Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

A third of Irish parents expect to fall into debt over back-to-school costs

   

Parents of secondary school children are spending an average €258 on a new uniform for September.

Mothers and fathers of youngsters in national school are also feeling the financial stress, having to fork out an average of €166 for each child.

The figures were released by the Irish League of Credit Unions, which warned that almost a third of parents expect to get into debt when preparing their children for the new school year, with loans averaging €360.

Aine Lynch, chief executive of the National Parents Council, said while costs have come down and new book rental schemes are in place, concerns remain over the annual hit families have to take.

“I think ultimately the costs are too high,” she said.

“Children go to schools all over the country and they have no uniform and they have no difficulty getting a good education, so I think it is important that uniforms are not imposed.”

The credit union survey of 1,000 parents also revealed the pressure to make voluntary contributions to schools – seven out of 10 parents expect to make these payments, an average of €112 per child, down from €119 last year.

The survey showed the cost of books for secondary school pupils is €213 for this September, a huge jump from €166 last year, while for national school children it was €162, up from €140.

Ms Lynch hit out at the practice of parents being asked to make voluntary payments.

“Our concern is when the arrangement is defined as financial, when the first engagement is around asking for voluntary contributions, that can impact on the child-teacher relationship,” she said.

“The parents might resent it or it might be that the parents can’t afford it. There could be an embarrassment, pressure, stress.”

She added: “In some instances parents have been asked for this on enrolling. Therefore there’s an implication around enrolling.”

The ILCU said a quarter of parents will use savings and 12% will use credit cards to cover back-to-school costs.

Warning of the difficulties of running a household when extra bills hit home, the survey found 72% of parents admit the costs will hurt their ability to pay bills and keep family plans, and 70% – compared with 80% last year – sacrificed this year’s family holiday or children’s summer camps to cover the costs.

More shockingly, 16% of parents said they will sacrifice spending on food to meet the expense.

Some 2% reported they would use a moneylender to pay the back-to-school bills.

Founder of the Irish Financial Review Frank Conway said: “As the findings of this study reveal, many families across Ireland struggle to cover the cost of a child, or even several children, going back to school and college.

“Costs can run into thousands and for some families the only way of closing the financial gap is through debt, including the use of moneylenders. Where debt is used, the cost of items, including school uniforms can double when expensive interest charges are factored in.”

Irish GP’s will struggle with demands of the under 6’s scheme

  

A survey of pharmacists reveals that they think GPs will not be able to cope with the extra demands of free GP care for under 6s.

The survey shows 24% of pharmacists do not believe GPs can cope with the extra workload that will come about as a result of the introduction of the scheme, while 59% say GPs will only be able to cope with the demands with difficulty.

It comes as it emerges more than 100,000 children across the country have been registered for the scheme.

The pharmacy survey was undertaken by healthcare software provider, Helix Health ahead of the 2015 Helix Health Pharmacist Awards.

Dublin pharmacist and Chair of the Helix Health Pharmacist Awards Committee, Fintan Moore said: “GPs are already struggling to cope with their existing workloads and many will find it difficult to cope with the extra demands of the free GP care scheme. Pharmacists could be doing much more, which would both ease the workload on GPs and improve patient care and accessibility to services.

“We should be delivering a minor ailments scheme, a new medicines scheme, chronic illness management, further health screening initiatives and expanding the existing vaccination service to include travel vaccinations as is the case with pharmacists in other countries.

“We are ready and able to do more. It’s time for the Minister to work with us to expand our professional role for patient care in our communities.”

The survey also revealed that more than 90% of pharmacists believe they should get enhanced roles at primary care level.

Mr Moore said: “Pharmacists have demonstrated their abilities to take on enhanced roles, as seen with the roll-out of the flu vaccination service, and we would urge the Government to realise pharmacists’ potential and allow us to further improve the health and wellbeing of the Irish people.

“Last year pharmacists delivered more than 50,000 flu vaccinations, a figure that is rising every year. We are willing and able to expand this service and to deliver more vaccines.”

It is time we cut the pensions of our politicians who led Ireland to the brink

 

The revelations that the lavish pensions of ex-ministers and Taoiseach are to be boosted have caused widespread public anger and consternation.

Politicians like Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, who are already in receipt of inflated pensions, are to have them further enriched, some by €1,680 per year.

This is due to a provision in the Lansdowne Road Agreement on public sector pay.

When questioned on this Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin pleaded that he had no option under the law but to allow the pension hike go ahead.

Nonetheless, ordinary people who are struggling under the pension levy will be dismayed by this turn of events. As will many workers whose taxes fund the retirement of Ahern, Cowen et al.

Enormous pensions?

These ex-politicians may have had their pensions reduced in recent years but let’s not forget that they are already in receipt of enormous pensions anyway.

Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen the two men who led our country to the brink of ruin, headed governments whose actions caused huge financial suffering to citizens.

It is extraordinarily unfair then that, in a country where the fruits of recovery are still trickling down very slowly, a pension boost of this nature should take place.

Frankly, former politicians should have their pensions reduced across the board – a move which would bring them in line with ordinary citizens who lack the benefit of publicly-funded pensions.

Former ministers Mary Hanafin and Mary O’Rourke view the payments as being “wrong” at this time, it’s reported.

But “wrong” is not enough. These pensions must be reduced.

New genealogy resource will boost tourism, Taoiseach Kenny says

  

Kenny commends National Library’s website for parish records from 18th-19th centuries.

Ciara Kerrigan, project manager of the National Library’s digitisation of parish registers, showing the new website to Enda Kenny and Heather Humphreys.

An online resource for researching family history from the 18th and 19th centuries will prompt a wave of genealogical tourists to visit Ireland in the coming years, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

Mr Kenny was speaking at the announcement of the National Library of Ireland’s parish records website, which contains digitised details of births, deaths and marriages in almost every Catholic parish during the 1700s and 1800s.

The three-year project saw researchers create 370,000 digital images from microfilms of parish records, which were initially collated in the 1950s and 1960s.

Previously, anyone seeking to find information on their Irish ancestry had to go to the National Library on Dublin’s Kildare Street and physically access the microfilms.

The website allows the free perusal of the records from anywhere in the world.

“What you’re doing here in the National Library, I absolutely applaud it because you are giving a facility to the Irish diaspora all over the world to connect, and in a world that is changing so rapidly isn’t it important to have a sense of place, a sense of who we are,” Mr Kenny said.

“It is about us, about our Irishness, and I think that’s so important.”

Tourism boost

Former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave and US ambassador Kevin O’Malley were present for the event, as was Minister for Arts and Heritage Heather Humphreys, who spoke of a potential boost for genealogy tourism as a result of the website.

She said a concerted effort was being made to digitise as much historical material as possible ahead of the 1916 centenary.

Out of more than 1,000 parishes nationwide, 56 were omitted from the original microfilms.

People searching for information on relatives are advised to have prior knowledge of the parish and year in which their family member was born for optimum results.

Handwriting and Latin insertions can also make some of the records hard to decipher.

Project manager Ciara Kerrigan said the details available through the website provide an invaluable stepping stone for anyone attempting to complete a family tree, given the destruction of all census records predating 1901 during the Four Courts fire in 1922.

“If you’re looking for records of Irish people in the 18th and 19th centuries, no other records for them exist apart from these church records.

“It provides an absolutely critical step in the road because unless you can pinpoint when and where people were baptised, you’re not going to be able to build up a very comprehensive family tree.

“It can lead on to other records like valuations of property in Ireland from the 1840s to 1860s. You could look at estate records, records relating to how local communities lived, such as land and property records, which would give a flavour of the kind of lives people had.”

HOW IT WORKS

While very intuitive to navigate, prospective users should note that the search mechanism on the new registers.nli.ie website is subject to some legacy limitations.

Rather than look for their ancestors solely by name, family history enthusiasts must first identify the parish in which their relative was born/married/died in, along with the year of the event. Without this basic prior knowledge, it can be a bit of a ‘needle in a hay stack’ exercise.

If you do happen to isolate the place, year and month in question, inconsistent methods of data input – i.e. a priest’s unintelligible handwriting or sporadic insertions of Latin – can sometimes make the task more difficult.

Around 95 per cent of parishes submitted their registries for microfilming during the 1950s and 1960s, however, 56 parishes were either omitted from the process or did not come into existence until after the cut-off point for records in 1880. Where this is the case, users are advised to contact the parish in question directly for missing information.

Finally, while families with Dublin origins have the best of it with records extending back to the early 18th century, lists of events from counties including Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny cover a shorter period from around the 1780s to the 1880s, while records from areas along the western seaboard generally don’t begin until the latter half of the 19th century.

Eight food businesses shut down in June for safety violations

 

Dublin cash and carry to pay almost €6,000 for breaching food hygiene regulation

Pearl River take away in Phibsborough, Dublin 7 which was issued a closure order last month.

Eight businesses were served with closure orders last month for violations of food safety regulations.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) serves such orders when inspectors deem there to be a grave and immediate danger to public health at a premises.

Bimdoc Cash and Carry on Jamestown Road in Finglas, Dublin 11 was convicted on six counts and ordered to pay € 5,560. This included a fine of €1,000 and costs of € 4,560 awarded to the Health Service Executive (HSE) which prosecuted the case under hygiene of foodstuffs regulations.

Pearl River in Phibsborough, D Limit African & European Restaurant on Ballybough Road in Dublin and ShanghaiHouse in Cork were served closure orders.

Posh Nosh take away in Ardee, Co Louthwas closed twice during the month. The other closure orders related to food businesses in Cavan, Mayo and Wexford.

In addition, a prohibition order was issued to Cumiskey’s public house on Blackhorse Avenue in Dublin.

This order is issued if the activities, such as handling and preparation of food, or the condition of the premises could pose a risk to public health.

Six of the orders have since been lifted. May saw the highest monthly number of closures so far this year with a total of 14. In total, 45 closure orders have been issued this year.

Dr Pamela Byrne, chief executive of the FSAI, said the violations had “serious negative implications” for the premises and the wider food industry.

“There can be no justification for these breaches, which can endanger consumers’ health and undermine the confidence they should expect to have in the safety of the food they eat,” she said.

Full list of businesses that were served closure orders:

1. Shanghai House restaurant, 13 Upper Cork Street,Mitchelstown, Co Cork
2. Mr Wong take away, 81 Main Street, Co Cavan
3. D Limit African & European restaurant, 61A Ballybough Road, Dublin 3
4. Posh Nosh take away, 1 Millstream, Moorehall, Ardee, Co Louth (two closure orders)
5. “Fish & Chips” catering trailer (chip van), Main Street, Roundfort, Hollymount, Co Mayo
6. Pearl River take away, 62 Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7
7. Hotel Curracloe (activity closed: all food preparation and service activities in and from the kitchen and ancillary areas), Curracloe, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

The burning question of global carbon reduction

  

The world’s last climate conference demonstrated in vivid terms the difficulty of agreeing binding emissions targets among countries at different stages of economic development.

The snowbound Copenhagen gathering six years ago foundered over how to share the burden between the developed and developing worlds of the cost of combating global warming. By the time it disbanded, it had generated lots of bad will between participants — but few commitments of substance.

As the world prepares for this year’s follow-up in Paris, many national governments seem commendably keen to avoid a re-run. Less happily, this determination is allied to a lack of ambition. The sense among leaders is that action remains too expensive to be politically viable. So to deliver a deal, they are paring back the commitments they will give or expect others to make.

Now a group of academics, businessmen and policy makers have stepped forward to challenge official defeatism. In their New Climate Economy report, they argue that halting global warming without denting economic growth can be done more easily than many realise. Volatile oil prices, falling renewable energy costs and other global trends have set the stage for economies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep growing, the study says.

The cost of solar power has fallen by 75% since 2000, and that of power storage systems by 60% over the past decade. According to a report from Deutsche Bank, solar is now competitive with retail electricity prices in 39 countries. Meanwhile volatile oil prices are encouraging more governments to withdraw fuel subsidies. This has lowered the cost of political interventions to drive the shift to cleaner power.

The report is right to note that in some areas the pace of clean energy adoption is accelerating. While there must be doubts about the causal link it implies, encouragement can be drawn from the fact that the global economy grew last year while emissions remained broadly flat. De-linkage is to be welcomed, even if only achieved by consumers switching from polluting sources to transitional, cleaner technologies. Even a short term environmental dividend is better than none.

In the end, however, the problem of achieving a binding global deal remains. The report’s authors rightly argue that cities and countries should work collaboratively on measures such as raising energy efficiency standards, cutting aircraft pollution and boosting investment in clean energy.

But such initiatives will avail the world little unless backed up by states setting tough emissions targets and giving hard commitments to meet them. While costs may be falling, that still means kick-starting huge investments in global urban infrastructure.

Governments also need to spend far more on research into new forms of renewable energy. Only 2% of the world’s public R&D goes into this area, according to the global Apollo programme. That is not enough.

Lastly they must back up binding targets by sticking a higher price tag on carbon. The practical and political obstacles to widespread carbon pricing are daunting. Nearly every tradeable good includes a carbon component. Make it more expensive to produce things in one place and activity simply leaks abroad.

The falling cost of renewables is something to celebrate. It lowers the price of political action. But it does not absolve the delegates to Paris from taking the hard political decisions necessary to de-carbonise. If they duck them, the conference will enjoy no more success than the last. 

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Our financial crisis was caused by greed says Ireland's Central Bank Chief

  

“Greed, disregard for risk” and “gross mismanagement” helped cause the banking crisis, according to the new deputy head of the Central Bank.

In his first public address since being appointed the deputy governor of the Central Bank, Cyril Roux questioned whether an ever-increasing amount ofrules and directives is the best way to regulate the banking industry, or if there needs to be a switch to a so-called principles-based framework.

DAMAGING: In a hard-hitting speech, he hinted at a shift in focus for regulators, away from a focus on what banks do and instead focusing on bankers themselves.

He said: “Few would dispute that some of the most galling failures have had very little to do with capital requirements and everything to do with greed coupled with disregard for the risks, or gross misjudgment about them.”

The focus of banking regulation tends to be on guarding against the risk of damaging bank runs, he said.

In contrast, supervision of the securities industry – including bond and share dealing – grew out of the need to protect investors, he said.

REGULATION: Mr Roux was speaking at a conference on regulation held by the Central Bank in Dublin yesterday.

Five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the financial crisis, he asked whether “we have fully seized the opportunity” of the crisis to tackle the issue of how best to regulate the sector.

Financial regulation is ultimately a product of the political process, he said.

Figuring out how best to resolve the “conundrums” involved will be achievedthrough democratic dialogue.

French-born Mr Roux replaces Matthew Elderfield who left the bank in the summer to work for Lloyds Bank in London.

Small businesses in Ireland upbeat about the next 12 months 

   

Ireland’s small business community is upbeat about its prospects for the next 12 months, with most respondents to a survey saying they expect further improvements in trading conditions in the coming year.

The latest quarterly SME Business Trends survey, covering the third quarter of the year, from sectoral lobby group ISME details positive movement in 11 of the 12 confidence indicators. A reading of 15% — up from 5% in the previous quarter — of firms expecting to increase employment in the next year marks the best figure in this regard since the end of 2007.

ISME chief Mark Fielding said: “It is imperative that the budget next Tuesday does nothing to stifle the positive sentiment and trends in the indigenous SME sector. While the majority of SMEs continue to battle out of recession, the mindset is positive and cautiously expansionary. The main focus must remain on cost curtailment, and any government budgetary intervention must not interfere with the turnaround.”

The last quarter saw a fall in the percentage of SMEs exporting goods — from 29% to 22% — but this was the only indicator to show a decline. Profitability expectations went from 0% in the second quarter to 14% at the end of September, putting the rating in positive mode for the first time since the beginning of the economic downturn.

The survey also shows SMEs have increased appetite for investment — the level of firms investing in their business is up from 16% to 26% on a quarter-by-quarter basis, with the level of firms planning future investment up from 20% to 23%.

Over half of young Irish people suffer a mental health problem by the age of 24

         

Young Irish people have a higher rate of mental health difficulties than their peers in Europe and the USA, with more than half suffering a significant problem by the age of 24.

The mental disorder could involve a young person experiencing a behavioural or psychological problem either causing them distress or anxiety, such as a bereavement.

More seriously, it could see the young person suffering from a mood disorder such as depression, experiencing psychosis, or having suicidal thoughts.

By their mid-20s, nearly 75pc have engaged in binge drinking, with one in five meeting the criteria for mental health problems linked to this behaviour at some time in their lives.

The findings from research by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) showed one in five young Irish adults aged 19-24 and one in six young people aged 11-13 are experiencing mental disorder.

The ‘Mental Health Of Young People in Ireland’ report pointed out that suffering psychological stress in early life leaves young people at increased risk during their adult years.

Professor Mary Cannon of the RCSI said: “Our research shows that high numbers of teenagers and young adults in Ireland are experiencing mental ill-health at any given time.

“For the first time in Ireland, we have evidence. . . that young people who experience mental ill-health during adolescence have higher rates of mental disorders and substance misuse during their young adult years.”

High numbers of young adults aged 19-24 engaged in the misuse of alcohol and drugs, according to the findings of the RCSI Psychiatric Epidemiology Research across the Lifespan (PERL) Group.

“Of particular concern is that three out of four young adults met lifetime criteria for binge drinking. The research also reveals that almost one in five (19pc) had thought about suicide,” said Prof Cannon.

The research involved surveying and interviewing more than 400 people between the ages of 11 and 24. It is the first time such comprehensive data about disorders among young people in Ireland was published.

“Our research points to high levels of self-injurious behaviour and suicidal thoughts among Irish youth,” she said.

“For young adults, just under one in 10 had engaged in deliberate self-harm and one in five experienced suicidal thoughts.

“Both of our studies (found) many of the young people who were experiencing mental health difficulties had not sought help,” Prof Cannon added.

‘DISCORD’ “We found that experiences of family discord, intimate relationship abuse and stress related to death, health, work and relationships were implicated in young people’s risk of experiencing a mental disorder.

“We also found that being of a minority sexual orientation was associated with mental ill-health among young adults.”

The report was launched by Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch.

She said: “I would appeal to any young person who thinks they may have a mental health issue not to suffer in silence and to seek help.”

New Alzheimer’s treatment breakthrough as British scientists pave way for a simple pill cure

     

Historic ‘turning point’ hailed as UK researchers discover how to halt death of brain cells, opening new pathway for future drug treatments

Scientists have hailed an historic “turning point” in the search for a medicine that could beat Alzheimer’s disease, after a drug-like compound was used to halt brain cell death in mice for the first time.

Although the prospect of a pill for Alzheimer’s remains a long way off, the landmark British study provides a major new pathway for future drug treatments.

The compound works by blocking a faulty signal in brains affected by neurodegenerative diseases, which shuts down the production of essential proteins, leading to brain cells being unprotected and dying off.

It was tested in mice with prion disease – the best animal model of human neurodegenerative disorders – but scientists said they were confident the same principles would apply in a human brain with debilitating brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

The study, published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, was carried out at the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) Toxicology Unit at the University of Leicester.

“It’s a real step forward,” team leader Professor Giovanna Mallucci said. “It’s the first time a substance has been given to mice that prevents brain disease. The fact that this is a compound that can be given orally, that gets into the brain and prevents brain disease, is a first in itself… We can go forward and develop better molecules and I can’t see why preventing this process should only be restricted to mice. I think this probably will translate into other mammalian brains.”

In debilitating brain diseases like Alzheimer’s, the production of new proteins in the brain is shut down by a build-up of “misfolded proteins” or amyloids. This build-up leads to an “over-activation” of a natural defence mechanism that stops essential proteins being produced. Without these proteins to protect them, brain cells die off – leading to the symptoms of diseases like Alzheimer’s.

The compound used in the study works by inhibiting an enzyme, known as PERK, which plays a key role in activating this defence mechanism. In mice with prion’s disease, it restored proteins to protect brain cells “stopping the disease in its tracks”, restoring some normal behaviours and preventing memory loss.

Although the compound also produced significant side effects in mice, including weight loss and mild diabetes, which was caused by damage to the pancreas, Professor Mallucci said it would “not be impossible” to develop a drug that protected the brain without the side effects and that work towards doing so had been “very promising”.

The breakthrough was greeted with excitement by scientists, who nonetheless cautioned that it remained a significant proof of principle and a possible basis for new treatments, rather than a guarantee of an Alzheimer’s cure in the near future.

 A Computer graphic of a vertical (coronal) slice through the brain of an Alzheimer patient.

Professor Roger Morris, acting head King’s College London’s department of chemistry, said: “This is the first convincing report that a small drug, of the type most conveniently turned into medicines, stops the progressive death of neurons in the brain as found, for instance, in Alzheimer’s disease. True, this study has been done in mice, not man; and it is prion disease, not Alzheimer’s, that has been cured.  However, there is considerable evidence that the way neurons die in both diseases is similar; and lessons learned in mice from prion disease have proved accurate guides to attenuate the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in patients.”

“From finding the first effective drug in a mouse, to having an effective medicine in man, usually takes decades to bring to fruition, in the very few cases in which it is successful. So, a cure for Alzheimer’s is not just around the corner. However, the critical point of principle made by Professor Mallucci’s study is that a drug, given orally, can arrest neuro-degeneration caused by amyloid in the brain.

”This finding, I suspect, will be judged by history as a turning point in thesearch for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer’s disease.“

David Allsopp, professor of neuroscience at Lancaster University said that the study had thrown up ”very dramatic and highly encouraging results“, but said that more research was needed to overcome the “problematic side-effects” and to prove the technique would be effective against other disease like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

There are currently 800,000 people in the UK with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause. The number of people living with the condition is set to break one million by 2021, and represents an enormous health burden for the NHS and the social care system. Parkinson’s affect 1 in 500 people and around 127,000 people suffer from the condition.

Dr Eric Karran, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Targeting a mechanism relevant to a number of neurodegenerative diseases could yield a single drug with wide-reaching benefits, but this compound is still at an early stage. It will be important for these findings to be repeated and tested in models of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. While Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, other diseases that cause dementia are also characterised by the abnormal build-up of proteins in the brain.

“If this process is also working overtime in these conditions too, targeting it could be a promising avenue for investigation. However, what is true in animals does not always hold true in people and the ultimate test for this compound will be to see whether it is safe and effective in people with these diseases.”

Irish greenhouse emissions rise for 2012 & raises fears over our stance on pollution

  

The 3% rise in agricultural emissions was driven by a surge in animal numbers, particularly cattle and sheep.

Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2012 for the first time in six years, according to new research.

The statistics, released yesterday by the state-run Environmental Protection Agency, showed that carbon emissions jumped by 1pc to 57.92 million tonnes last year – breaking a downward trend that started more than half a decade ago.

The unexpected rise raises questions about Ireland’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol – the international treaty that set binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Some 192 states have ratified it, including all UN members except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the US.

Kyoto research has found that most known reserves of fossil fuels will need to remain unburned to prevent temperatures rising more than 2pc above normal levels.

In Ireland, agriculture shouldered most of the blame last year, accounting for about a third of Irish CO2 emissions, the single largest contributor, followed by energy generation and transport.

The 3% rise in agricultural emissions was driven by a surge in animal numbers, particularly cattle and sheep.

This is partly the result of government plans to expand milk production, and will continue with the removal of milk quotas in 2015.

Sheep stock numbers alone rose by 9pc due to a favourable market.

The 6pc increase in emissions from energy generation was driven by an increase in the use of carbon-intensive coal, which has dropped in price, while the cement industry was mostly to blame for a rise in industrial emissions. CO2 levels generated by cement projects grew by a massive 18pc.

Emissions by some sectors still dropped, helping to mitigate results. Residential emissions dropped 6pc, compared with 2011 levels, after higher-than-average temperatures lowered demand for heat from households.

Transport emissions were also down, a fifth year of decline after significant growth in the run-up to the recession. Tightened consumer spending coupled with increases in motor tax and vehicle registration tax has reduced the number of cars on the roads in recent years. But transport emissions in 2012 were still a massive 113pc higher than in 1990.

Though Ireland should still meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol, theEPA yesterday said the increase in emissions in 2012 “points to the significant challenges ahead”.

The agency is calling for greater efficiency on farms, less car travel and reduced energy use and energy loss in households.

Why do icicles have their ridges? Science has an answer

    

RUFFLES HAVE RIDGES, BUT so WHY DO ICICLES have as WELL, IT TURNS OUT that IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SALT.

A team of scientists at the University of Toronto has discovered that the salt in water is responsible for the distinctive ripples seen in the ice stalactites that grow from eaves and on bridges during the winter.

Other contaminants as well probably contribute to the formation of the characteristic bumps, says senior author Stephen Morris, an experimental physicist at the University of Toronto.

“We didn’t expect this, but it turns out that very slightly dirty water — like Toronto tap water — produces nice ripply icicles,” says Morris of the research, which is published this week in New Journal of Physics.

“And pure water, or even just distilled water which is pretty pure but not super pure, produces smooth icicles with no ripples on them.”

His team was trying to figure out why icicles form with ripples.

It may be blue sky research, Morris acknowledges, though it’s completely serious. Figuring out how ice forms and why it takes the shapes it does is important for dealing with ice buildup on planes, ships and bridges, among other things.

“There’s a huge engineering field concerning ice buildup and this is directly connected to ice buildup,” Morris says.

“In fact, the icicle is just about the simplest kind of ice buildup you could ask for. And we don’t understand it. It’s surprising.”

The thinking has been that the ripples are the result of surface water tension effects on the thin water film that flows over the ice as it forms. Surface tension is what allows small insects to dance on the water of a lake, for instance.

It’s known that adding soap to water reduces the surface tension, so Morris’s group added soap to water to see if it affected the shape of icicles. But icicles made from soapy water didn’t form ripples.

As the work progressed, however, the team realized there was a difference between icicles made from distilled water and from regular water from the tap.

“Toronto tap water is very close to pure water and we didn’t believe initially that it would make any difference using tap water or really pure water. But it does,” Morris says.

The effect is noticeable in a picture of three icicles formed in the experiment — a smooth icicle made of distilled water, a moderately ridged one made with distilled water plus a little salt and a carbuncled icicle made from distilled water plus a lot of salt. The image can be seen on a Flickr page Morris set up.

He says it’s not clear why salt has this effect, but it’s worth studying. Morris does other research into why substances that are smooth develop bumps — roads, for instance — and he says the work is all linked.

“Everything is connected in physics. Even the most trivial phenomenon can turn out to be important,” he says.

“Crystal growth — and an icicle is a crystal — is a huge field in engineering.”