturn by 2018. All in all, it is hard to disagree with this assumption,” said Mr McQuaid.

The decline in the jobless rate came as number of people working in the State rose by 46,900 or 2.4% in the year to end March, the CSO said.

Female workers accounted for the bulk of the increase, with the number of working rising by 27,900 in the year. The number of males at work rose by 19,000 in same period.

Youth unemployment fell to 16.9% in the year to the first quarter of 2016 from 21.5% 12 months previously.

Support services up 9.9%.

The largest rates of increased employment was in the administrative and support service activities, which rose by 6,100 or 9.9%, and in the construction sector, which rose by 9,500 or 7.8%.

The biggest decline in employment was in financial, insurance and real estate activities, which eased by 1,500.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number of people at work rose by 15,400 or 0.8% in the first quarter of 2016 over the final three months of 2015. This followed a seasonally adjusted quarterly increase in employment of 6,600 or 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

“Unemployment decreased by 33,300 or 15.7% in the year to the first quarter of 2016, bringing the total number of persons unemployed to 179,500.

“The long-term unemployment rate decreased from 6 per cent to 4.7% over the year to [the first quarter of] 2016,” said the CSO.

“Long-term unemployment accounted for 56.1% of total unemployment in [the first quarter of] 2016 compared with 59.7% a year earlier and 60.5% in the first quarter of 2014.”

In the year to the first quarter of 2016, the number of persons classified as long-term unemployed declined by 26,500 or 20.9%. This brought total long-term unemployment to 100,600.

Short-term unemployment decreased by 11,300 or 13.7% in the year, to 71,200.

The total number of people in the labour force in the first quarter of 2016 was 2.16 million, an increase of 13,600 over the year. The number of people not in the labour force in the first quarter was 1.47 million, a rise of 5,300 in the year.

Allied Irish Bank reports a 4% drop in number of Irish mortgages in arrears

    

AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne (right picture).

ALLIED IRISH BANK (AIB) HAS MAINTAINED ITS MOMENTUM FROM 2015 AND HAS REPORTED STRONG PROFITABILITY, INCREASED LENDING, AND REDUCTIONS IN IMPAIRED LOANS IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS OF THE YEAR.

In a trading update released to shareholders this morning, AIB posted a net interest margin (NIM) of 2.09pc, an increase on the 1.97% for the full year of 2015.

New lending drawdowns increased by 17% in the period as the bank held on to leading market shares in both retail and business sectors.

AIB chief executive Bernard Byrne said the bank has continued the positive trend from 2015.

“Our focus on growth, a more efficient operating model and improved funding costs enabled us to pass on a 4 reduction of 25bps to variable rate mortgage customers and a €2,000 contribution to switching costs.

“We look forward to increasing our payments to the State to around €6.5bn when we pay a further €1.8bn in capital and interest in July on the maturity of the Contingent Capital Notes.”

Excluding currency costs performing loans increased by €500m, which AIB said was driven by increased new lending and restructures offset by redemptions.

Impaired loans were down by €1bn to €12bn due to ongoing case by case process of bringing in restructuring solutions.

Irish mortgages in arrears fell by 4% in the three months with similar declines visible in both early and late stage arrears. AIB said the number of accounts in arrears in both the owner-occupier and buy-to-let portfolios dropped by 29% and 27% respectively since December 2014.

Thousands of Ireland’s families paying over the odds for health insurance

    

THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES ARE OVERPAYING FOR HEALTH COVER.

Four out of five consumers who have health insurance are on the wrong plan, according to research by one of the country’s leading health insurance experts.

This means thousands of families are overpaying for health cover.

And employers who pay some or all of the health insurance costs of staff are not getting the best value in the market, according to Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie

Some 2.12 million people now have health insurance, up 4,000 since last December, according to recent research from the Health Insurance Authority.

Mr Goode said 80% of those with health cover are on a plan that is too expensive or does not give them the benefits they need.

This implies that up to 1.7 million people could be on unsuitable plans.

The health insurance expert said consumers make it too easy for insurers to keep them on plans that do not suit them and are too expensive.

“But we can’t lump all the blame on insurers – as consumers we need to be more proactive in terms of reviewing our cover properly to bag healthcare savings wherever possible.”

He said that both consumers purchasing individual plans and employers spending hundreds of thousands on employee cover need to do more to ensure they have the right plan.

There are some 420 health insurance plans from the four insurers, with companies changing the benefits on existing plans, increasing prices and bringing out new schemes at regular intervals.

Mr Goode, who is speaking at the Future Health Summit in the Citywest Convention Centre near Dublin, said too few people review their cover.

“If we do go to review, we generally leave it too late, and even when we phone the insurer we ask the wrong questions and are too accepting of the first answer as the final answer.”

He said that those who are on the same plan for two years or more are usually overpaying by the greatest extent. These people could make savings of 20% plus, he said.

Employer schemes stand to make the biggest savings, often up to 20%.

“To make these savings you need to put the health insurers ‘under pressure’ as too many consumers make it too easy for them to recommend the plans that suit them,” Mr Goode said.

Your profile picture could be telling people more about your personality than you had thought

    

THE SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILE PICTURE COULD BE THE WINDOW TO YOUR SOUL.

That’s according to a group of researchers who have investigated the link between people’s profile pictures and their personality traits.

According to the study, social media users can be grouped into one of the Big Five model personality traits – openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism – based on their profile picture alone.

For instance, extraverts are more likely to have a profile picture with several faces in it. They are also likely to portray a younger image either through the use of a picture from years ago or with them posing with younger people.

The study used the Twitter profiles of more than 66,000 people – making it larger than most psychological studies – while 429 users filled in a standard personality questionnaire and found “significant differences in profile picture choice between personality traits”.

So the question is, what category does your profile pic fall in and how much is it giving away to other social media users, not to mention future employers or advertisers?

Openness

The analysis revealed that these users are “likely to have profile pictures other than faces, which reveals non-conformance with what is expected”.

Photos are also likely to be more aesthetically pleasing and use an artistic quality such as grey scale. Users are often seen wearing glasses, but not sunglasses, show less emotion and the ratio of the face size is usually larger than others.

Conscientiousness

The study describes conscientiousness as the personality trait associated with orderliness, planned behaviour and self discipline and for that reason these users “prefer the expected behaviour”. A picture showing the users face only is therefore most expected and they are more likely to appear as happy, smiling or positive than any other trait.

They don’t tend to use grey scale images, they rarely wear glasses and the size of the face is usually smaller. The pictures also make users appear older than they actually are.

Extraversion

Extraversion is a trait marked by engagement with the outside world and “these type of users are correlated the highest out of all traits with colourful images”. An extravert’s picture tends to have many faces in it – which is different from all personalities – and they usually present as a younger age using a picture from when they were younger or surrounded by younger people.

The strongest correlation compares to other traits is that the ratio of their faces is smaller – although that might be because they tend to have more people in the picture.

Agreeableness

This trait is described as being “characterised by social harmony and co-operation”. These users like to have profile pictures with faces in them and the correlation to colour is opposite to openness. That means they usually present colourful profiles, but the pictures are usually low in sharpness, blurry, bright and tend to be cluttered and not that aesthetically pleasing.

Neuroticism

pictures for neurotic users are perhaps unsurprisingly anti-correlated with colourfulness and are opposite to the traits displayed by agreeableness and extraversion users. The study found that “overall, neurotic people display simple, uncolourful images with negative colour emotions”.

It also found that neurotic users tend not to use faces as a profile picture and when they do they have the strongest correlation to people who are displayed wearing reading glasses. When a face is present in the picture it is also “significantly larger” than other users’ pictures.

Blood-sucking fish on the rise in the most of our rivers

       

SWIMMERS ARE ON RED ALERT AFTER A HUGE RISE IN THE NUMBER OF A ONE METRE LONG BLOOD SUCKING FISH WITH ROWS OF RAZOR SHARP TEETH IN THE COUNTRY’S RIVERS, INCLUDING THE TRENT WHICH RUNS THROUGH

Once bitten says Jeremy Wade of the ITV show River Monsters, having his blood sucked by a hungry lamprey, The number of lampreys, which are known to attack humans when hungry, are soaring all around the UK, with record numbers found in some of the country’s water ways.

The rise in the ‘vampire fish’, which kill off other fish by latching onto them and sucking their blood out, has been flagged up on outdoor swimming websites where members swim in rivers and lakes. The Swimmer’s Daily website carried a report into the rise of the lampreys warning swimmers ‘Return of the lamprey – ancient, ugly and swimming up Britain’s rivers’. 

Outdoor swimmers are now ‘keeping an eye out’ for the blood-sucking creatures during dips in rivers. As well as the Trent, they have been spotted in the Great Ouse, Trent, Derwent and Wear. Wild swimmer Matt Clarke, who swims all over the UK, but who normally swims in the River Great Ouse as it runs through the town of Olney, Bucks, said he was alerted by a pal last week who saw a warning on the Swimmer’s Daily website. Mr Clarke, 31, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, said his pal also alerted him to an episode of ITV show River Monsters aired in May 2013 about lampreys and called ‘Vampires of the Deep’.

The show, which stars biologist Jeremy Wade, shows him up to his shoulders in a lake with a lamprey attached firmly to his neck as it sucks out his blood.  Speaking during the episode, Mr Wade says: “The parallels with vampires are striking – they both tap into that that same dark place, the primal fear they will drain the life force from us.” 

The lamprey has a formidable mouth full of sharp teeth. As he stands in the shoulder-height river with the creature sucking out his blood, he says: “There’s suction, but there is something sharp going on as well.  “If you get these things attached you’re going to want to get them off.” He warned swimmers: “If you’re swimming you’re needing your limbs to keep you afloat and to keep you moving, but what are you going to do (if) you’ve got these attached to you?

Do I carry on swimming with maybe more and more attaching (to me), or do I stop swimming and try and get these things off – these things are like aquatic vampires.” The TV host was investigating reports of lamprey attacks on swimmers at Lake Champlain in north America in 2007, with several swimmers reporting ‘being attacked’ by up to seven lampreys at a time.

The attacks on humans at Lake Champlain were made into a 2014 movie called Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys, starring Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd and Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannon Doherty. Accounts worker Mr Clarke said: “My friend told me to watch out for lampreys as he’d seen the River Monsters episode and heard that lampreys were on the rise around where I normally swim.

“I’m not really worried, but after watching that episode online last week I will be keeping an eye out for them.”The numbers of lampreys – which have been around for 360m years and have a permanently open mouth armed with a powerful sucker and rows of razor-sharp teeth – in the UK have shot up in recent years.

Numbers had been dwindling after man-made barriers to alter the flow of the water, called weirs, prevented them from swimming upstream to their breeding grounds, where females lay around 170,000 eggs at a time. Mark Owen, head of freshwater at the Angling Trust, said last week that ‘fish passes’ allow lampreys to get through weirs had helped boost numbers. He said: “The fact they’re coming back indicates the water quality is improving, which is welcome for all fish species.”   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

IAG steps closer to Aer Lingus takeover

Irish government said to have received report from steering committee into proposed £1bn takeover

  

International Airlines Group (IAG), the owner of British Airways, is taking a step closer to its £1bn takeover of Aer Lingus after the Irish government received a report by its steering committee into the deal.

The potential takeover has already been dragging on for five months after IAG initially made its approach, which was accepted by Aer Lingus in January.

However, the deal is entirely conditional on the Irish airline’s two major shareholders, rival Ryanair and the Irish government, agreeing to sell.

The Irish government, which owns a 25% stake, has delayed making a decision for months and set up a dedicated committee to review the arguments round the sale.

The state has now received the report by the expert group, which could pave the way to the Irish government announcing its backing for the deal as soon as the next cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Paschal Donohoe, the Irish transport minister, has said that the government would “take great care and exercise great caution in examining the pros and cons to Ireland” of any offer.

Dublin has previously demanded that IAG extend its guarantee to keep Aer Lingus’s 23 Heathrow landing slots focused on Irish routes for ten years.

However, Willie Walsh, IAG chief executive, had told an Irish parliamentary committee that he could not offer more than five years.

The Irish government has also said that routes from Cork and Shannon must be protected. There are also concerns that guarantees could fall foul of the European Commission’s competition directorate.

Mr Walsh said last week that IAG was in “no rush” to complete the deal. “I’m perfectly relaxed about the timing. My board is very happy. Consistently I have said that this is a deal we would like to do,” he said.

Unlike UK takeover rules, there is no time limit for a bidder to make a formal offer. Ryanair has said that it will wait for a formal offer before making a decision but is widely believed to be a willing seller of its Aer Lingus stake.

Fianna Fáil claims Gerry Adams has serious questions to answers

  

Micheál Martin (above picture with Gerry Adams & right pic wih Mairia Cahill) says report directly contradicts Sinn Féin claims that case had no basis

Labour TD for Dublin Mid-West Joanna Tuffy said Mairia Cahill had to “go through the horror of abuse and a crude investigation and cover-up by the IRA. Her decision to highlight her case in public and lead a campaign for justice for her and other victims was inspiring

Micheál Martin said: “It’s time for Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin to own up and come clean on the scale of cover-ups and kangaroo courts.”

The independent review into how sex-abuse cases had been prosecuted in the North of Ireland has raised serious questions for Gerry Adams and the Sinn Féin leadership, Fianna Fáil has said.

Reacting to the review by Sir Keir Starmer of the manner in which the cases has been handled by the prosecution service, party leader Micheál Martin also said the report fully vindicated Belfast woman Maíria Cahill.

“Over 14 findings, the report found unacceptable delays, inadequate communication and insufficient consideration of the sequencing of the cases involved,” he said. “The report vindicates Maíria Cahill, who bravely stood up to ongoing abuse and spin by Sinn Féin.

“Consistent claims by Sinn Féin that the court case had found all suspects not guilty have been given their proper context by this report. The unacceptable delays and weakening of the case led to the withdrawal of the three women from the process.”

He said it directly contradicted Sinn Féin claims that the case had no basis. “I welcome the apology by Barra McGrory, the head of the prosecuting service inNorthern Ireland, in accepting the serious failings that let down these vulnerable women,” Mr Martin added.

Turning to Mr Adams, the Fianna Fáil leader claimed he needed to answer questions about the “cover-up of sexual abuse in the Provisional movement. It’s time for Gerry Adams to own up and come clean on the scale of cover-ups and kangaroo courts.”

The Labour Party also said the findings of the review by Sir Keir, the former DPP forEngland and Wales, justified Ms Cahill’s decision to waive her anonymity and go public about her claims of abuse by a senior member of the IRA.

Labour TD for Dublin Mid-West Joanna Tuffy said Ms Cahill had to “go through the horror of abuse and a crude investigation and cover-up by the IRA. Her decision to highlight her case in public and lead a campaign for justice for her and other victims was inspiring. “In doing so the DPP agreed to review her case, which has backed up her position that there were serious flaws in the legal investigation,” she said.

France bans Supermarket’s wasting good food

  

French supermarkets will no longer be able to destroy or dispose of unused edible food, after the French National Assembly unanimously passed a new amendment to a green energy law yesterday on Thursday last the 21 May.

The amendment to theproposed energy transition to green growth law (due to voted on on 26 May) will require supermarkets over 400 square metres in size to enter into formal agreements with food redistribution charities by July 2016. Any food past its sell by date should also be sent for composting, anaerobic digestion or for use as animal feed – rather than disposal.

Those who do not comply will be liable for penalties including fines of up to €75,000 (£53,000) or two years imprisonment.

It is hoped that the amendment will reduce food waste arisings and prevent supermarkets from destroying edible food. It is reported to be common practice for supermarkets to pour bleach into their bins to destroy the food and prevent its illegal removal, a practice that Guillaume Garot, the former Minister for Food who sponsored the bill in government, called “scandalous”.

As part of the amendment, companies will also be able to contribute to their social and environmental responsibility by providing lessons to school children and smaller businesses on fighting food waste.

Much more to do’ in combating food waste in France

The amendment passed by the National Assembly is the most recent to be added to the bill, as France continues to increase it focus on food waste.

In February, senators voted to add an amendment removing best before dates on non-perishable foods.

However, Garot said that “there remains much to do” following the vote, including the mobilisation of local communities, the training of professionals and consumer awareness.

It is hoped that these actions will help the country achieve the government’s target of halving the nation’s food waste by 2025.

Official figures suggest that the average French person throws away 20-30 kg of food per year, which adds up to a total cost of up to €20 billion to the national economy.

Law focusing on the wrong people?

Although the amendment has been welcomed by many, the French Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD), however, has criticised the plan.

Jacques Creyssel, head of the group, said: “The law is wrong in both target and intent.

“The big stores represent only five per cent of food waste but now have these new obligations.

“They are already the pre-eminent food donors, with more than 4,500 stores having signed agreements with aid groups.

“We will meet in emergency meetings to examine the consequences of these provisions.”

In the UK, food redistribution charity FareShare has said that the move is an “interesting development in the debate around food waste”, especially as the “majority of surplus food is further up the supply chain”.

A spokesperson for the charity added: “The French food industry, government and associated charities have already made huge inroads in tapping food further up the supply chain, amongst manufacturers, where the majority of surplus occurs.

“While government intervention can be a positive step in trying to achieve waste minimisation and a fairer system that promotes surplus redistribution in the food industry, we believe that the best results are obtained when food companies realise the potential and the benefits linked to redistribution. In order to successfully divert surplus food from waste, food companies across the whole supply chain must establish processes and systems that anticipate and identify surplus food within their operations and make it available for charities such as FareShare. This approach brings about significant environmental, social and economic benefits.”

A 65-year-old German mother give birth to quads “now has 17 children”

    

Annegret Raunigk, middle picture with Lelia in 2005, has had quadruplets.

A 65-year-old German woman has given birth to quadruplets after undergoing an artificial insemination procedure in Ukraine.

The woman, Annegret Raunigk, already has 13 children.

The quadruplets – three boys and a girl – were born prematurely at 26 weeks in a Berlin hospital but have “good chances of surviving”, according to the entertainment channel RTL, which has negotiated exclusive rights to the woman’s story.

Raunigk lives in Berlin and is an English and Russian teacher who is close to retirement.

In addition to her children, she has seven grandchildren.

RTL said the new arrivals make her the world’s oldest mother of quadruplets. The boys have been named Dries, Bence and Fjonn and the girl Neeta.

Raunigk made headlines 10 years ago when she gave birth to her 13th child, Lelia, at the age of 55.

“At first, I only wanted one child,” she said then. “Not all were planned. But then things happen. I’m not a planner but rather spontaneous. And children keep me young.”

Raunigk again made headlines in April when the German press reported that her latest artificial insemination attempt had resulted in a quadruple pregnancy.

At the time, she said she decided to try to have another child because her youngest daughter, who is 9, wanted a little brother or sister, according to RTL.

The tabloid Bild am Sonntag quoted Raunigk, whose oldest daughter is reportedly 44, recalling that it was “a shock” when the doctors first broke the news to her of a quadruple pregnancy.

“After the doctor discovered there were four, I had to give it some thought to begin with.”

But she did not consider reducing the number of embryos and said she had no reservations about the challenge facing her.

“I’m not actually afraid. I simply assume I’ll remain healthy and fit. In matters of organisation I have enough experience, that’s not new for me,” she told Bild.

Asked about moral doubts, RTL quoted her as asking: “How does one have to be at 65? One must apparently always fit some cliches which I find rather tiring.

“I think one must decide that for oneself.”

Your Facebook updates can reveal a lot more than you think

  

Sharing news on Facebook can drive greater involvement with news and information

(A team of researchers has revealed what Facebook updates say about the users.)

The Brunel University study, which analysed 555 online surveys taken by regular Facebook users, found people with certain personality types like extroversion, openness, narcissism, neuroticism and conscientiousness, updated their walls in specific ways, the Independent reported.

Extroverts were found to post frequently about social events and neurotic personalities, while the ones who are motivated by a need for validation were likelier to post personal status updates. Open individuals were found not to share personal information but instead primarily share updates about events, research, or their political views.

Researchers found that conscientiousness individuals mostly posted about their children, with the studying suggesting perhaps such updates reflect an indirect form of competitive parenting.

Those with low self-esteem frequently posted about their romantic partner but were not as likely as neurotic types to use the network as a means of validation.

The study hypothesised that people are more likely to post relationship-relevant information on Facebook on days when they feel insecure, adding it was reasonable to assume they did so as a way to claim their relationship.

Finally, narcissistic personalities were found to broadcast their diet and exercise routine to express the personal importance they place on physical appearance above the control variables that researchers placed on the study.

Hubbles name of "Nasty Star" coined as nasty lives up to its name

    

Hubble names star Nasty and with a name like that you expect there to be some type of strange story to go along with it. It seems this Nasty is living up to its name!

When the folks monitoring the Hubble Space Telescope name a star “Nasty,” you just know there has to be a good reason for that. Stars are usually considered magical and there’s even songs penned about how they twinkle and make you feel good. These bright spots in the sky have been coupled with happy endings in religious stories, so why name a star Nasty? It appears this twinkling ball of light fits that bill!

According to The Washington Post on May 23, the star nicknamed Nasty by the folks operating the Hubble Telescope has a pancake-shaped disc around it which they believe is one huge disk of gas. Nasty is a Wolf-Rayet star, which is a star that appears as “twin lobes of gas flowing from opposite sides of the star.”

This was explained in a new paper on Nasty published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society last week. This disk is no tiny cloud, as it’s estimated to cover about 3 trillion miles with Nasty smack dab in the middle.

Nasty is a “rapidly aging star,” reports MSN News, and it is also a massive star that is demonstrating a “strange appearance and an unprecedented behavior,” according to the new study.

Wolf-Rayet stars originate as big stars, but their outer layers are soon lost leaving a helium-burning core exposed in space. In Nasty’s case they think that outer layer of gas is cannibalized by a companion star.

That’s what we think is happening in Nasty 1,” explains Jon Mauerhan, of the University of California, Berkeley, who is the lead author in this study. “We think there is a Wolf-Rayet star buried inside the nebula, and we think the nebula is being created by this mass-transfer process. So this type of sloppy stellar cannibalism actually makes Nasty 1 a rather fitting nickname.”

This is the first time a disc is seen surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star making Nasty very unusual. It is young in the scope of the age of other stars, as the experts believe it is only a few thousand years old. As far as the distance Nasty is from Earth, that would be 3,000 light years away.

The cannibalistic star hypothesis is the leading theory when it comes to what is going on with Nasty. Another hypothesis offers the possibility of a stellar wind taking that layer of gas away. Scientists have taken the stellar wind hypothesis and put it to work with a model, which indicated the winds weren’t strong enough to “push it to Wolf-Rayet status,” according to MSN. This leaves the cannibal-like scenario their best theory to go on today.