Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Irish revenue tax take €500m ahead of target

EXCHEQUER RETURNS SHOW A VAT SHORTFALL BUT REVENUE IS WELL AHEAD OF TARGET

     

The Irish State collected €14.04 billion in the first third of the year, €1.17 billion more than in 2015 and €475 million more than forecast by the Department of Finance.

Tax collection is running close to €500 million ahead of target this year but a VAT shortfall raises questions about the strength of consumer spending.

As political talks continue, exchequer returns from the Department of Finance point to relative strength in the public finances as a Fine Gael-led minority government prepares to take office.

Talks between Fine Gael and two groups of Independent TDs have intensified in an effort to have a new government in place by the weekend.

The Independent rural TDs and the Independent Alliance members are to be given a draft programme for government at a meeting today.

It is understood the Independents have secured concessions in the areas of health, agriculture and rural Ireland. The talks were continuing late last night.

Fine Gael sources insisted a vote for taoiseach could take place today but admitted it was more likely to take place tomorrow.

The exchequer returns will be encouraging for the new government in that the overall level of spending remains under control.

However, they also reflect the onset of pressure on the health budget, which signals potentially major problems for the incoming administration.

Year-on-year improvement.

The exchequer was in deficit by €1.055 billion at the end of April, a year-on-year improvement of €1.27 billion which was attributed to the increase in overall tax revenue.

The figures were released on same day as data showing the unemployment rate dropped in April to 8.4 per cent from 8.6 per cent in March.

The State collected €14.04 billion in the first third of the year, €1.17 billion more than last year and €475 million more than forecast by the department.

“April is not significant in terms of corporation tax receipts and is not a VAT due month . . . However, there were some significant one-off and timing factors, which have helped flatter the April tax position,” the department said.

Collections of Value Added Tax, the tax on sales, remain ahead of 2015 at €4.17 billion but the return was €161 million behind target for the first four months.

Corporation tax collections are running well ahead of profile. The €759 million out-turn in four months was €315 million or 70.8 per cent more than projected.

Income tax on target.

The collection of €6.1 billion in income tax in four months was on target, with a shortfall in earlier months recovered by a €158 million overperformance in April. The department cited “one-off payments” in April, but said the overall outturn was broadly consistent with recovery in the labour market and increased earning.

On the expenditure side, some €13.65 billion in net voted spending over four months was €89 million below target and €68 million lower than last year.

While 15 of the 16 government departments were on or under profile, health spending was €78 million ahead of target at the end of April.

This is generally seen to be a sign of a major deterioration in the health budget later this year, something that comes amid pressure on public pay and demands for additional spending in the political talks.

Total exchequer debt servicing costs in the first four months of the year reached €3 billion, down €81 million on the same period last year on foot of early IMF repayments.

Consumers now moving more to digital payments with financial services

A THIRD OF CONSUMERS WOULD LEAVE THEIR PROVIDER IF THEY DIDN’T OFFER UP TO DATE TECHNOLOGY, A NEW SURVEY FINDS

CONSUMERS ARE INCREASINGLY LOOKING FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES PROVIDERS THAT ARE EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY, TURNING TO DIGITAL AND MOBILE PAYMENTS, A NEW SURVEY HAS FOUND.

A new study, by Fujitsu, showed that more than a third of consumers would leave their provider if they didn’t offer more up to date technology, with 32% of those surveyed using mobile device payments and 22% using wearable technologies. Across Europe, on-line banking remains the most popular channel, with three quarters of customers using it once a week or more.

“Banks have no option but to embrace change,” said Anthony Duffy, senior banking technology consultant with Fujitsu UK and Ireland, noting how revenue at traditional banking institutions had fallen since the days before the economic crash.

“Doing banking as we have in the past 20 years isn’t going to be possible going forward,” said Mr Duffy. “The digital revolution has come along at the right time.”

Driving this adoption of technology is the smartphone, as people become more confident using the technology.

“People just started to recognise the convenience factor digital banking offered,” said Mr Duffy.

Banks themselves are also taking advantage of the shift, pushing people to use alternative channels such as smart ATMs and deposit machines in branches.

“Digital is transforming each and every aspect of society and this has irrevocably changed consumer behaviour. Today’s customers are no longer guarded and conventional,” said Francois Fleutiaux, Senior Vice President, Head of Country Leadership, EMEIA, Fujitsu. “Modern day consumers are ready and willing to embrace innovation when it makes interaction more convenient.”

Already in Ireland, there have been some “digital only” banks offering services to customers. But Mr Duffy said competition shouldn’t be new to Ireland’s traditional players, who are seeing supermarkets and other providers begin to offer insurance and other services to customers.

“If traditional banks want to stay in business they will have to compete and reinvent themselves,” he said.

Consumers are also more willing to buy extra services from their financial providers, the survey found, with a third open to buying energy for their home from their bank or insurer, while a similar number would also consider purchasing personal data storage from the institutions, and 30% would buy broadband.

That goes both ways though; with a fifth of consumers willing to buy their banking or insurance services from companies such as Google, Amazon or Facebook.

However, Irish people are still reluctant to move away from the established service providers. Traditional channels shouldn’t be written off either. On a Europe-wide basis, 34% of people said they visit their bank branch weekly, and 36% use phone banking, leading to the conclusion that digital is simply another way to communicate for consumers.

The survey questioned 7,000 consumers from across Europe.

About a fifth of those surveyed said they used cryptocurrencies, but that high figure was driven by Eastern European countries, where 44% said they used it.

Although much has been made of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin in recent years, Mr Duffy said he didn’t think it would gain widespread adoption in the short term. Instead, the blockchain – the technology that underlies Bitcoin – could be more relevant as banks begin to look at the technology.

One area that looks set to evolve, however, is canticles payments as services such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay allow people to use their phones and smartwatch to pay for goods and services.

“I think organisations like Apple and Samsung getting involved significant gives the mechanism a credibility,” he said.

However, the majority of contactless payment are still done through cards, especially in Ireland where Apple and Samsung have yet to launch their payment systems. The chief driver of adoption has been the lifting of the limit on transactions to €30, allowing contactless payments to be used for a wider range of transactions.

The ECB to stop issuing €500 note but will keep its legal status

THE €500 NOTE WAS NEVER ISSUED BY THE CENTRAL BANK IN IRELAND

  Going 

THE ECB HAS BEEN LOOKING TO GET RID OF THE €500 NOTE DUE TO CONCERNS THAT IT IS USED BY CRIMINALS AND MILITANTS TO FINANCE THEIR ACTIVITIES.

The European Central Bank will stop issuing €500 bank notes towards the end of 2018 on concerns it could facilitate illicit activities but outstanding bills will remain in use indefinitely, the ECB said in a statement yesterday.

“The €500 note will remain legal tender and can therefore continue to be used as a means of payment and store of value,” the bank said.

“The €500 banknote, like the other denominations of euro banknotes, will always retain its value and can be exchanged at the national central banks of the Eurosystem for an unlimited period of time.”

The ECB has been looking to get rid of the €500 note, despite the objections of Germany’s central bank, due to concerns that it is also used by criminals and militants to finance their activities. It is said a €1 million bundle of the notes weighs only about 2kg, a weight easily transportable across borders. The €500 note was never issued by the Central Bank in Ireland

Labrador dogs have an overeating gene problem?

A NEW STUDY SHOWS

   

A NEW STUDY SAYS AN OVEREATING GENE CAN EXPLAIN WHY SOME LABRADORS BECOME OBESE?

Labradors are often overweight because they have a gene linked to overeating, new research has suggested.

The most common breed of dog in the UK and the US, Labradors are more likely to become obese than others.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that 23% of the loveable dogs have a variant of an obesity-related gene strongly associated with weight and appetite.

In a study published today in the journal Cell Metabolism, a team of researchers studied 310 pet and assistance dog Labradors to look for variants of three candidate obesity-related genes.

They also examined the dogs’ “food motivation” by asking owners about their animals’ relationship with food.

The researchers found that a variant of one gene in particular, known as POMC, was strongly associated with weight, obesity and appetite in Labradors and flat coat retrievers.

In both breeds, for each copy of the gene carried, the dog was on average 1.9kg heavier, an effect size particularly notable given the extent to which owners, rather than the dogs themselves, control the amount of food and exercise their dogs receive.

Lead author Dr Eleanor Raffan said: “This is a common genetic variant in Labradors and has a significant effect on those dogs that carry it, so it is likely that this helps explain why Labradors are more prone to being overweight in comparison to other breeds.

The gene affected is known to be important in regulating how the brain recognises hunger and the feeling of being full after a meal.

“People who live with Labradors often say they are obsessed by food, and that would fit with what we know about this genetic change,” says Dr Raffan.

The scientists even believe that understanding how the gene – which is also found in humans – works in dogs might help tackle the obesity crisis.

Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, Co-Director of the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, says: “Common genetic variants affecting the POMC gene are associated with human body weight and there are even some rare obese people who lack a very similar part of the POMC gene to the one that is missing in the dogs.

“So further research in these obese Labradors may not only help the wellbeing of companion animals but also have important lessons for human health.”

Major breakthrough in laboratory grown human embryos

  

Scientists reported today they had grown human embryos in the lab for nearly two weeks, an unprecedented feat that promises advances in assisted reproduction, stem-cell therapies and the basic understanding of how human beings form.

Scientists reported today they had grown human embryos in the lab for nearly two weeks, an unprecedented feat that promises advances in assisted reproduction, stem-cell therapies and the basic understanding of how human beings form.

Besides opening a window onto the first steps in the creation of an individual, the findings in parallel studies may help explain early miscarriages and why in vitro fertilisation has such a high failure rate.

The research also showed for the first time that newly-forming human embryos can mature beyond a few days outside a mother’s womb, something that was previously thought to be impossible.

But the widely hailed results also set science on a collision course with national laws and ethical guidelines, experts cautioned.

Up to now, a so-called “14-day rule” which says that human embryos cannot be cultured in the lab for more than two weeks — has never been seriously challenged simply because no one had succeeded in keeping them alive that long.

In this case, the scientists destroyed the embryos to avoid breaching that limit. The findings were published in Nature and Nature Cell Biology.

Next to nothing is known about how the small, hollow bundle of cells called a blastocyst — emerging from a fertilised egg which attaches to the uterus, allowing an embryo to begin to take shape.

“This portion of human development” is called implantation and “was a complete black box,” said Ali Brivanlou, a professor at The Rockefeller University in New York, and the main architect of the Nature study.

Building on previous work with mice, Brivanlou and colleagues concocted a chemical soup and scaffolding to duplicate this process “in vitro”, or in a petri dish.

“We were able to create a system that properly recapitulates what happens during human implantation,” said Rockefeller scientist and lead author Alessia Deglincerti.

As hoped, the blastocyst grew, beginning to divide into the different types of cells that eventually give rise to a foetus and its placenta.

But unlike earlier experiments, in which growth has rarely continued beyond seven days, the embryos showed an unexpected ability to self-organise.

“Amazingly, at least up to the first 12 days, development occurred normally in our system in the complete absence of maternal input,” Brivanlou said in a statement.    

Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG

Ireland’s anti-cholesterol drug prices to fall by 20% in the next few month’s

    

FURTHER PRICES DROPS FORECAST FOR A RANGE OF GENERIC DRUGS OVER THE COMING YEAR

New retail price control measures next month will promote greater use of generic drugs.

The price of one of the most heavily used medicines in Ireland will fall by 20 per cent next month under new measures to promote the greater use of generic drugs.

Although atorvastatin, an anti-cholesterol drug used by tens of thousands of Irish patients, will still be almost four times dearer than in Northern Ireland or Britain, the move is significant because it heralds similar price falls for a range of medicines in the coming year.

The original branded version of the drug was sold under the brand name Lipitor.

The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) yesterday published its first list of interchangeable medicines, covering 96 different versions of atorvastatin, thereby triggering the price reduction agreed last year with drugs manufacturers. Similar lists covering 19 other compounds are to be published over the next year, and will lead to corresponding price cuts for those substances.

Reference price: Prices should fall further in November, when the HSE publishes a reference price for atorvastatin, representing the maximum amount it will pay for any of the versions of the product on the list. As well as cutting the cost of the State’s drugs bill, the measure will encourage generic drugs manufacturers to reduce their prices to the level of the reference price. The savings made will depend on the reference price set for each drug.

An alternative; The IMB said the publication of the list meant a pharmacist “may” offer patients an alternative from the list. It said patients should talk to their pharmacist or doctor if they have any questions.

After November, consumers will have to decide whether tochoose the less expensive medicine and save money. For those on a medical card or using the drug payment scheme, the HSE will pay the full reference price. If consumers wish to stick with the medicine on their prescription, even if this is a higher price, those on a medical card will have to pay the difference between the reference price and the retail price.

The Irish Pharmacy Union said the move would lead to lower medicine prices as well as saving the State money. It warned Minister for Health James Reilly to take a “careful and measured approach” to the introduction of reference pricing.

Pharmacists say medicine shortages could result if this price is set too low.

Women in charge as Irish people shop for more bargains

  

We are spreading our grocery shopping across a range of stores, picking cheaper brands and cooking more from scratch.

These are among the findings of a new survey on the shopping habits of the Irish consumer, which revealed that women take responsibility for the food and groceries in nearly three quarters of homes.

The research, conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes, showed that nine out of 10 shoppers believe that they are shopping more wisely.

Fergal O’Leary, of the National Consumer Agency which published the results, said: “It reveals that women continue to be mainly responsible when it comes to shopping for goods and groceries, and while shoppers remain focused on price and are definitely thriftier, they are not prepared to compromise on quality.

“Consumers are now spreading their shopping across a number of stores, and this is particularly evident among the younger demographic.

“There have been further significant shifts towards supermarket own-brand labels.”

The research showed that almost three quarters of women surveyed (72pc) are mainly responsible for food and grocery shopping, with a further 13pc saying they were jointly responsible.

More than half the men surveyed (57pc) said they had no responsibility for grocery shopping, while 23pc said they share the responsibility.

Price was vital, with two thirds of shoppers indicating they have visited a particular shop due to the prices or offers available there.

Processed

People between 35 and 49 are most likely to do this, with over-65s least likely to have chosen a store because of price.

A total of 67pc of the respondents said they have started to shop in cheaper stores.

Meanwhile there was also a move towards home cooking, with 73pc saying they are cooking more from scratch and 54pc using less processed and ready-to-eat products.

This was particularly evident among the younger age groups, with 82pc of under-35s saying they are cooking more from scratch.

While shoppers are making their budget go further, they are not prepared to compromise on quality. There is a growing perception that the quality of supermarket own brand products is improving.

An Angry mum gene now identified

       

U.S. scientists have NOW identified a gene variant that makes some mothers get excessively angry with their children.

A new study has found that that difficult economic conditions may lead to mothers being excessively harsh with their children, including shouting at them or slapping them.

It found that mothers with a particular gene variation are more prone to losing their temper with their children too easily during an economic downturn.

The study revealed women who carry a variant of the protein are predisposed to hitting or shouting at children during a difficult economic climate.

The ‘harsh parenting’ phenomenon was found to have increased during the ‘Great Recession’ in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009, particularly among women with the particular gene variant.

Just over half the parents taking part in the study had the gene known as DRD2, that controls dopamine, which regulates a person’s behaviour and mood.

The research was based on data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS), involving nearly 5,000 children born in 20 large American cities between 1998 and 2000.

Mothers were interviewed shortly after giving birth and when the child was about one, three, five and nine years old.

The results showed that mothers with the genetic variant were much more likely harshly patent their children where there were deteriorating local economic conditions and a decline in consumer confidence.

The research was carried at New York University, Columbia University, Princeton University and Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine, and published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Drinking daily cups of cocoa & hot chocolate may boost pensioners memory

IT CAN ALSO KEEP THEIR BRAINS HEALTHY AND MINDS SHARP

 

Drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day helps boost memory among the elderly, a study has suggested.

Research on pensioners found that drinking cocoa improved blood flow, which has been linked to healthier brains and improved cognition.

The study led by Harvard researchers examined 60 people with an average age of 73, who did not have dementia.

Participants drank two cups of hot cocoa per day for 30 days and did not eat any other chocolate.

They were given memory and thinking skills tests, as well as ultrasound tests to measure the amount of blood flow to the brain.

Of the 60 participants, 18 had impaired blood flow at the start of the study. The results of the study showed that for those participants, there were improvements in blood flow to the brain and in tests of their working memory.

After a month, they experienced an 8.3 per cent improvement in flow to working areas of the brain.

Test scores of their working memory also improved, with recall times falling from an average of 167 seconds to 116 seconds.

Dr Farzaneh Sorond, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study reported online in the journal Neurology, said: “We’re learning more about blood flow in the brain and its effect on thinking skills.

“As different areas of the brain need more energy to complete their tasks, they also need greater blood flow. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may play an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer’s.”

There were no such improvements for participants with regular blood flow, according to the study by the National Institute on Aging and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

MRI scans were also performed on 24 participants, to look for tiny areas of brain damage. The scans showed that people with impaired blood flow were more likely to have these areas of brain damage.

Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development for the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “‘We know that poor blood flow can affect people’s brain power because they don’t have enough fuel in their brain cells to complete tasks efficiently.”

“From this small but interesting study, it seems that cocoa helps improve blood supply to the brain, therefore having a knock on effect of improving people’s cognition.”

He said it was not known whether drinking cocoa had any impact on dementia.

‘Although this could be good news for those who enjoy a relaxing hot chocolate before bed, we do need further research to better our understanding of the link between cocoa and cognition, and also whether it has any impact on dementia,” he said.

Sun’s magnetic field is about to flip on it’s eleven year cycle

BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO EARTH

      

The sun’s enormous magnetic field is about to flip, and the effects of this massive realignment will be felt throughout the solar system, including here on Earth.

But don’t expect anything too crazy to happen. Chances are you’ve experienced a major solar magnetic flip already, probably without even realizing it.

The sun flips its magnetic field once every 11 years, at the same time it reaches solar maximum, when sun spots and solar flares are at their height.

The magnetic flip doesn’t happen all at once, explained Phil Scherrer, a researcher at Stanford University who studies the sun.

“It’s a long, slow process, and in fact it has already begun,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

The north pole of the sun, which has a greater share of sun spots, has already switched its magnetic sign, Scherrer said, and the south pole will probably switch its in the next three or four months.

Here on Earth we won’t feel any phsyical effects from this major change, but we may get to see some cool auroras because of it.

The sun’s magnetic field creates what’s called a “current sheet” that emanates from its equator and stretches millions of miles beyond Pluto. NASA officials describe the sheet as “a sprawling surface jutting outward from the sun’s equator where the sun’s slowly rotating magnetic field induces an electrical current.”

When the solar field flips, this “sheet” gets extra wavy, and as Earth moves around the sun, we dip in and out of it. The changes in the magnetic field interact with Earth’s own magnetic field, which can cause auroras.

As for why it takes the sun 11 years to flip its magnetic field, scientists aren’t totally sure yet.

“It is believed that it is just this big oscillating magnetic dynamo and this whole chain of events just takes time,” Scherrer said, “but when you make a model of it, you don’t actually manage to come up with an 11-year cycle unless you have a lot of free parameters.”

In other words, they’re still working on it.

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Donegal County Council votes not to use utilities database's for chasing the household levy defaulters

        

Seinn Fein councillor Jack Murray of  Donegal County council who proposed the move and the council voted to ban their civil servants from using utility bills to track down people who haven’t paid the Household Charge.

Councillor’s in Donegal voted by 11 to three to prevent the use of the optional power given to staff under the legislation set up to collect the €100 fee.

Labour councillors supported the motion, which was brought by Seinn Fein councillor Jack Murray. The council also agreed to send their decision to other local authorities, asking each of them to follow suit.

FINE GAEL COUNCILLORS OPPOSED THE MOTION.

“The vast majority of people in Donegal have not paid the Household Charge. They have not done so because it is unjust,” said Mr Murray. “This. . . was about protecting their privacy.”

It is understood that the motion has no legal effect, as local politicians have no role in revenue collection.

Meanwhile, independent TD Thomas Pringle has launched a High Court action against the Government, claiming the fiscal compact treaty breaches the Irish Constitution and EU laws.

Mr Pringle said he had ‘no choice’ after the Taoiseach had failed to respond to issues he raised. The Donegal South-West TD believes the treaties “raise serious legal difficulties both at the level of EU treaty law and Irish constitutional law”.

Irish Charities say Social Welfare Bill will push one-parent families into poverty hole

   

Joan Burton argues that encouraging parents to enter the workforce is the best way of helping them to gain economically.

CHARITIES REPRESENTING the rights of women, children and single parents have criticised government legislation being presented to the Dáil this evening which proposes to change the conditions under which parents qualify for the One-Parent Family Allowance.

The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill, which forms one of the last parts of the legislation giving effect to last December’s Budget, would see a gradual change in the age a parent’s eldest child must be under if the parent is to qualify for the allowance.

Single parents are currently eligible to receive the allowance when their youngest child is under the age of 14. The legislation proposes that this be lowered to 7 on a phased basis up to 2015 for new applicants, with single parents then being forced onto jobseekers’ allowance.

Barnardos, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and OPEN, the One Parent Exchange Network, say the legislation will worsen the levels of poverty that already exist in one-parent homes.

OPEN director Frances Byrne said there was a “huge fear” among lone parents that the plans would “make it increasingly difficult for parents to meet the costs of raising a family alone”.

“The majority of lone parents are already in work, or want to work,” she said, “but the ongoing lack of supports such as reliable and affordable childcare and afterschool care present impossible challenges that the Government cannot address by 2015.”

Introducing the legislation in the Dáil this evening, social protection minister Joan Burton conceded that a large proportion of lone parents were “still experiencing poverty, and were at much higher risk of poverty than other working-age adults.

“We believe that supporting parents in participating in the labour market, once their children have reached an appropriate age, will improve their own economic stituations and their social well-being as well as those of their families,” the minister said.

Burton said she recognised that many lone parents wished to enter the workforce, and said this would be addressed by plans to extend the JobBridge programme to lone parents.

We’ll have the same again waiter:

Ireland’s TDs and Senators rack up a refreshment bill worth €73,000

  

So it turns out that being a TD or a Senator is very hard work. In fact so hard that the majority of them are so overworked with representing us in Government that they need refreshments. How about €73,000 worth of refreshments.

Reports that documents released by the Oireachtas show that the current outstanding amount owed to the restaurant at the Dáil is a massive €65,000. But that’s not all. There’s also a further €8,000 owed to the bar by TDs and Senators who have been whetting their whistle in between important Dáil business gatherings.

While the majority of the bills are short-term, at least €30,000 has been owed for four months or more. If we were that publican, we’d be getting seriously p***ed off about having to wait so long for our money.

Sources from the Oireachtas said yesterday that a new reminder system had prompted Senators and TDs to cough up the dough that they owed more quickly, however, the sources added that there were still a few members, or former members, of the Oireachtas who still had outstanding debts for the past year or so.

This information came to light after the Irish Times made a freedom of information request regarding the issue.

The information that the paper received included various amounts for individual TDs and Senators, but the Oireachtas refused to identify the people who still had outstanding bills.

Of the 170 people who have bills on tab in the Dáil restaurant, 12 owe €1,000 or more and one unlucky individual owes a massive €3,572. Seriously…what are these people eating/drinking?

Another member owes €938 to the Dáil bar and hasn’t paid up for the past four months or more.

Speaking last night, a spokesman for the Oireachtas said that a credit facility for the bar and restaurant was offered to TDs and Senators solely because of convenience. Former members of the Oireachtas can also avail of this offer.

The spokesman said that the Oireachtas wrote to members with outstanding bills on a monthly basis, with further letters sent to the individual if they still had not paid up.

“The majority of outstanding bills are settled in full at the end of each calendar month,” he said.

Even still though, a €73,000 tab on refreshments? Has no one told them we’re in the middle of an economic crisis?

Cregg House Sligo Nuns fear for the (Daughters of Wisdom) future and support services

‘While Fine Gael TD John Perry states it should be kept’ & MEP Marian Harkin called on the HSE to meet the service providers half way.

      

The future of more than 200 people with intellectual disabilities, who are cared for by nuns and live in accommodation provided by the Daughters of Wisdom in Sligo, was uncertain last night after the nuns said they could no longer stand over the service because of budget cuts.

The provincial, Sr Jean Quinn, has written to families warning that alternative trustee arrangements may now have to be made for the care and support of users of Wisdom Services, also known as Cregg House. The order opened Cregg House as a residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities in 1955.

Describing it as “the blackest day” in the order’s history in Ireland, the provincial said the sisters were pulling out because despite a series of meetings with the Health Service Executive (HSE), no agreement had been reached on funding, and a €900,000 cut in this year’s budget would have implications for the safety of both service users and staff.

“We could not stand over that,” she pointed out. The provincial insisted the threat to withdraw was “not brinkmanship”.

Management at Cregg House said the budget, which is understood to be €15.5 million, had been cut by €2.5 million over the past four years, while the number of whole-time equivalent staff had been cut by 40 to 296 since 2008.

The facilities include residential accommodation, including 21 houses in and around Sligo town, outreach services, day services, respite care and a special school.

The provincial said the withdrawal of the psychology service last year “beggared belief” as it left more than 200 people, many with serious challenges such as dementia and autism, with no psychologist.

Describing the cuts as “draconian”, Sr Quinn urged local people to lobby the Minister for Health, saying the cuts would have an impact on the most vulnerable people in society, many with severe intellectual disabilities who regarded Cregg House as home.

In the letter to families last Monday, the nuns promised to work with the HSE to ensure service users would continue to receive the care and support they require. The letter warned some of the residential accommodation at Cregg House was “not fit for purpose”.

Expressing frustration at the lack of progress after a series of meetings with the HSE, Sr Quinn added: “Look at how the banks could be bailed out. Here you have the most vulnerable people in society and we cannot provide €1 million.”

In a statement, the HSE said the budget reduction for 2012 was “consistent with other disability service providers in the region”.

Local Fine Gael TD and Minister of State John Perry said it was “critically important” the services remained.

MEP Marian Harkin called on the HSE to meet the service providers half way.

Online advertising is up 20.5% in 2011 – A new study shows

         

Online advertising grew by nearly 20.5% last year reaching an estimated spend of €132 million, according to a new study by IAB Ireland and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The 2011 IAB PwC Online Adspend study says that the growth in this sector bucks the trend in the Irish media market as the amount spend on advertising in other media areas last year dropped by 4 per cent over the year to €897 million.

The study says that increased broadband provision and the increased average time spent online by people in Ireland each week are the main factors behind the online advertising growth. The average Irish internet user spends 10 hours online a week, according to ComReg.

Seven out of ten of the study’s participants anticipate further growth in the sector in the coming six months, while the study says that smartphone penetration is expected to increase to over half of internet users in Ireland this year (55 per cent).

Meanwhile, social media sites accounted for over one-third of the online display market in 2011.

Advertising on social media sites in Ireland reached an estimated €5.8 million last year, according to the study.

Commenting on the results of the study, chairman of IAB Ireland Eamonn Fallon described the “strong performance of online advertising” recorded as “good news for the Irish advertising industry”.

“IAB predicts that the growth of online adspend in 2012 is set to break the €150 million barrier and see online account for 20 per cent of total adspend,” he added.

PwC’s Bartley O’Connor said that the online advertising growth highlighting in the study “demonstrates the continued level of activity and vibrancy of the online industry in Ireland”.

“All businesses need to consider their digital strategy and how they will capture the opportunities associated with the migration to digital platforms.”

Advertising online ranks third after television and newspaper advertising, and ahead of radio, cinema and magazine advertising.