Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Ireland’s export values for March 2015 hit their highest level since 2002

    

Export-led sectors (such as technology, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and green technology) continue to show growth. 

The value of exports hit their highest levels since 2002 in March, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.

A rebound in medical and pharmaceutical exports has helped largely drive the positive figures, along with the weaker euro.

Preliminary data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that Ireland’s crucial exports were valued at €9.1bn in March. The last time it broke through the €9bn barrier was in May 2002.

Analysts also hailed the fact that exports have surged since the start of the year, thanks in part to improved competitiveness gains from the weaker euro.

Davy Stockbrokers said good exports are up 17.4% in the first three months of this year compared with 2014, thanks to a rebound in pharmaceuticals, which are up 21% on the year.

“Nonetheless, excluding this sector, Irish goods exports are up 9.1% year-to-date,” said Davy economist Conall Mac Coille.

“This suggests that Irish export performance is benefitting from stronger demand and from the competitiveness gains, vis-à-vis the UK, from the weak euro.”

The CSO data shows that while exports decreased 2% in March and imports rose 4%, the trade surplus narrowed by 10% to €3.43bn.

The value of exports for March was €9. 1bn representing an increase of €1.6bn, or 21%, when compared with March of last year.

The last time the value of exports was above €9bn was in May 2002 when it reached €9.1bn.

The CSO said the main driver behind the increase was a 58% surge in exports of medical and pharmaceutical products.

“The underlying narrative is one of broad based growth in exports, propelled by favourable currency moves and the improved economic performance of a number of Ireland’s key trading partners,” said Philip O’Sullivan, economist with specialist bank Investec.

“Elsewhere, the upturn in investment and personal consumption here has led to an increased appetite for imports. We expect to see more of the same in the months

€10m Irish Government funding announced for start-ups

    

The Jobs Minister said a €10 million initiative to support more start-up businesses will be led by people in local and regional areas.

The initiative comprises of two funds, with the closing date in mid July.

A €5 million fund will be open to groups of Local Enterprise Offices, and another €5 million Community Enterprise Initiatives fund will be open to groups and organisations in every county who come together with ideas for projects to create employment.

Minister Richard Bruton said this new initiative will be driven from the bottom-up.

“They are aimed at the local enterprise offices, which are now embedded in the local authorities … there are many ways in which groups could collaborate within the regions to develop initiatives,” he said.

“This is about bottom-up growth – you can’t expect someone in government buildings at Merrion Street or Kildare Street to know the environment in Kerry, and get the best ideas and people to drive them forward.”

NTMA sells €750m of seven-year bonds

   

In February of this year, the NTMA raised €500m through the auction of a 15-year bond.

The National Treasury Management Agency has sold €750 million of seven year government bonds at a yield of 0.81%.

The total bids received amounted to €1.99bn, which was 2.7 times the amount on offer. The NTMA has raised €10.25bn in the bond markets so far this year.

In February, the NTMA raised €500m through the auction of a 15-year bond.

Some €4bn was raised by the NTMA the previous week with the issuing of the first 30-year bond. The NTMA is looking to raise €12bn-€15bn in long-term bonds this year.

Meanwhile, there was much movement on the currency front yesterday, with sterling regaining its losses in the week heading into the British general election, while the US currency has slid to its lowest levels in almost four months a day after stagnant retail sales became the latest data to undermine prospects for Federal Reserve interest-rate increase.

The greenback climbed nine straight months through March on speculation the first hike in almost a decade was looming.

The dollar’s decline brought it to the lowest level in almost three months against the Euro.

And yet across the Atlantic, not even a reduction in the Bank of England’s quarterly growth forecasts was enough to derail sterling’s rebound.

People don’t realise severe obesity is as dangerous as smoking

The new study also said that 20% of people who describe themselves as healthy are in fact overweight.

  

An expert group that looks into how obesity impacts on health has said that “widespread misconceptions” about its danger persist.

The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), has released a new study entitled ‘Obesity: an underestimated threat’.

In it the group shows that obesity can reduce life expectancy at a comparable level to smoking tobacco.

What are the main points of the report?

Speaking about the report, Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland (ASOI), Dr Grace O’Malley, highlights seven key findings within the report.

These include the fact that less than 50% of the population realise that it is a disease; that many people are unaware of the link between obesity and serious illness; that over 60% do not think obesity surgery should be paid for by the national health system; and that over 80% of individuals underestimate the importance of an overall approach to maintaining a healthy weight.

It also mentions that more than half of people asked think that obesity is less dangerous than smoking. On this Dr O’Malley, said:

Studies have shown that moderate and severe obesity (BMI 30-35 kg/m2 and >40 kg/m2 respectively) can reduce life expectancy by between 5 and 20 years which is comparable to the impact of tobacco smoking (10 years). Despite this, less than 50% recognised obesity as being as dangerous as smoking.

Interestingly, it was also found that many people who consider themselves healthy are in fact overweight.

Dr O’Malley, said, “in this study 20% of those describing themselves as a healthy weight were technically overweight and 30% of those who described themselves as overweight were technically obese.”

One positive take away from the study was that most participants thought that diet and exercise were almost always the best way to treat obesity. Dr O’Malley does make the point however, that “in certain cases – particularly for people with severe obesity – additional treatments are needed.”

A growing problem in today’s society

Recent statistics have shown that obesity is a ‘growing threat’ – with a 2014 model estimating that 89% of of Irish men could be overweight by 2030, with 48% of these being obese.

The study released today carried out by the group looked at 14,000 people in seven European countries and aimed to build a better understanding of how the public perceives obesity.

Christopher an Irish student just got an asteroid named after him

  

This Irish student above just got an asteroid named after him

Of all the things that could happen in life, getting an asteroid named after you has to be one of the coolest.

Lucky sixth-year student Christopher Carragher from Our Lady’s Secondary School in Castleblaney can say just that, after winning a major $1,500 prize in the US.

The Co Monaghan student had an asteroid named after him after he came second in the world award in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category at ISEF 2015 which was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this week.

Carragher got to Pennsylvania after winning the SciFest 2014 national final last November. His project was about aiding people with memory loss.

Around 1,700 students from over 75 countries compete at Intel ISEF for a prize fund totaling $4million.

After becoming concerned about the signs of short-term memory loss in a family member, he decided to design an automated system called Memory Buddy.

Memory Buddy

Memory Buddy uses Google Calendar to alert the person about appointments and medication via flashing lights, sound and also via the TV.

It also includes a remotely controlled medicine drawer to give the appropriate medicine at a specific time – there’s even a feedback facility to notify a carer when medicine has or has not been taken.

An organiser for care rotas and appointments also comes with Memory Buddy.

Carragher said the whole experience has been “amazing”

I met students from all over the world, and heard speeches from famous scientists like Nobel laureates Sir Harold W Kroto and Martin Chalfie. It’s been great to see all the projects that other students from around the world have been working on and it has been brilliant to spend a week together sharing our ideas.

Sheila Porter of CEO of SciFest said that Christopher Carragher’s project “demonstrates that great science is characterised not by rote-learning and memorisation but by creativity and investigation”.

Christopher was representing Ireland at ISEF and come second in the world in his category is an impressive achievement not only for him, his teacher and school but for Ireland too, and it is testament to the very high quality of science education in Ireland. To continue producing the highest calibre of science students in Ireland, we need to celebrate their achievements more, to promote inquiry based learning and encourage students to take their learning beyond the classroom.

Music is being used to help sick children, who sometimes can’t speak, to express themselves

Huge ice shelf in Antarctica to collapse by year 2020

   

The last remaining section of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and likely to disintegrate completely by 2020, said a new study out today.

Ice shelves are permanent floating sheets of ice that connect to a landmass, such as Antarctica, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

When it goes, the ice shelf will shatter into hundreds of icebergs. Since it’s already floating ice, the collapse of the ice shelf will not directly contribute to global sea-level rise.

However, ice shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean, according to NASA. Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise.

The remaining section of the Larsen B ice shelf is roughly the size of 27 Manhattan islands.

“These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating,” said study lead author Ala Khazendar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement.

“Although it’s fascinating scientifically to have a front-row seat to watch the ice shelf becoming unstable and breaking up, it’s bad news for our planet,” he said. “This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone.”

The Larsen B Ice Shelf is on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, the part that looks like an arm reaching out toward South America. The peninsula has warmed 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950, making it one of the fastest-warming places on Earth.

Scientists think that the recent ice shelf collapses in both the Arctic and Antarctica are related to climate change.

Ice shelves are different from ice sheets. An ice sheet, which covers more than 97% of Antarctica, has built up over thousands of years as snow falls but never melts. As ice piles up, it slides slowly toward the continent’s edge to form ice shelves attached to the ice sheet, but are floating in the ocean.

“This is certainly a warning,” said Khazendar.

The study appeared in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and was written by researchers from NASA and the University of California at Irvine.  

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Ireland has fewer doctors & hospital beds

BUT HAS MORE NURSES THAN OECD AVERAGE

  

The OECD report details doctor, nurse and hospital bed numbers as well as average salaries in health. 

New figures show that Ireland has fewer doctors, fewer beds and more nurses than the average across the 34 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

On average hospital consultant here earned €170,784 last year in public work alone, according to the OECD report.

The figures for consultants exclude emergency call-out and on-call fees, which range between €2,430 and €22,303 a year, as well as any private practice income a consultant may have.

The average income for GPs is put at €118,677 for last year.

GP income is based on self-assessed income tax declared to the Revenue Commissioners.

The average income for a nurse is €51,202.

The figures for consultants, GPs and nurses are gross annual income.

The OECD Health Statistics 2014 report says that in 2012 total health spending in Ireland was slightly less than the OECD average.

It says that most reductions in public spending have been achieved through cuts in wages and fees paid to health professionals and drug companies.

The OECD suggests that health spending in Ireland has started to rise again in real terms but at a very modest rate.

The OECD takes this view despite the fact that €4bn in cuts have been applied to the health service since 2008.

14% more company start-ups in Ireland for first half of 2014

  

14% more company start-ups in first half of 2014 says Vision-net.ie.

The number of company start-ups formed in the first half of this year is up 14pc to 8,684 compared with the same period in 2013, according to risk analyst Vision-net.ie.

This figure contributed to the total of 21,834 company and business start-ups formed since 1 January, an average of 124 start-ups a day and a 2.6pc increase on the same period in 2013.

Company start-ups refer to those requiring two company directors while business start-ups are usually sole traders.

The professional services sector accounted for a quarter of all new company start-ups, followed by wholesale and retail at 10pc and social and personal services at 9pc.

Both the construction and real estate sectors experienced a significant rise of 39pc and 32pc respectively in company start-ups.

The construction industry has experienced the highest growth this year, with as many as three new start-ups formed each day.

Coupled to this rise in start-ups was the overall decline in company insolvencies, a figure that dropped by 10.5pc in the first half of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. Nearly half (43pc) of these insolvencies were Dublin-based companies.

Christine Cullen, managing director of Vision-net.ie, said that the increase in company start-ups combined with the decrease in insolvencies indicated “the hallmarks of an economic recovery”.

“Most positive are the strong increases in start-ups in the construction and real estate sectors.”

Sleeping positions “the pros and cons”

   

Anyone who’s ever woken up with a stiff neck will know the resulting pain is enough to make you feel like you got up on the wrong side of the bed for the rest of the day. But which sleeping position is best for you?

We’ve picked out the pros and cons of every kind of position so you can work out which one will give you the best night’s slumber.

Sleeping on your side

 the PROS: THE RISK OF BACK AND NECK PAIN IS MINIMISED, YOU’RE LIKELY TO SNORE LESS AND AVOID ACID REFLUX.

Cons: It’s not the best position for your breasts or your skin.

Overall: Side sleepers are almost getting it right. It’s great for people who suffer from snoring and acid reflux and is overall pretty healthy. It also keeps your spine elongated, which is good for preventing back pain. The downside is that it can cause wrinkles, as your face is pressed up against the pillow. Larger breasted women should also consider that their boobs will be hanging down, which could cause sagging.

Sleeping on your back

 the PROS: NECK AND BACK PAIN IS LESS OF A RISK, AS IS ACID REFLUX. UNLIKE THE SIDE POSITION, YOU’LL ALSO AVOID WRINKLES AND BE MORE LIKELY TO KEEP YOUR BREASTS PERKY.

Cons: You might get nudged by your bed partner, as you’re more likely to snore.

Overall: Ultimately, this is the healthiest sleeping position. Your head, back and spine remain neutral and you’re not forcing your back to curve. Keep your head a little elevated and you’ll also avoid acid reflux.

Sleeping in the foetal position

 the PROS: SNORING IS MINIMISED AND IT’S COMFORTABLE FOR PREGNANT WOMEN.

Cons: There are no beauty benefits and it could cause back and neck pain.

Overall: To get into the foetal position you’re basically curling up into a ball, which puts strain on your spine and knees. This means you might have aching joins in the mornings. It also restricts diaphragmatic breathing and is bad for anyone looking to prevent wrinkles and sagging breasts. Instead, you could just try straightening out a little bit to ease the pressure on your joints and also invest in a nice plump pillow to support your head and neck.

Sleeping on your front

 the PROS: YOU’RE LESS LIKELY TO SNORE.

Cons: You might feel it in your neck and back and yet again it’s not great for your skin or breasts either.

Overall: If you sleep stomach down, it’s pretty hard for your spine to remain neutral, which means you could wake up with a stiff back. It also puts pressure on your joints and nerves, which means you might have pins and needles in the morning. If you suffer from bad snoring and don’t find sleeping on your front is affecting your back, it could actually be a good position for you, as it opens up your airways. Make sure you just use a thin pillow so there’s not too much pressure on your neck, which will constantly be twisted to one side.

Magnet Telecom experiments with 1-Gbps speed broadband in Dublin

  

Telecoms firm Magnet has fitted out a South Dublin apartment block with 1Gbps broadband as part of a wider experiment to see what residents would do with such speeds.

The 1Gbps fibre service is being deployed at the Jade apartments at The Grange, off the Stillorgan Road, and will service 120 apartments.

A spokesman for Magnet told Siliconrepublic.com that a similar development is planned for the Beacon apartments in Sandyford.

The service will cost €50 per month, to encourage people to sign up.

The fibre is being installed in the Jade apartments in collaboration with construction company JJ Rhatigan & Co.

Magnet will provide the 1Gbps service in a synchronous fashion, meaning users will be able to receive 1,000Mbps upstream and downstream.

The 1Gbps service is being deployed under the auspices of Magnet Project Leap to determine the impact of ultra-fast speeds on consumers’ use of devices and applications.

According to Magnet, 1Gbps will allow potentially 200 Netflix movies to be streamed simultaneously, 100 songs to be downloaded in three seconds, and 200 family photos to be uploaded to Facebook in just one second.

While companies such as Apple and Google prepare apps and services for the connected home, Magnet predicts the data demands of ‘smart living’ could require this speed of broadband within five years, as 4K video content, video chatting, cloud storage access and streaming, in particular, become part and parcel of everyday family life.

“This project is the latest in Magnet’s history of ‘firsts’ in Ireland, as we transfer our leading-edge capability and corporate fibre horsepower in the business sector to the residential environment,” said Magnet chief executive Mark Kellett.

“This capability puts us in a unique position, being more agile and able to go anywhere in a market where other providers are limited to 100Mb, and allows us to provide a competitive advantage to companies locating here, to the direct benefit of Ireland Inc.”

Fish reveal a long-term memory span

  

SOME FISH MAY NOT HAVE A TINY MEMORY, RESEARCHERS BELIEVE

The famously minuscule memory span of fish may be a myth, new research suggests.

At least one fish species is able to remember where it was given food for at least 12 days, scientists discovered.

The research on African cichlids was inspired by anecdotal reports of their intelligence from aquarium owners.

“Some people even believe that their cichlids watch television with them,” said study leader Dr Trevor Hamilton, from MacEwan University in Canada.

For the research, cichlids were trained to enter a particular zone of an aquarium to receive a food reward.

After a 12 day rest period, they were re-introduced to the aquarium and their movements were tracked.

The fish showed a distinct preference for the area previously associated with the food reward, suggesting they remembered being fed there.

They were also able to stop making the association after further training when the food was linked to a different stimulus.

“Fish that remember where food is located have an evolutionary advantage over those that do not,” said Dr Hamilton, who presented the findings at the Society for Experimental Biology’s annual meeting in Manchester.

“If they are able to remember that a certain area contains food without the threat of a predator, they will be able to go back to that area. Decreases in the availability of food would promote the survival of species that can remember the location of food sources.”

Wild cichlids have a varied diet that includes snails, small fish, insects and plants and are thought to associate locations with preferred sources of food.

The scientists are now investigating whether the strength of fish memories are affected by environmental conditions or drugs.