Using EU statistics, the report highlights historically high levels of unemployment in Europe, with more than 10% of the labour force out of work.
Among them is an entire generation of young people, with one in two unemployed in Greece and Spain.
It points to children being at a greater risk of poverty or social exclusion than the rest of the population in 21 of the 25 member states.
The study strongly challenges current official suggestions that the worst of the economic crisis is over.
It presents a picture of a Europe in which social risks are increasing, social systems are being tested and individuals and families are under stress.
The report highlights the extremely negative impact austerity policies have on the lives of vulnerable people, and reveals that many others are being driven into poverty for the first time.
The report’s main conclusion is that austerity is not working and an alternative is needed.
It points out that the authorities have choices that they can make in deciding what policy approaches to use, and how various measures are targeted.
It makes a series of recommendations, including that EU funds play a bigger role in addressing poverty, and that social monitoring should be put in place for countries in EU/IMF programmes.
The Caritas group represents 49 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations in 46 countries.
Secretary General of Caritas Europe Jorge Nuño Mayer warned that austerity policies are creating structural poverty in Europe, leaving a younger generation with poor prospects of future employment.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Edition, Mr Mayer said it shows the austerity policies are not working.
“Through these political austerity measures politicians are creating a structural poverty, a structural unemployment and we will have a lost generation of young people who won’t find a job because they have no possibility to work and no possibility to develop their employability,” he said.
The report makes a series of recommendations including that EU funds play a bigger role in addressing poverty.
Mr Mayer said that a Europe-wide approach is essential.
“We need a new European leadership, we need a European solution, the crisis is now a European crisis. There are main effects in these five countries, in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, but we see that the problems are swooping over to the other countries,” he said.
“There are solutions. We need structural funds to be invested in more employment and anti-poverty measures, but also we need a better solution of the debt crisis, we need that the decisions are not simply cutback, cutback, cutback.”
Enda Kenny says no legacy bank-debt deal this summer for Ireland
There will be no deal on Ireland’s legacy bank debt this summer, the Taoiseach has said.
The Government said it was still working on a deal with Europe after last week’s scrapping of the promissory note payments.
Enda Kenny said negotiations were centred on proposals for a longer time in which to pay back loans used to recapitalise the banks, but he said that would not happen soon.
“We have already commissioned a working paper in regard to the principle being accepted of a similar extension to the maturities (for) Portugal and Ireland as has been given to Greece,” he said.
“There will be a report on that in March and hopefully a structure on the single supervisory mechanism by June.”
G.R.A. passes no confidence motion in Justice Minister Alan Shatter
The GRA says it is convinced that the Commissioner is unaware of the impact of pay cuts
The Garda Representative Association has passed a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice Equality and Defence Alan Shatter.
The motion was passed at a meeting of the GRA Central Executive today.
The motion also urgently requests the Garda Commissioner to outline to the force whether he believes any reduction in Garda pay will have a negative effect on policing.
It also asks that he publicly address what it calls “the negative effect to Garda morale resulting from speculative proposals to cut Garda pay and other proposed changes to working conditions”.
In a statement, the GRA says it is convinced that the Commissioner is unaware of the impact of pay cuts and lack of resources on his workforce.
It is seeking an urgent meeting to give him a first-hand account of members’ difficulties in all Garda Divisions.
A spokesperson said that no vote has been taken on the question of industrial action.
There have been reports that industrial action had been backed at regional GRA meetings. However, such action is prohibited for Gardaí.
Responding to the GRA motion Mr Shatter said: “We have, from time to time, down through the years seen rows between the associations representing members of An Garda Síochána and the Minister for Justice of the day.
“These spats occurred in good times and in bad times and both parties simply have to get on with their respective jobs.
“I understand that the Garda Commissioner has invited the representative associations to meet with him to discuss their concerns and I hope these discussions will be helpful.”
Deep brain stimulation may ease neuropathic pain
For many patients with difficult-to-treat neuropathic pain, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can lead to long-term improvement in painscores and other outcomes, a new study has suggested.
About two-thirds of eligible patients who undergo DBS achieve significant and lasting benefits in terms of pain, quality of life, and overall health, according to Sandra G.J. Boccard, PhD, and colleagues of University of Oxford, led by Tipu Aziz FMedSci and Alex Green, MD.
Some outcomes show continued improvement after the first year, according to the new study, which is one of the largest studies of DBS for neuropathic pain performed to date.
The researchers reviewed their 12-year experience with DBS for neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is a common and difficult-to-treat type of pain caused by nerve damage, seen in patients with trauma,diabetes, and other conditions. Phantom limb pain after amputation is an example of neuropathic pain.
In DBS, a small electrode is surgically placed in a precise location in the brain. A mild electrical current is delivered to stimulate that area of the brain, with the goal of interrupting abnormal activity.
Deep brain stimulation has become a standard and effective treatment for movement disorders such as Parkinson”s disease. Although DBS has also been used to treat various types of chronic pain, its role in patients with neuropathic pain remains unclear.
Between 1999 and 2011, that authors” program evaluated 197 patients with chronic neuropathic pain for eligibility for DBS. Of these, 85 patients proceeded to DBS treatment. The remaining patients did not receive DBS—most commonly because they were unable to secure funding from the U.K. National Health Service or decided not to undergo electrode placement surgery.
The patients who underwent DBS were 60 men and 25 women, average age 52 years. Stroke was the most common cause of neuropathic pain, followed by head and face pain, spinal disease, amputation, and injury to nerves from the upper spinal cord (brachial plexus).
In 74 patients, a trial of DBS produced sufficient pain relief to proceed with implantation of an electrical pulse generator. Of 59 patients with sufficient follow-up data, 39 had significant improvement in their overall health status up to four years later. Thus, 66 per cent of patients “gained benefit and efficacy” by undergoing DBS.
The benefits of DBS varied for patients with different causes of neuropathic pain. Treatment was beneficial for 89 per cent for patients with amputation and 70 per cent of those with stroke, compared to 50 per cent of those with brachial plexus injury.
On average, scores on a 10-point pain scale (with 10 indicating the most severe pain) decreased from about 8 to 4 within the first three months, remaining about the same with longer follow-up. Continued follow-up in a small number of patients suggested further improvement in other outcomes, including quality-of-life scores.
Dr. Boccard and coauthors acknowledge some important limitations of their study—especially the lack of complete patient follow-up.
However, they believe their experience is sufficiently encouraging to warrant additional studies, especially with continued advances in stimulation approaches and technology.
Everything you need to know for Friday’s big asteroid flyby
Hours from now, Asteroid 2012 DA14 will make history when it becomes the biggest object ever witnessed getting this close to the Earth.
In less than 24 hours, a 150 foot-wide asteroid will complete a remarkably close, but safe, flyby. For weeks, scientists have been tracking the path of the small near-Earth asteroid known as 2012 DA14, which is on course to swing by the Earth tomorrow at 11:24 a.m. PT.
Again, no need to panic about a collision with Earth, which would be, in a word, catastrophic. If a space rock of this magnitude crashed into us, scientists say, it would release about 2.5 megatons of energy into the atmosphere. The last time an asteroid this size smacked into the Earth was in 1908 in Tuguska, Siberia. That rock, which actually was a bit smaller than 2012 DA14, took out about 750 square miles of forest near what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.
Still, the uniqueness of this flyby promises to be a major news event as 2012 DA14 will pass inside the band of weather and communications satellites which orbit the Earth, some 22,200 miles above the planet’s surface. At its closest point, the flyby will get as close as 17,150 miles above the Earth and constitute the closest approach for a known object of this size.
In the run up to the big event, here’s a cheat sheet to get you prepared:
- NASA will offer a streamed view of the asteroid flyby starting at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET. Other outfits offering views of the asteroid throughout the day include Israel’s Bareket Observatory, the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
- Skywatchers in parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia will have the best chance of seeing the asteroid with a pair of good binoculars or a telescope, weather permitting. U.K. astronomer Geert Barentsen put together a nifty map pinpointing the best times and geographies for viewing the asteroid at its peak.
- At it nearest point, the asteroid will be over the eastern Indian Ocean, off the island of Sumatra.
- 2012 DA14 will linger in the so-called Earth/moon system for roughly 33 hours.
- The asteroid will be traveling at approximately 17,450 miles per hour.
- Astronomers first discovered the asteroid’s existence nearly a year ago when researchers at Spain’s La Sagra Sky Survey in Mallorca reported their observations.
- Scientists believe there are approximately 500,000 near-Earth asteroids the size of 2012 DA14. Of those, less than 1 percent have been discovered.
- Asteroids this big get close to Earth about once every 40 years.
- Earth gets hit by asteroids this size about once every 1,200 years.
80-year-old dies after being hit by truck in Co Mayo
An 80-year-old woman has died after being hit by a lorry in Co Mayo yesterday.
The crash happened on the Ballinrobe to Castlebar Road at Aughadrina at about 1pm.
The woman was brought to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar with serious injuries, but was later pronounced dead.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Castlebar Garda Station on 094-9038200, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800-666-111, or any Garda station.
