Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG Monday

Ireland’s long awaited Children First Bill now welcomed by some groups?

 

Irish groups express concern over lack of sanctions for those who fail to comply with the new legislation. 

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald (picture above left) said the new law aims to make best safeguarding practice the “cultural norm” for anyone working with children.

The publication of the long-awaited Children First Bill was broadly welcomed today but some campaign groups and opposition members voiced concern over the legislation’s lack of sanctions.

The Bill places a statutory obligation on certain professionals and other people working with children to report child protection concerns to the Child and Family Agency (Tulsa). Medical practitioners, teachers, social workers, gardaí, members of the clergy and child protection officers, among others, will be required to report such concerns.

The legislation also obliges those intending to provide services to children to carry out a risk assessment and prepare a child safeguarding statement within three months of commencing the service.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the new law aims to make best safeguarding practice the “cultural norm” for anyone working with children. “Our focus on who is mandated [to report safety concerns] in the Bill is in accordance with international practice.

I believe it strikes the correct balance in achieving high quality reporting, with high substantiation rates while avoiding overwhelming the child protection system with inappropriate reports, which is a key criticism of the operation of mandatory reporting in other countries,” she said.

However Fianna Fáil said a lack of sanctions for those who fail to report cases amounted to a watering down of the legislation. The heads of the Bill published two years ago included penalties of up to five years in prison for failure to comply with the law but these were absent from the legislation yesterday.

“We now appear to have ended up with a watered down version of the Bill,” said the party’s spokesman on childrenRobert Troy. “While professionals working with children will now be legally obliged to report concerns, it seems there will be no penalties if they don’t”.

That view was echoed by Senator Jillian Van Turnhout and the Children’s Rights Alliance. Ms Van Turnhout also said the Bill didn’t seem to provide the necessary “enforcement powers” to ensure organisations can take action over members or employees who fail to comply with the legislation. “I feel we are still falling through the net,” she said.

Children’s Rights Alliance chief executive Tanya Ward, meanwhile, expressed concern over the quality of the proposed child safeguarding statements. She said the system could be strengthened if it was carried out in conjunction with formal inspections from the Child and Family Agency.

The Children First Guidelines were first published in 1999. The legislation published today was recommended in the 2009 Ryan Report Implementation Plan. The Bill forms part of a suite of child protection legislation which already includes the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act and the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act.

James Reilly must get it right on major Irish public reform

 

James Reilly and advisor Mark Costigan in a head to head situation. 

If this plan goes awry, great cynicism will manifest at the ballot boxes, 

‘The white paper underpins the Government’s resolve to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to end the current unaffordable and unfair two-tier system and establish a single-tier health service where access to services is based on need and not on ability to pay.”

Dr James Reilly’s vision of the health service seems to send a shiver down the spines of many paying for health insurance to guarantee access to the private system.

The clash between the idealism of the creation of a utopian health service and the scepticism of the system operating efficiently threatens to derail the plans to introduce Universal Health Insurance.

In the post-recovery mood of the country, the Government is taking a big gamble on UHI, which is causing great uncertainty for the middle classes and will take years to assess its success or failure.

After seven years of higher taxes and cuts in services, there is little appetite for giving the benefit of the doubt to ambitious initiatives – the outcome of which is difficult to ascertain.

The Coalition is promising a “national conversation” – a dreadfully cliched concept, regardless of the topic – about UHI and the future of the health service.

Before the conversation has even begun, the opponents to the reform intent on protecting the status quo are already lining up to bog it down.

The Coalition’s greatest obstacle is not the vested interests blocking the path to the change but the effect their actions are having on those with private health insurance.

Every criticism of UHI, whether based upon fact or perception, adds to the cynicism around the feasibility of the project.

Nobody would object to the promised land of an effective health system with adequate levels of staffing and services delivered promptly – if they thought it would happen.

But false dawns have been seen before and lavish spending during the Celtic Tiger days have not solved the problem.

The UHI template is by no means a waste of time.

A lot of the steps towards UHI make abundant sense, irrespective of whether the ultimate changeover happens.

A National Pricing Office, to determine the actual cost of treatments, makes sense.

A Healthcare Commissioning Agency, to purchase services from public and private hospitals, makes sense.

The move to hospital groups, where hospitals in a geographic region work together to specialise in particular treatments and share the burden, makes sense.

The move to the Money Follows The Patient model, where hospitals are funded based on the numbers of patients treated, rather than just a block grant, makes sense.

A Public Safety Agency and a body to promote health and well-being makes sense.

The Government is not past the point of no return on UHI and all of these changes can happen without taking the final step.

But the Coalition will have to convince those who happily pay to jump the queue at the moment of the merits of the system.

The enormity of the task is not to be dismissed.

Herein lies the difficulty: many of the sceptics are middle income earners who will make their views known at the ballot box.

The Coalition has broken the population into three categories in terms of who will be catered for under UHI.

Those on medical cards will get their entire cost of insurance covered.

Those without medical cards and who currently can’t afford health insurance will be subsidised. The argument being put forward by opponents of UHI is these are the people who will be forced to take out insurance.

The contrary point is UHI will make health insurance affordable for those currently with no cover.

Those currently with health insurance will continue to pay and are being assured they will benefit from free GP care, lower premiums and a better service.

The Government is already losing the argument around convincing this coterie of the advantages of the system.

The poll shows almost half believe the Government is responsible for the recent increases in premiums. A fair point following the changes to tax relief in this year’s Budget.

But Dr Reilly’s national conversation will have to explain that the price of health insurance will continue to spiral if the system continues unchecked.

The broader competition and efficiencies to come under UHI will help to drive down the cost of health insurance.

The argument is hardly helped when the Department of Public Expenditure has put out a figure of €1,600 per person, which has now lodged in the psyche.

The vacuum of detail on the cost of UHI, left by Dr Reilly’s white paper, has been filled by alternative calculations and speculation.

The challenge of implementing UHI goes beyond the nuts and bolts of the radical overhaul of the system to simply bringing the public along with the change.

The second part of the equation will determine if the first part will happen.

Irish children/teens not telling their parents about ‘cyber-bullying’

OUT OF FEAR THEY WILL HAVE SMARTPHONES TAKEN

 

Children suffering ‘cyber-bullying’ may not be telling their parents because they are afraid their phone, ipad or laptop could be confiscated, an expert declared.

Dr Conor McGuckin said mothers and fathers cannot always presume their child is not being bullied on social media just because they have not been informed.

Children and young teenagers may often choose to suffer in silence rather than tell their parents or teachers.

Parents seeking to help their child deal with cyberbullying need to admit  to their child their own lack of understanding of social media and the internet, he said.

This admission may help a parent to have an open conversation about the problem.  It is important to make the child feel understood, said Dr McGuckin, a world expert on bullying problems.

Dr McGuckin, assistant professor in educational psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, said that, unlike schoolyard bullying,  four out of 10 victims of cyber-bullying respond “instanteously.”

However, rather than reacting immediately to bullying messages, it may be better to “slow down, think about it, and cool off,” he said.

It may be better to switch off the technology, to ignore it, and to seek the advice and support of parents, teachers, and friends, he said.

A parent may find it is better to have an open conversation with a child about a cyber bullying problem while on a short journey by car which would not necessitate direct eye contact,  he said.

Teachers are now obliged to deal with cyberbullying under their school’s anti-bullying policy. Since last Friday, all schools in Ireland must have a policy which specifically addresses dealing with cyber-bullying and homophobia, he said.

Dr McGuckin was scheduled to address a ‘Cyber-Ethics Public Forum’ at Trinity College tonight.

The forum was set up to explore the rapid growth of cyber technologies and the profound influence of the internet on human behaviour.  It was organised as part of the college’s President of Ireland’s Ethics Initiative.

He focused on how to help children, adults, and educators ‘cope’ with the both positive and negative issues that new technology brings.

He said: “To understand cyberbullying, we need to understand the fundamental characteristics of traditional bullying. But we also need to understand the separate, and thorny, issues that are related to the law, technology, marketing, and the modern lives of children and young people.

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION MAKES FISH SWIM TOWARD PREDATORS

AND YOU CAN IMAGINE HOW WELL THAT TURNS OUT

   

We already know that ocean acidification is not good for marine life. But a new study shows that for certain fish it could be even worse than we thought.

In marine waters with elevated carbon dioxide levels, fish are attracted to the smell of their predators instead of being repelled. In other words, they’re swimming directly towards the danger and their predator. Which, as you might imagine, doesn’t end well for them.

The research, published in Nature Climate Change on Monday and led by Philip Munday from James Cook University in Australia, investigatedseveral species of reef fish living near natural volcanic carbon dioxide seeps in Papua New Guinea. The acidification levels in this area are thought to be comparable to what the rest of the ocean could be like in the next 100 years.

Young fish living in this environment were found to be oblivious to the dangers in their surroundings, and behave more rashly than juveniles of the same species are known to behave in less acidic environments.

The researchers compared the behavior of the fish in this area to those in less acidic areas, and found that fish in the acidic areas spent a large amount of their time in water that was tainted with predator odor. Which is exactly what they are meant to be trying to avoid.

The problem is not with the fish’s sense of smell — rather the change in pH levels in the water induces neurological changes in the fish that prevents them from being able to distinguish between water that contains the predator odor and that which doesn’t.

DEEP IN IT: The study suggests that even fish who have lived their entire lives in acidic conditions are unable to adapt to their environment. As oceans continue to become more and more acidic — around 30% of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is absorbed by bodies of water — the outlook for reef fish becomes ever more bleak.

Apart from the obvious fish-tragedy implied, there could also be asignificant economic impact. Billions of people around the globe rely on fish as both a food and income source. Yet another brilliant reason why the world needs to be taking carbon dioxide emissions more seriously.   

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Europe forecasts a lower growth rate for Ireland in 2014

 

The European Commission’s forecast of 1.8% GDP growth is lower than rate cited by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan last week as being a trigger for income tax cuts.

Ireland’s economy is expected to grow by 1.8% this year, the European Commission said this afternoon, putting it at odds with Central Bank estimates last month which predicted that the economy would grow by 2.1% in 2014.

According to the European Commission’s economic growth forecasts published today, Ireland’s economy will grow by 1.8% this year, and 2.9% in 2015. Unemployment is expected to come in at 11.9% this year and 11.2% next year, slightly below the European average.

The figures show that Ireland’s debt to GDP ratio remains stubbornly high at 122.3% last year, though this is expected to dip slightly to 120.3% this year, and 119.7% next. Ireland has the fourth largest debt to GDP ratio in the EU after Greece, Italy and Portugal.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said last week that income tax cuts could be made in this year’s budget. He also hinted that a growth rate of over 2% would strengthen the case for income tax cuts. “If various independent forecasters are correct, and the economy is growing faster than the 2% forecast, that should give taxation buoyancy,” he said last week at a conference in Brussels.

Ireland’s relatively high debt to GDP ratio has previously been cited by officials in Dublin as one rationale for Ireland’s bid for further debt relief for its banks through the euro zone’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). About a third of the debt to GDP figure relates to the bailout of banks in Ireland.

According to the Commission’s analysis of the Irish economy, the expiry of patents in the pharmaceutical sector could pose a threat to Ireland’s economic progress. However, the country is poised to benefit from faster-than-expected economic growth in the UK, it said.

“Given the importance of UK trade, in particular for indigenous Irish firms, the accelerated rate of UK recovery represents an important upside risk for growth, employment and the current-account position, “the Commission said.

The analysis notes that, after a slow start to 2013, growth began to pick up in the third quarter of last year. “There are indications domestic demand is starting to perform more strongly, as the labour market has continued along a steady path of improvement across different sectors.”

In its forecasts the European Commission also downgraded its forecasts for Italy. It predicts that the Italian economy will expand by 0.6% this year, compared to the figure of 0.7% forecast in November. Italy’s debt will rise to 133.7% of GDP in 2014, one of the highest in the European Union.

Today’s forecasts also suggest that France will miss its deficit targets next year, although the commission raised its forecast for French growth this year to 1 per cent from 0.9%, boosted by consumer spending. France has been under pressure from Brussels to implement structural economic reforms in order to reduce its budget deficit. Among the issues highlighted by the European Commission in today’s report is France’s shrinking share of the export market. “Net exports are expected to provide nil contribution to growth in 2014 and to dampen it again in 2015,” the Commission said.

James Reilly to ban hospital queue jumping under new health insurance plan

  

But patients can still pay out of their own pockets to get the treatment that they can afford.

Families will not be able to jump queues for medical treatment by paying extra under Health Minister James Reilly’s radical health insurance plan.

The reform will have massive implications for the two million people who currently hold private health cover.

Insurance companies will be specifically banned from offering quicker access to hospitals for standard treatments – though they will still be able to offer other benefits such as private rooms.

Regardless of the restrictions that may be placed on companies, it will remain possible for patients to pay upfront out of their own pockets to see a specialist or have an operation if they have fears for their health.

The Universal Health Insurance (UHI) plan, which the minister hopes to have implemented in five years’ time, will ensure everyone gets the same basic package of benefits.

The aim is to end the two-tier health service, where public patients wait longer than private insurance holders for treatment.

The core principle of UHI is healthcare being equally available to each member of society and treatment based solely on medical need, not income. Under the new system, private health insurance companies like the VHI will continue to trade and are likely to have an increase in the number of customers as everyone will have to acquire some form of cover.

Those who can’t afford the premium will have it paid for fully or be heavily subsidised by the State.

Dr Reilly estimated yesterday that the 40pc of the population that holds a medical card will get their health insurance paid in full, with another 30pc getting a heavy subsidy.

But in a complete break from the current two-tier system, which allows private policy holders fast access to specialists and treatments, the new system will specifically forbid queue-jumping – even if you pay more.

The change will mean the 2,052,000 people – roughly half the population – who hold health insurance will no longer have the edge over everybody else in getting treatment faster.

UHI will cover basic GP and acute hospital needs and some people may wish to obtain cover for services outside of that standard package of care.

But paying more for ‘Supplementary Health Insurance’ won’t grant quicker access to treatment.

In explaining how UHI works specifically, the government document says: “No insurer may sell a supplementary health insurance policy conferring faster access to services covered by the standard package of care.”

The reference to preventing faster access is actually contained twice in the document as it also says it won’t be allowed under the basic package under the “principle of social solidarity”.

“Neither insurers nor providers operating within the UHI system will be allowed to sell faster access to services covered by the UHI standard package of care.”

The specific services to be covered by UHI have yet to be determined. The minister plans for the public to be consulted on what to be included.

However, this document does list the components of a “preferred policy option” for inclusion under UHI, as follows:

1. * Universal primary care, including core GP and community nurse services and the maternity and infant care scheme.
2. * Chronic disease and case management for those who meet specific critical criteria.
3. * Rehabilitative care, for a period not exceeding 12 months.
4. * Acute hospital care, including all inpatient, daycare and outpatient care.
5. * Acute mental health care, including acute mental health services provided by community mental health teams, in outpatient clinics, day hospitals, day centres and acute inpatient setting for a period not exceeding 12 months.
6. * Step-down care, provided in a residential care setting or in a person’s home for a defined period of time.

The change-over to UHI to end the two-tier system of access is the agreed policy of the Coalition.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party both campaigned for the policy and it is included in the Programme for Government.

Labour was making the case for UHI for almost a decade before Fine Gael came on board.

Dr Reilly’s draft of the consultation document, known as a White Paper, was discussed by ministers last night and is due to be published in the coming weeks.

The paper has come under fire for lacking detail on the cost of UHI, with the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure expressing concern about the financial implications.

Dr Reilly has sought to assuage these concerns by saying there will be a cap on the amount of money to be spent by the State, which will be linked to national income.

Nonetheless, the document contains no specifics on the costs associated with the switch to UHI – either to the public or the Exchequer.

Son receives suspended sentence for attempted murder of his Mother

   

GERALD VOLLRATH 2ND FROM RIGHT PIC. ABOVE ADMITTED HOLDING A PILLOW TO HIS DYING MOTHER’S FACE

Gerard Vollrath has been spared jail and given a suspended three-year sentence after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of his elderly mother in a nursing home , after the judge ruled that his motivation was entirely compassionate

A 47-year-old Waterford man has been spared jail and given a suspended three-year sentence after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of his elderly mother in a nursing home , after the judge ruled that his motivation was entirely compassionate.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said that in Mr Gerald Vollrath’s case, he could be facing life imprisonment were it not for the prosecution’s inability to prove that Mrs Veronica Vollrath was still alive when he pressed a pillow to her face.

He noted that the DPP had accepted his plea to attempted murder and said the available penalties ranged from a suspended sentence to life imprisonment.

Veronica (Vera) Vollrath (83) was pronounced dead on January 9th, 2012 at Killure Bridge Nursing Home, Killure, Co Waterford.

Her death was expected but her son admitted holding a pillow over her face while keeping vigil by her death bed, and the Austrian resident was charged with her murder.

Gerald Vollrath, an aviation worker, of Tramore Heights, Tramore pleaded not guilty to her murder, but the murder charge against him was dropped in December, and he pleaded guilty to attempted murder instead.

The Central Criminal Court was told last week that this was because pathological exams had found no sign of suffocation and that it could not be said with absolute certainty that she was not already dead.

Mrs Vollrath had suffered a severe stroke, had Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart and kidney problems and was receiving end-of-life care.

He was keeping vigil by her side on the night of January 8th when he put a pillow over her face and held it there for up to two minutes. Staff did not suspect anything other than a natural death.

Mr Vollrath revealed what he had done later that morning. He told Gardaí that his mother previously indicated that she would not like to be helpless in the situation in which she was.

The court heard that the Gardaí’s view was that Mr Vollrath’s only concern was his mother’s suffering.

Mr Justice Paul Carney said last week that this was the first time he had encountered anything of this nature in 50 years and adjourned sentencing.

Before passing sentence today, he described the case as distressing.

He said that mercy killing was a concept totally unknown to our law. He then quoted from an English case, where a mother had taken the life of her severely disabled son with the intention of ending his suffering.

“The law of murder does not distinguish between murder committed for malevolent reasons and murder motivated by familial love… Mercy killing is murder,” he said, quoting a judicial decision in that case.

“Even a life lived at the extremes of disability is not one jot less precious than the life of an able-bodied person,” it continued.

“Until parliament decides otherwise, the law recognises a distinction between the withdrawal of treatment supporting life, which, subject to stringent conditions, may be lawful, and the active termination of life, which is unlawful,” concluded the quotation.

Mr Justice Carney noted that the mother in that case had been captured by the mandatory life sentence.

In relation to sentencing Mr Vollrat,h the judge said he took a number of mitigating factors into account when deciding on a sentence.

“The motivation was entirely compassionate and not at all malevolent,” he said.

He also noted Mrs Vollrath’s family’s desire for compassion, Mr Vollrath’s early plea and genuine remorse, his work history, employer support, lack of previous convictions and the support of his wife and family.

He imposed a three-year sentence, but suspended it on Mr Vollrath entering into a € 1,000 bond to be of good behaviour for three years.

Mr Vollrath, who had his eyes closed throughout the sentencing, winked at family members on hearing the outcome.

Outside the courtroom, he embraced family members as well as members of the gardaí.

Flanked by his family, he paused outside the courthouse while his solicitor, Ken Cunningham, spoke on his behalf.

He thanked all of those who had offered their support and encouragement over the past two ‘very difficult’ years. He thanked his legal team for their expertise, dedication, and commitment to bringing the matter to a conclusion.

He thanked his family for the unwavering support, sympathy, compassion and love they had shown him through ‘this very difficult time for all concerned’.

He asked the media to respect the privacy of his family and to allow them to rebuild their lives.

Mortgage lending in Ireland 5.6% down last year on 2012 

 

Value and volume of mortgages issued falls but estimates suggest that less than one in two purchases is now made with a mortgage

Figures show that the average loan size increased to € 172,118 in the fourth quarter of 2013, up 4.1% on Q4 2012. The average mortgage drawn down for property purchase increased on a year-on-year basis for the first time since Q2 2008, reaching € 179,934

Despite an ongoing resurgence in the property market, mortgage lending fell in 2013, as the number of mortgages issued fell by 5.6% down to 14,985 and the value of mortgages dropped by a similar percentage, down to €2.5 billion.

The decline was evident in the fourth quarter of last year, with the IBF/Pwc Mortgage Market profile pointing to a decline of 13.9% in the number of mortgages given out, and a 10.3% decline in value, when compared with the same quarter in 2012.

Dermot O’Leary, economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers, described the outturn as “underwhelming”, adding that it can be partly explained by the low level of supply of properties and the presence of cash transactions.

“On the latter issue, we estimate that only 46% of transactions were carried out using a mortgage last year, down from 56% in 2012,” he said.

The figures may also be distorted by the effect of people rushing to buy at the end of 2012 in order to take advantage of mortgage interest relief before it was abolished.

First time buyers and mover purchasers, continued to dominate the market in 2013, accounting for almost 90% (87.8%) of new mortgages issued. In effect, over 90% (93%) of all mortgage credit now goes to the home purchasing segments of the market.

The average loan size increased to € 172,118 in the fourth quarter of 2013, up 4.1% on Q4 2012. The average mortgage drawn down for property purchase increased on a year-on-year basis for the first time since Q2 2008, reaching € 179,934.

Goodbody is forecasting growth in the value of mortgages drawn down of 29% to € 3.3 billion this year, with a further expansion to € 4.2 billion in 2015.

Cyber-bullying of Irish children and teens up 33% on 2013

 

The cyber-bullying of children and teenagers is on the increase with 33% more students reporting cyber-bullying this year 2014 compared with 2013.

Results show that only one in four parents monitor their children’s internet activity.

Thousands of parents and children were interviewed as part of the annual survey, carried out by the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD)

The survey revealed that bullying is not just within the grounds of the school yard, with an 80% increase from last year in students admitting to having been bullied by a peer online.

The aim of the survey is to highlight the presence of cyberbullying among Irish young people and to help schools and parents to tackle the problem.

The results show that younger parents tend to be more aware of the dangers of online bullying with 64% of parents under the age of 35 saying they monitor their child’s online activity on a weekly basis.

This figure was much smaller among older parents with only 40pc of parents over the age of 45 making the same inquires with their kids.

RESULTS

Fifteen % of parents admitted to never checking up on their children as they use the web. Director of NAPD Clive Byrne said the results show that much more needs to be done to tackle online bullying, stressing the difference between “what parents are aware of and what is actually happening,” in the lives of Irish children.

She urged parents to remember that cyberbullying can follow their children home “through the medium of their phones or on the web”.

She added that parents who don’t monitor their children’s online activity “will be less likely to detect online bullying when it occurs”.

Large volcanoes helped slow global warming

LIVERMORE SCIENTISTS CONCLUDE

  

Large volcanoes erupting earlier this century have helped cool the planet, partially offsetting warming produced by greenhouse gases, according to a study led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

In a paper published in the Feb. 23 edition of the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers say that despite increasing greenhouse gas emissions, global mean temperatures on the Earth’s surface and those in the troposphere — the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere — have shown relatively little warming since 1998.

According to the study, scientists looking for a cause have found “significant correlations” between tiny droplets of sulfuric acid released during larger volcanic eruptions — also known as “volcanic aerosols” — and satellite estimates of lower tropospheric temperatures. The study concludes volcanic eruptions have contributed to a “warming hiatus”; the aerosols reflecting sunlight back to space, cooling Earth temperatures.

“In the last decade, the amount of volcanic aerosol in the stratosphere has increased, so more sunlight is being reflected back into space,” said Lawrence Livermore climate scientist Benjamin Santer, the study’s lead author. “This has created a natural cooling of the planet and has partly offset the increase in surface and atmospheric temperatures due to human influence.”

The study indicates other possible factors for the slowdown, including the temporary cooling effect of internal climate noise, an unusually low and long solar cycle, and an increase in sulfur dioxide emissions from China.

Livermore scientists Céline Bonfils, Jeff Painter, Mark Zelinka and Karl Taylor contributed to the study. Other contributors include Remote Sensing Systems, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis.   

Donie's daily news Ireland BLOG

Pope Francis determined to change the culture of the Catholic Church

 

Pope Francis has said he was determined to reform the “Vatican-centric” and “narcissistic” Catholic Church, as the Vatican bank published its accounts for the first time

Six months into his papacy, the South American pope is showing increasing determination to change the culture of secrecy, skullduggery and nepotism at the heart of the Holy See.

He attacked what he called the “courtier” culture in the tiny sovereign state, which he likened to leprosy.

In some of the most strongly-worded remarks of his papacy, he said: “Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissuses, gratified and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court (around the Pope) is the leprosy of the papacy.”

Francis also admitted that he briefly considered not accepting his election as the first non-European pope in 1,300 years when chosen in March.

“My head was completely empty and a great anxiety came over me. To make it go away and relax I closed my eyes and every thought went away, even that of not accepting, which the liturgical procedures permitted,” he said.

He made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, which the Italian newspaper carried on its front page.

It coincided with the start of a three-day, closed-door meeting with a special commission of eight cardinals, whom the Argentinian Pope has appointed to help advise him on reforming the administration of the Vatican.

The Holy See’s “Vatican-centric vision neglects the world that surrounds it,” the 76-year-old pontiff said. “I do not share this vision and will do everything to change it,” he added.

One of the main targets of the Pope’s push for greater transparency and accountability is the Vatican bank, which for the first time in its history published its accounts on Tuesday.

The bank, founded in 1942 and officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion, revealed that its earnings for 2012 were 86.6 million euros – more than four times higher than in 2011.

The massive increase was largely due to a sharp rise in the value of Italian government debt that the bank holds – a result of measures taken by the European Central Bank and the appointment in Nov 2011 of Mario Monti as technocrat prime minister of Italy.

A team of forensic accounting experts from Promontory Financial Group, a US-based regulatory compliance consulting firm, has been systematically screening the 19,000 accounts held by the bank in search of money laundering and other crimes.

With 7,000 accounts now checked, around 900 individuals and institutions have been told to close their accounts and move their money elsewhere after investigators ruled that they did not conform to new, more stringent rules on depositors.

They were not necessarily guilty of money laundering, fraud or other financial crimes, the Vatican bank’s spokesman said.

“They may have committed zero legal wrongdoing but for statutory reasons have been excluded,” Max Hohenberg told The Daily Telegraph.

“For instance, there might be an account held by the widow of a former employee – she would no longer be eligible to bank with us, but she has done nothing wrong. These people are being informed that the relationship is being terminated.”

As part of the review, accounts held at the bank by the Iranian, Iraqi and Indonesian embassies to the Vatican will also reportedly be shut down after investigators noted a series of suspiciously large cash withdrawals and deposits, raising fears of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The biggest transactions amounted to 500,000 euros, with one embassy giving the vague explanation that it was for “refurbishment.”

Mr Hohenberg would not confirm the closure of the accounts. “We make no secret of the fact that diplomats accredited to the Holy See can have an account at the bank, but we do not comment on individual clients,” he said.

HSE failed in child rape-claim case, says Emily Logan Ombudsman

  

OMBUDSMAN FOR CHILDREN SAYS HSE LABELLING OF MOTHER AS ‘DIFFICULT’ LAY BEHIND FAILURES

In a report published today, Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan said the HSE failed to allocate a social worker and did not arrange an early face-to-face meeting with the child, which contributed to the fact that no HSE interview ultimately took place.

The HSE failed to provide timely support and therapeutic services over several years to a child who made multiple allegations of rape, the Ombudsman for Children has found.

In a report published today, Emily Logan said the HSE failed to allocate a social worker and did not arrange an early face-to-face meeting with the child, which contributed to the fact that no HSE interview ultimately took place.

Such failure may amount to negligence, the Ombudsman stated.

The 11-year-old girl alleged multiple instances of severe child abuse between December 2006 and July 2007, including repeated instances of violent rape combined with death threats and assault with a knife.

Ms Logan said the HSE cited an unfilled vacancy for its non-allocation of a social worker, and did not prioritise the child because she was not living in close proximity to the abuser. When the girl requested she be seen by a woman examiner – rather than a male – the HSE took a further two months to find one.

When the HSE finally arranged to interview the child, she insisted on her mother attending – against health service protocols which dictate she should be interviewed alone.

The Ombudsman cited a lack of flexibility in this area, saying solutions could be found such as placing parent and child in separate rooms divided by glass.

In the event, the HSE “very much blamed the mother for this interview not happening”. The mother subsequently sought psychiatric intervention privately which “to this day” is the only form of therapeutic intervention the girl had received.

Ms Logan said that, although the HSE denied it, central to the mismanagement of the case was its labelling of the girl’s mother “difficult and challenging”.

“It’s my view that this was an impediment to the child being interviewed and having access to therapeutic support. It’s not acceptable to say this child’s parent is difficult, which means we can’t work with her… They allowed the dispute to get in the way of the service the child should have received.”

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided in June 2010 not to prosecute in the case.

Asked whether the absence of the HSE interview contributed to the decision, Ms Logan said she didn’t have the authority to comment on prosecutions. But “there are many cases where there has not been a prosecution; that does not mean the abuse did not take place”.

Eurozone unemployment rate in August making a slow recovery

 12% 

The eurozone unemployment rate was flat in August after easing in July for the first time in two years, showing the nascent economic recovery was starting to have a positive impact on the labour market.

The unemployment rate in the 17 countries using the euro was 12pc of the labour force for a second month in a row, just below the record 12.1pc in June and May, the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday.

The July rate was revised to 12.0 percent from the previously reported 12.1pc. Analysts polled by Reuters expected unemployment at 12.1pc.

But in absolute numbers, the number of people out of work still edged marginally lower to 19.178 million in August from 19.183 million in July.

The eurozone has started to emerge in the second quarter from its longest recession since its creation in 1999 and European policymakers had made the job creation their top priority for restoring sound growth.

Spain and Greece were the countries where unemployment was highest, above 25pc, and economists d not expected it to fall below 20pc in the near term.

Italy, in political turmoil threatening the survival of the shaky government led by Prime Minister Enrico Letta, saw its unemployment rate inch up to 12.2pc in August from 12.1pc in July.

Unemployment in Europe’s largest economy Germany, waiting for a new government to be formed after elections in September, stood 5.2pc, the second lowest in the eurozone after Austria which had with 4.9pc.

Scientists say that bowel cancer screening is extremely effective

   

Scientists have found ‘irrefutable’ evidence that screening for bowel cancer is an extremely effective health initiative.

According to Prof Philippe Autier of the International Prevention Research Institute in France, this type of screening is extremely effective at reducing mortality from the disease.

Bowel (colorectal) cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed type of cancer in Ireland. More than 2,200 people are diagnosed with the disease here every year. It is also the second biggest cancer killer here.

Bowel Screen is Ireland’s recently introduced bowel cancer screening programme. Initially it will offer home testing kits to men and women aged between 60 and 69, however over time, the programme will be expanded to include people aged between 55 and 74.

According to Prof Autier, he and his team ‘saw quite clearly that the greater proportions of men and women who were screened, the greater the reductions in mortality’.

“Reduced death rates from colorectal cancer were not noticeable in countries where screening was low, even though healthcare services in those countries were similar to those in countries where screening was more widespread,” he noted.

PROF. AUTIER INSISTED THAT ‘THE EVIDENCE COULD NOT BE CLEARER’.

“It is therefore very disappointing that national differences in the availability of colorectal cancer screening programmes are still so pronounced,” Prof Autier said.

He and his team believe there are a number of reasons why screening rates differ from country to country in Europe.

“First, many countries still do not have a national colorectal cancer screening programme. Second, the acceptability of screening methods is often low, sometimes due to cultural differences between countries. There is also the question of the availability of qualified personnel. In some countries, there are insufficient gastroenterologists available to perform endoscopy,” he pointed out.

He said that his team would like to investiagte the cost-effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening, as they believe it ‘has the potential to bring about economic gains associated with averted colorectal cancer cases and deaths’.

These gains, they insisted, would more than pay for the costs of screening.

“If two-thirds of eligible people in each country attend screening, we believe that we could see a considerable reduction in colorectal cancer mortality in a minimum of 10 years. National healthcare services need to put more effort into organising screening programmes and into informing people about the availability of these tests so that they can make a choice,” Prof Autier said.

He presented his findings on this topic to the 2013 European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam.

High rate of cyber-bullying (14% of Adolescents) in Ireland

  

One in seven adolescents have been the subject of cyber-bullying in the last three months and one in 11 admit to cyber-bullying others in the same time-frame, according to data presented at a major conference in Dublin today.

Dr Stephen Minton, TCD Lecturer in Psychology of Education, told the conference that levels of cyber-bullying and cyber-aggression appear similar in both boys and girls, particularly in young teenagers, and the behaviour tends to peak in adolescents around 13 years of age.

He told the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology (BSPAR) conference at Dublin Castle that
exclusion-type bullying is always more prevalent among females than males, and the physical forms of bullying are always more prevalent among males than females, but in terms of cyber-bullying, it is roughly even for most categories.

“Most of our data relates to 13-16 year olds. We can’t really say with great confidence whether kids grow out of it or not because we don’t have the hard numbers, but our experience of working with young people, working with teachers and with parents, would seem to be that this sort of thing seems to be a difficulty perhaps most associated with the early teenage years”, Dr Minton said.

He said it had been found that that conventional and non-cyber forms of bullying also peak at 13 years of age.

Dr Minton pointed out that certain social media sites had made substantial improvements in relation to cyber-bullying, but others continued to allow it and often gave the perpetrator relative anonymity.

He described the Government’s decision not to introduce legislation in this area earlier this year as ‘a mistake and a missed opportunity’.

He was addressing the British Society for Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology (BSPAR) conference at Dublin Castle.

CHEMICAL TO MAKE TUPPERWARE FOUND ON MOON (Saturn’s)

 

PLASTIC FOOD BOXES BOLDLY GO WHERE NO PLASTIC FOOD BOXES HAVE GONE BEFORE (TITAN)

A NASA spacecraft sniffing the smoggy atmosphere of Titan has found traces of the chemical used to make plastic Tupperware boxes.

The robotic Cassini probe has detected propylene on Saturn’s moon – the first time this chemical has been found out in space. Titan is a thoroughly unpleasant world with a brownish atmosphere, liquid methane rain and freezing temperatures that can plummet to a frosty -180°C.

As if the place wasn’t nasty enough, space boffins now know that it is home to detectable quantities of propylene, which is a key ingredient in food containers as well as car bumpers.

NASA used Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) to scan the hazy atmosphere.

Measuring the heat radiation emitted as infrared light from the moon in a process that NASA described as being similar to “the way our hands feel the warmth of a fire”.

 This radar image, released by NASA in 2007, shows what scientists believe to be sea-size bodies of liquid, shown in blue, on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon Titan.

The first chemical the scientists discovered using the CIRS was propylene, which was identified in small quantities at various altitudes throughout the lower levels of the soupy hydrocarbon fog found in the moon’s noxious skies.

“This chemical is all around us in everyday life, strung together in long chains to form a plastic called polypropylene,” said Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of a paper describing the findings.

“That plastic container at the grocery store with the recycling code 5 on the bottom – that’s polypropylene.”

Voyager 1 was the first probe to discover that Titan’s brown atmosphere was made up of hydrocarbons, which are the building-block chemicals in petrol and other fossil fuels. The moon also boasts huge lakes thought to be made of liquid methane and ethane, which would be the only bodies of standing liquid we’ve found on a moon or planet (other than Earth, of course).

The hydrocarbons in the moon’s atmosphere are formed when sunlight breaks down this methane, which also exists in the form of a gas on Titan. During a flyby in 1980, Voyager first detected propane, used to power camping stoves, and propyne, a gas that is sometimes used as a welding torch fuel.

However, fast-forwarding to today, NASA boffins wanted to use Cassini’s more sophisticated instruments to work out exactly which other molecules were present. After poring over the results, they were surprised to see propylene.

“This measurement was very difficult to make because propylene’s weak signature is crowded by related chemicals with much stronger signals,” said Michael Flasar, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “This success boosts our confidence that we will find still more chemicals long hidden in Titan’s atmosphere.”

The space scientists are delighted with the discovery – as is the El Reg science desk if it means that one day astronauts travelling through space will be able to stop off on Titan to manufacture their very own plastic food containers and other stuff (if enough propylene can be found).

“I am always excited when scientists discover a molecule that has never been observed before in an atmosphere,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “This new piece of the puzzle will provide an additional test of how well we understand the chemical zoo that makes up Titan’s atmosphere.”

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.