Ireland’s unemployment rate hits 14.9%
The unemployment rate for Ireland has gone higher for the month of June, rising to 14.9%, its highest level since 1994.
The latest data from the Central Statistics Office show the number of people signing on rose by 2,700 over the month, bringing the seasonally adjusted figure to 440,600.
The number of men signing on increased by 800 month on month, with the number of women rising by 1,900.
Long-term claimants – those on the register for more than a year – rose by 6.8 per cent on an annual basis to 199,249.
Short-term claimants accounted for 55.9 per cent of the Live Register, with 252,725 signing on.
The Live Register also includes casual and part-time employees. These workers accounted for 19.6 per cent of the total register or 88,465. That figure showed a rise from a year earlier when there were 85,765 casual and part-time employees signing on, representing 18.7 per cent of the register.
June saw a decline in the number of young people signing on, with the number under 25 falling by 9.1 per cent or 7,911, extending the trend seen since July 2010. The over-25 age group rose by 0.5 per cent.
Analysts described the data as “disappointing”.
“Following upward revisions to the unemployment rate last month as a result of the publication of the Quarterly National Household Survey, it is disappointing to see another increase in the unemployment rate for June,” Glas Securities said in a note.
“While the Department of Finance yesterday [Tuesday] released encouraging exchequer returns data which suggest that the public finances will meet the budget deficit target for the year, today’s data suggests that the unemployment rate may exceed the Government’s target of 14.3 per cent for 2012.”
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions called on the Government to tackle the crisis. “We have not seen unemployment at this high level since 1993. It is as if all the gains of the last two decades have been wiped out by reckless banks and a European political elite that refuses to learn the lessons of history, or even the lessons of daily experience,” said congress chief economist Paul Sweeney
“With close to 15 per cent out of work it is now imperative that this Government starts to aggressively tackle the jobless crisis.”
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association described the unemployment figures as “a disastrous new high”, and urged the Government to adopt enterprise policies to push Ireland to the top of the enterprise league, including a cut in Government-influenced business costs.
“Unless significant changes are made to the welfare system many of the long-term unemployed will simply remain on the dole,” chief executive Mark Fielding said.
The Ulster Bank will now compensate its Irish customers
The Ulster Bank is handling its technical failure very badly which has left more than 100,000 customers without access to funds for over two weeks has been described by the Central Bank as appalling, unacceptable and exasperating.
It has warned that those affected by the crisis will have to be compensated.
Ulster Bank said yesterday, for the first time, that compensation would be offered to customers affected by the technical problems.
It now expects that the problems will continue into next week, and until July 16th at the earliest.
The bank’s chief executive, Jim Brown (above pic.), said he was confident that the bank “should be over the worst of this” at that stage despite twice getting the timing wrong on how long it would take to resolve the technical issues since the computer crash occurred on June 19th.
“We are a lot more confident because we can see the transactions getting cleared and the backlog being worked through,” Mr Brown told The Irish Times.
He said details of compensation to be offered, in addition to covering any out-of-pocket costs incurred by customers, would be decided by the bank before the weekend.
He declined to say exactly what the compensation would involve, but it would be based around fees, charges and interest charges.
In response to customer threats to move their bank accounts elsewhere, Chris Sullivan, head of UK corporate banking at the bank’s parent company Royal Bank of Scotland, said Ulster Bank had served the island of Ireland for 176 years.
He hoped customers “wouldn’t judge the bank on one thing, even though we recognise that it is really serious”.
Appearing before the Oireachtas Finance Committee yesterday, the Central Bank’s director of consumer protection, Bernard Sheridan, castigated both Ulster Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland for contingency planning which “has self-evidently been appalling”.
Mr Sheridan criticised the bank’s approach to customer communication as “exasperating”, and said the Central Bank would be requiring Ulster Bank “to put in place a comprehensive restitution plan for impacted customers”.
He said the regulator would be insisting that Ulster Bank compensated its customers and customers of other institutions affected by the crisis for costs and charges incurred as a result of the collapse of its systems.
“It had to be recognised by Ulster Bank in designing this restitution plan that their customers have been seriously inconvenienced by these events. This extends to the small and medium businesses as well as personal customers.”
Mr Sheridan declined to say what penalties, if any, would be imposed on Ulster Bank once the crisis was resolved, but he said the maximum fine it could currently impose was €5 million.
He said it was now clear that arrangements for an IT systems failure had not operated as they should have at Ulster Bank and as a result the Central Bank had instructed all banks in the Irish clearing system to review their contingency plans “and to formally reconfirm that a robust recovery system is in place”.
The Central Bank itself came under fire for what was described as its slow response to the system breakdown. Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath and Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty described the initial response of the Central Bank as inadequate.
Mr McGrath said he would have liked to have seen “far more upfront and active engagement” from the regulator. While the technical problems became public on Wednesday, June 19th, the first statement by the Central Bank was not released until the Sunday.
Senior management from Ulster Bank will appear before the committee today.
Donegal Burgled woman had to collect Garda in her own car
No patrol vehicle at local station
A WOMAN who found her home ransacked was forced to collect a garda from her local station because there was no patrol car available.
The woman – who discovered her home had been burgled – immediately reported the incident to her nearest garda station.
But she was told she would have to collect the officer from the station herself so that the incident could be investigated.
The bizarre revelation will embarrass Justice Minister Alan Shatter and it is the clearest indication yet that gardai are suffering from a shortfall in vehicle numbers.
The woman, who was clearly distressed, contacted gardai at her local station in Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal.
It is understood that she was told that there was no patrol car currently at the station, which prompted the woman to drive more than a kilometre away to collect an officer herself.
The woman had been told that she had the option of waiting for gardai to arrive from the Carrigans station, 9km away.
Fianna Fail Justice spokes-person Dara Calleary described the situation as “disgraceful”.
“Time and time again I’ve highlighted the issue of a shortage in garda cars to the Minister. But this is just disgraceful. It is clear proof that cutbacks are taking a major toll on communities.”
The Garda Press Office and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) declined the comment on the matter.
However the GRA’s president, John Parker, warned of the effects garda cutbacks were having on the public.
“The public rightly deserve a first-class policing service, but successive government policies have reduced the number of gardai and the resources we need effectively to police the country,” he said.
“Nearly one in every five garda vehicles has been withdrawn and not replaced because of budget cuts to the garda fleet over the past two years.
“And it is set to get worse as more and more vehicles reach the end of their life and can no longer be maintained safely.”
The Herald revealed recently that a staggering 300 garda cars were taken off the roads in a 12-month period.
It means that almost six cars were withdrawn every week, the highest number experienced by the force in years.
And the figures are a dramatic decrease on the previous two years as Government cutbacks take hold.
IRISH MOBILE networks Vodafoneand 3 Ireland silent on network merger
Irish mobile networks Vodafone and 3 Ireland were keeping quiet yesterday about a possible deal that would see them merge their telecoms infrastructure.
Reports claimed the two were close to agreement on a joint venture, the latest industry tie-up designed to save costs and boost coverage.
Sources, who asked not to be named, said nothing had yet been signed between Vodafone and Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate that operates the 3 mobile brand in Ireland. Both companies declined to comment on the reports yesterday.
If the deal goes ahead, the merger will create a 50-50 joint venture that would result in the biggest network in Ireland while producing “significant” cost savings, one of the sources said.
Although the source did not elaborate on the expected savings from the deal, the Financial Times said each of the businesses could save more than £200 million over a five-year period.
“It’s a smart move to initiate savings while having a high probability of receiving the green light from regulators,” said Vincent Maulay, an analyst at Oddo and Cie in Paris. Vodafone’s Irish unit may be able to cut operating costs by 10 per cent through the infrastructure merger, he said.
In Ireland, Vodafone and 3 would put the telecoms infrastructure into the joint venture but maintain their independent spectrum and retail services. Both companies also compete with O2 and Meteor Mobile, owned by the Eircom Group.
The talks follow a spate of similar deals across Europe where operators are looking for ways to upgrade their networks at a time when customers are cutting back on spending.
In Britain, Vodafone announced a deal last month to share a network with Telefonica’s O2 to help cut the cost of building a new, faster service.
France Telecom merged its Orange network in the UK with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile in 2010, creating Everything Everywhere, in a bid to save more than €4 billion in network, marketing and administrative costs by 2014.
The average European operator will spend about €2 billion to upgrade an existing network to fourth-generation technology to cover 75 per cent of a country with 50 million people, according to researcher Idate.
“Such an agreement would have the potential to significantly improve network quality, speed to market with 4G, lead to much better cash generation and enhance returns on capital in the Irish market for both companies,” analysts at Espirito Santo said, in reference to upgraded fourth generation networks.
“The potential for a JV in Ireland are fully in line with our view that Vodafone will emerge as the pre-eminent network operator in Europe. Vodafone seems to be working on a market-by-market basis and is not necessarily tying itself to one partner.
Irish State will cover 1,500 women’s implant removal costs
Women fitted with faulty silicone breast implants in Ireland who need them removed will have the cost covered by the Irish state.
Chief medical officer (CMO) Tony Holohan had vowed to make the three clinics who used the industrial-grade gel take financial responsibility for further clinical care.
But he said the Harley Medical Group, where most of the 1,500 women were fitted with PIP implants from the now defunct French company Poly Implant Prosthese, has failed to provide an appropriate care package.
“The department (of health) is not satisfied that the Harley Medical Group will fulfil their obligations in an acceptable manner,” Dr Holohan’s office said in a statement.
“Consequently it has been decided that necessary care required by the affected recipients of these implants should be made available via an alternative route.”
The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) will be used to pay for the women to undergo a surgical consultation, radiology if required, and the removal of implants if deemed clinically necessary.
The full cost to the taxpayer will be unknown until all the women have been assessed over the coming months.
Studies have found the industrial-grade silicone poses no health risks, including any increase of cancer.
Dr Holohan told members of the newly formed PIP Action Group about the proposal on Monday. Of the 1,550 women in Ireland believed to have had the implants over the last 10 years, 138 have experienced a rupture – 35 of whom had ruptures in both breasts.
A spokeswoman for the Harley Medical Group said the group had no comment.
Scientists develop marijuana that won’t make you high
Researchers have developed a form of marijuana that can be used to ease the symptoms of chronic pain without getting patients high.
Scientists said the new drug can be used to treat patients suffering from illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, arthritis and Crohn’s disease without them getting stoned.
“It’s a huge advantage,” said one 35-year-old patient who has taken part in trials.
“I can smoke during the day, function with a lot less pain and still be focused, work and drive. It is a great gift.”
“The difference is huge. Before, I would only smoke at the end of the day and stay in pain.” Now, she said, with the highless marijuana “my life is so much better.”
The plant, named Avidekel, has been developed at a high security medical marijuana plantation in the hills of the Galilee in northern Israel.
Zack Klein, head of development at Tikun Olam, the company that developed the plant, said it contains only tiny traces of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis that gives people a “high” feeling.
The new Avidekel plant contains 15.8pc Cannabidiol, or CBD, a substance that has anti-inflammatory benefits.
Tikun Olam began its research on CBD enhanced cannabis in 2009 and about six months ago it came up with Avidekel.
Impressive
Marijuana is an illegal drug in Israel, but medicinal use of it was first permitted in 1993. Today cannabis is used in Israel to treat 9,000 people suffering from various illnesses according to Israel’s health ministry.
Drug companies have also been interested in cannabis as a medicine. Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals, with Bayer and Almirall, sells an under-the-tongue spray called Sativex that is designed to minimise highs by manipulating ratios of active ingredients.
Ruth Gallily of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who has been studying CBD for more than 12 years, said she has found that the substance has impressive anti-inflammatory qualities.
She has been testing the effects of Tikun Olam’s CBD-enhanced cannabis on mice and expects full clinical trials to begin in a few months.
Avidekel is a new strain of a plant that is already permitted for medical use so there is nothing stopping patients who are already being treated with marijuana from trying Avidekel.
“The cannabis plant, enriched with CBD, can be used for treating diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, liver inflammation, heart disease and diabetes,” she said, adding there are no side effects.
Despite Avidekel’s highless benefit, Mr Klein does not see regular marijuana disappearing any time soon. THC has its own unique effects that alleviate illness symptoms.
