Donie's Ireland daily BLOG

Ireland’s unemployment rate down to its lowest level since 2008

CSO quarterly data shows rate dropped to 9.1% in July-September

   

An update of monthly Central Statistics Office figures shows the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October was 8.9%, down from the previously reported 9.3%.

The construction and industrial sectors delivered the most new jobs as a 59,400 increase in the number of full-time posts helped bring the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since 2008.

Quarterly data published by the Central Statistics Office showed Ireland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 9.1% in July-September this year from 9.6% in April-June. The rate in the third quarter of 2014 was 11.1%.

In addition, a revision of monthly CSO data brought the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in October down to 8.9% from the previously estimated 9.3%. September’s unemployment rate was similarly revised from 9.4% to 9%.

“Significant milestones are hit, with the unemployment rate dipping below 9% and the numbers of people unemployed going under 200,000 for the first time since 2008,” said Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton.

Caution

Employers urged caution. “There has been a general slowdown in job creation as a result of wage pressures and the increase in the minimum wage is acting as a brake on new employment,” said Mark Fielding, chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association.

Employers’ group Ibec said the regional spread of recovery remains a challenge, even though employment grew year-on-year in every region bar the west. “Employment is now growing at 5% annually in Dublin compared to 2% in the rest of the country. This will increase the pressure on housing and infrastructure in the short term and exacerbate regional inequalities over the long-term,” said Ibec economist Gerard Brady.

Employment rose in 12 of the 14 sectors tracked by the CSO and fell in only two, leading analysts to conclude the recovery is broad-based.

The number of people working in construction in the third quarter rose by 15,000 to 127,400 year-on-year. The number working in the industry sector rose by 13,600 to 252,300 year-on-year. Gains in employment were recorded in agriculture, transport, the IT sector, professional and administrative services, as well as in public administration, education and healthcare.

The number employed in the financial, insurance and real-estate sector declined by 3,300 to 99,800 year-on-year. Employment also dropped in the wholesale, retail and motor repair sector.

The Jobless rate

The overall number of people working in the 12 months to September rose by 56,000, the ninth consecutive quarterly fall in unemployment, taking the jobless rate to its lowest level for seven years. The seasonally adjusted rate was 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008, just before a huge rise in unemployment in 2009.

Noting that full-time job creation was now advancing at the fastest pace since 2006, KBC Bank chief economist Austin Hughes said the data pointed to a stronger picture than suggested by the headline rise in overall employment.

“For the first three quarters of 2015, Irish jobs growth averaged 2.7%, about a percentage point higher than through 2014, while full-time employment is 3.9% higher than in 2014,” he said.

“This means we have to upgrade our forecast of average jobs growth of 2.5% for 2015 to 2.7%. We also think unemployment could drop towards 8.5% by the end of 2015 and could also fall below 8% by the end of next year.”

Irish Government drops it’s original plan for Universal Health Insurance

      

The Fianna Fáil leader M icheál Martin claims decision is a ‘resigning matter’

Brendan Howlin said the ‘desirable’ UHI model remains an objective for the Government.

The Government has insisted it remains committed to universal affordable healthcare despite dropping its original plan for Universal Health Insurance (UHI).

A Government spokesman said it would introduce affordable quality care in a timely away despite the decision of Minister for Health Leo Varadkar to move away from kind of UHI promised by his predecessor Dr James Reilly.

Mr Varadkar told his Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday night that the plan endorsed by Dr Reilly would have increased the cost of running the health service by €650 million a year.

The Government spokesman said reform of the health service would be funded through a form of UHI.

“Building on the reforms already put in place we will continue to move away from the wasteful inefficient and unfair approach to health service provision that we inherited from the previous government.

“This must be done in a way that is affordable for both taxpayers and buyers of health insurance,” he said.

Fianna Fáil attacked what it described as the abandonment of UHI and said it was a resigning matter for the Government.

Party leader Micheal Martin said UHI has been promised by Fine Gael for 14 years and only now the party realised it was not feasible.

“This is a resigning matter. We would like the electorate to take matters into their own hands,” said Mr Martin.

He said it was an appalling indictment of Government policy and proved that nothing Fine Gael said ahead of the election could be trusted.

He said the blame cannot lay solely with Mr Reilly as Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Mr Varadkar had fully endorsed the plans.

“Leo Varadkar didn’t say a dickie bird about this until he came into office and I would say the civil servants are at the end of their tether in terms of this basic dishonest proposition.”

The party’s spokesman on health Billy Kellehersaid Fianna Fáil would commit to a taxation funded model that commits to the public health service.

Sinn Féin health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said Mr Varadkar’s memo to Cabinet about the shortcomings of the UHI plan was a vindication of what Sinn Féin have been saying all along.

“Sinn Féin is strongly opposed to the pro-business and for-profit slant of Fine Gael’s approach to healthcare. UHI represents a fillip for private health insurance companies, and the for-profit healthcare approach”, said Mr O Caoláin.

He said a similar model in the Netherlands had seen the quality and range of care continually reduced with premiums rising by up to 40 per cent.

As much as 14 brand new schools will open in the next few years?

To meet rising the growth of Irish population

     

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan unveiled the €3.8bn school building programme 2016-21.

At least 14 brand new schools will open in the next few years to meet rising population growth.

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan announced the locations today as she unveiled the €3.8bn school building programme 2016-21.

With an election in the air, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Joan Burton also attended the announcement.

Overall the six year programme will cover 324 projects – either new builds or major extensions to provide 19,000 new primary school places and 43,000 new post-primary places. It included 50 projects that were part of the previous plan and which will go to construction in 2016

The minster also promised that the long-term use of pre-fabs in schools would be a thing of the past by 2021.

With the bulge in pupil numbers now moving into second-level, 10 of the new schools will be post-primary, six of which will open in 2017 at Carpenterstown/Castleknock, Dublin 15; Portmarnock/Malahide, Co Dublin; Lucan, Co Dublin; Swords, Co Dublin;  Portlaois, Co Laois and Limerick city (south west)

They will be followed in 2018 with three new post-primary schools at Limerick city (east), Firhouse, Dublin 24 and Dublin south city centre, while a new  gaelcholáiste is slated for Maynooth, Co Kildare in 2019.

At primary level, new schools will open in Pellettstown, Dublin 7; Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin; Ballincollig, Co Cork, in 2017, and in Dublin south city centre in 2018.

No decision has yet been made on who should run the new schools – and the Department of Education will oversee a process where interested parties will be invited to apply.

Department  data also indicates  indicates that new schools may be also be necessary at post-primary level in areas such as South Kildare; Enfield (Kilcock feeder area); Galway city; north-west Dublin City; the Dublin 13 & Dublin 17 area; Kinnegad (Killucan feeder area); and the Mallow and Fermoy areas in County Cork, and the Milltown area of Dublin at primary level.

The building programme plan announced today relates to major projects – generally costing in excess of €1m.  Funding for smaller projects – such as the addition of a classroom etc. is dealt with on an ongoing basis.

On the pre-fab issue, Ms O’Sullivan said she always believed “it was a scandal that at the height of the Celtic tiger, we focussed on renting prefabs rather than building permanent schools”.

Although originally intended as  a short-term solution to accommodation needs, pre-fabs have been an all too familiar part of the Irish educational landscape, with thousands in use at any one time.

Doctors regret lack of awareness on common lung disease that kills Millions

Recent studies indicate that 25-50% of people with clinically significant COPD don’t even know they suffer from it.

        

This is because the early stages of COPD are not often unrecognised.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common lung disease worldwide has been raising concerns, experts say. It is the third leading cause of death worldwide and in India, approximately15 million people suffer from COPD.

What’s more worrying is that COPD causes four times more deaths in India, compared to US and Europe. November 18 is being observed as World COPD Day and experts rue lack of awareness about the disease.

COPD is a non-communicable lung disease that gradually causes breathlessness. However, recent studies indicate that 25-50% of people with clinically significant COPD don’t even know they have it. This is because the early stages of COPD are often unrecognised.

“The early symptoms of COPD are chronic cough, bringing up sputum and breathlessness during physical activity such as exercise or walking up the stairs,” says Dr Sundeep Salvi, Director, Chest Research Foundation, Pune.

Both asthma and COPD patients have common complaints of difficulty in breathing and hence experts feel that in COPD, differential diagnosis is crucial. Most patients reach doctors at a stage when the disease is advanced and chances of lung attack are high, making it difficult for patients and their families.

On the occasion, Dr Ashish Goyal, Chaitanya Nursing Home has undertaken a mission “Finding Millions. Treating Millions” for spreading more awareness about the disease. “The earlier COPD is detected, the more effective treatment can be,” he says.

Although there is no cure for COPD, treatments are available that alleviate symptoms of breathlessness so that patients can participate more fully in daily life. Patients may be able to slow or even stop the progress of COPD by reducing their exposure to risk factors.

According to Dr Yogesh Agarwal from Aditya Birla hospital, one of the primary causes of COPD is smoking. During festivals such as Diwali, the air quality deteriorates to a level that the smog is akin to smoking two cigarettes a day, he pointed out.

Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) can facilitate removal of this excess carbon dioxide and improve oxygenation of the body by augmenting the patient’s ventilation, Agarwal added.

Doctors further advise that if the person finds it hard to breathe, and are above 35 years of age, live or work in areas where there is smoke/noxious gas/fumes and also are or were a smoker, then a simple screening test needs to be taken to rule out COPD.

Odds of surviving pancreatic cancer narrow with new U.O.U. regime

Scientists at University of Ulster find a lead to significant reduction in tumour

         

Steve Jobs (above right) former CEO of Apple who died from pancreatic cancer.

Professor John Callan of Ulster University discusses a pioneering treatment for pancreatic cancer – the first treatment breakthrough in over 40 years. Survival rates for pancreatic cancer could be significantly improved by a pioneering treatment developed by scientists at the University of Ulster.

Researchers say the therapy leads to a fivefold reduction in tumour sizes, thereby opening up more treatment options, even for advanced forms of the disease.

The treatment, which combines existing techniques in a novel way, involves injecting tumours with tiny oxygen-filled bubbles coated with an inactive drug. Ultrasound is used to activate the drug and release the oxygen, which makes the drug work more effectively on tumours.

Conventional cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and some chemotherapies are often limited by poor oxygen supply in solid tumours.

“When our microbubbles burst, they provide a temporary boost in the amount of oxygen available in the tumour, enhancing the effectiveness of techniques that require oxygen to work,” according to Prof John Callan of the University of Ulster.

Therapy

Patients with pancreatic cancer tend to present late because the disease has few early symptoms. By then, the tumour tends to be large and well established, making surgical intervention largely unsuccessful.

By reducing the size of the tumour, the therapy may make surgery an option for more patients, as well as increasing palliative care options.

The survival rate for pancreatic cancer is one of the lowest of all forms of the disease, at 4 per cent, a figure that hasn’t changed in 40 years.

Globally, more than 200,000 cases are diagnosed annually; in Ireland, former among those who have died from the disease in recent years.

The total’s earth’s underground water now quantified by an Canadian team

      

The total amount of groundwater on the planet, held in rock and soil below our feet, is estimated to be 23 million cubic km.

If this volume is hard to visualise, imagine the Earth’s entire land surface covered in a layer some 180m deep.

The new calculation comes from a Canadian-led team and is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Significantly, little of this water – just 6% – is the kind of bankable resource that is most useful to people.

That small fraction is referred to as “modern” groundwater: it is extractable because it is near the surface, and can be used to supplement above-ground resources in rivers and lakes.

“It’s the groundwater that is the most quickly renewed – on the scale of human lifetimes,” explained study leader Tom Gleeson from the University of Victoria.

“And yet this modern groundwater is also the most sensitive to climate change and to human contamination. So, it’s a vital resource that we need to manage better.”

Finite resource

To quantify just how much water is stored in the top 2km of the Earth’s surface, Dr Gleeson’s team had to combine large data sets with an element of modelling.

They included information on the permeability of rocks and soil, on their porosity, and all that is known about water table gradients, which tell you about inputs from precipitation.

Key to determining the age of all this stored water is a collection of thousands of tritium measurements.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen that spiked in the atmosphere 50 years ago as a result of thermonuclear bomb tests.

It can therefore be used as a tracer for all the rain that has made its way underground ever since.E

The map above shows the distribution of this modern groundwater around the globe.

Dark blue shows where it is very quickly renewed. Light blue shows the older groundwater, which is mostly stagnant and non-renewable.

“Old water is highly variable,” Dr Gleeson told BBC News.

“Some places it is quite deep, in some places not. In many places, it can be poor quality.

“It can be more saline even than ocean water and it can have lots of dissolved metals and other chemicals that would need to be treated before it could be used for drinking or agriculture.”

This puts further emphasis on the modern reserves and the need to manage them in a sustainable way. The study underlines just how unevenly they are spread around the globe.

The next step, Dr Gleeson said, was to try to work out just how fast some water stores were being depleted.

Also writing in Nature Geoscience, Ying Fan, from Rutgers University, US, commented that “this global view of groundwater will, hopefully, raise awareness that our youngest groundwater resources – those that are the most sensitive to anthropogenic and natural environmental changes – are finite”.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG Friday

Massive boost for Irish exchequer as tax revenues are up more than 5%

 

IRELAND’S INCOME TAX, THE BIGGEST HEADING, ROSE BY 7% TO €5.4 BILLION IN FOUR MONTHS OF THIS YEAR AND UP TO APRIL 2014.

The State’s public finances are continuing to improve with the latest official figures showing tax revenue ahead of projections for the first four months of the year, while spending is lower than forecast.

The Irish exchequer returns published today show tax revenue of €11.5 billion, which is €612 million, or 5.6%, up on last year, and €222 million or 2% higher than forecast.

Income tax, which is the biggest tax heading, generated €5.4 billion, is €362 million or 7.2% up on last year, and €106 million or 2% ahead of profile for this year.

The department of Finance officials said higher income tax receipts reflected improved conditions in the labour market, which has seen unemployment fall from its 2012-peak of 15.1% to 11.7% this year.

On the downside, the long-anticipated recovery in consumer spending appears not to have materialised as evidenced by a worse-than-expected VAT intake.

The sales tax generated €3.65 billion for Government coffers, which was €177 million or 5.1% up on last year but crucially €51 million or 1.4% lower than forecast.

Excise was €1.5 billion, which was 6.2% up on the year and €82 million or 5.8% ahead of projections.

The better-than-expected excise receipts were to a rise in new car sales.

The department also revealed that approximately €120 million of income tax taken in during February and March was wrongly classified as VAT, falsely inflating the performance of the retail sector.

Last month, the department said only €101 million had been mistakenly submitted as VAT and only during March.

The department said the Central Bank and the Revenue Commissioners had investigated the issue, and had put in place processes “to mitigate the possibility of this happening again”.

It also emphasised that the overall tax collection for the period had been unaffected by the errors.

On the spending side, the April figures show total net voted expenditure of €13.65 billion, which is €315 million, or 2.3%, down on the same period last year, and €167 million less than forecast.

According to the department, the main drivers behind this improvement were reduced guarantee pay-outs, increased tax revenues and a reduction in net voted expenditure.

On the basis of these figures, the Government is comfortably on track to hit its troika-agreed deficit target for the year of 4.8% of gross domestic product.

The cost of serving the national debt to the exchequer was €3.7 billion so far this year, a decrease of €256 million or 6.5% on last year.

MEANWHILE:

Tax cuts on the way for low income and hard pressed Irish families

   

MIDDLE AND LOW-INCOME FAMILIES HAVE BEEN PROMISED TAX CUTS BY FINANCE MINISTER MICHAEL NOONAN IN HIS STRONGEST COMMENTS YET AHEAD OF OCTOBER’S BUDGET.

Mr Noonan, speaking at a Fine Gaelevent in Dublin yesterday, said the current level of income tax, particularly for lower-paid workers, was a major inhibition and barrier to people getting jobs.

Mr Noonan signalled clearly that he intends raising the bands to increase the level at which people begin to pay the higher rate of tax.

SIGNAL

“The greatest inhibition in the income tax code is that on an income of €32,800 people go on the higher rate of income tax,” he said. While he has suggested tax cuts previously, Mr Noonan’s comments represent the most tangible signal of his intentions for the Budget.

Despite having to introduce spending cuts and tax increases totalling €2bn, Mr Noonan said his priority now is to look closely at the income tax codes.

As the tax take begins to flow more strongly into the Exchequer, the Finance Minister said he wanted to make sure that current income tax codes do not prevent job creation.

He also said he wants to address those barriers which are preventing people from taking up jobs and preventing our young people from coming back home.

“So it is a priority of the Government to address that, and to lift that figure . . . whatever resources we have available over the next two Budgets we will do that,” he said.

“I hope we will be able to start the job in the Budget in mid-October.”

Meanwhile the Government’s tax receipts for April are 9pc higher than they were a year ago.

The Finance Minister says he saw a preview of the figures last night. He says the income tax take is about 6.5pc higher than 12 months ago.

Mr Noonan also pointed to his record of adjusting taxes to create jobs since taking office in 2011, despite the pressures on the public finances.

“Over the three years, even when we didn’t have any money, we changed the tax codes so we made it more jobs friendly.

“We cut the VAT rate on the tourist industry from 13.5pc to 9pc. That created an awful lot of jobs in the tourism industry,” he said.

His comments however come in the wake of an Irish Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll on Monday in which voters signalled they would prefer an end to austerity rather than tax cuts.

HIKES

Last week, a number of trade unions called for pay hikes amid signs of economic recovery.

The Civil, Public and Services Union, representing lower-paid civil servants, called for restoration of pay lost under the last two cost-cutting deals with the Government.

SIPTU and IMPACT indicated they will seek pay raises if the government finances improve during the Haddington Road deal.

David Begg, leader of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, has backed calls for post-troika wage rises. Companies who could afford it should pay up, he said.

3 Irish colleges now make world top 100 Universities list

 

Two Irish universities and Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) have been listed among the top 100 of the world’s universities under 50 years of age.

NUI Maynooth (NUIM) and Dublin City University (DCU) are rated 67th and joint 92nd, respectively, in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) 100 Under 50 2014 league table.

It also looks beyond colleges with ‘university’ in their title and, this year, DIT has made its way into 94th place – its first appearance in the table which is now in its third year.

The 100 Under 50 uses the same list of 13 performance indicators that underpin the annual THE World University Rankings, but adapts the methodology to better capture the characteristics of young institutions.

The criteria used includes research income, reputation for teaching, numbers of PhDs awarded, the number and quality of scholarly papers, and citations from staff.

The Top 100 Under 50 aims to highlight a new breed of high-performing universities that have managed to join the world elite over decades rather than centuries. It marks them out as having the potential to become the next global academic powerhouses.

Recent funding cuts have made it increasingly difficult for Irish universities to achieve or retain a place in the top 100 of the main global rankings. But in the smaller, younger pool, they fare better.

TOPPING

Similar to the main rankings, the continuing march of well-funded colleges in East Asia is evident at the top of the 100 Under 50 with South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) topping the list for the third year in a row.

Its national rival, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), holds on to the third spot, while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology stays in fourth, and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University moves up to fifth from eighth.

New developed brain implant could restore lost memory

 

US military researchers have revealed that in the next few months, they will unveil new advances toward developing a brain implant that could one day restore a wounded soldier’s memory.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama’s 100 million-dollar initiative to better understand the human brain, Discovery News reported.

The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.

Some say that those who could benefit include the five million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and the nearly 300,000 US military men and women who have sustained traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.

DARPA program manager Justin Sanchez said this week at a conference in the US capital convened by the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas, said that they think they could develop neuroprosthetic devices that can directly interface with the hippocampus, and can restore the first type of memories which are the declarative memories.

Declarative memories are recollections of people, events, facts and figures, and no research has ever shown they can be put back once they are lost.

Scientists offer new hope on pancreatic cancer treatment

 

Pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease, can be stopped in its tracks by targeting an “Achilles’ heel” protein, say scientists.

Blocking the molecule, called Yes-associated protein (Yap), did not prevent the disease but halted its growth.

  Researchers hope the experiments, conducted on laboratory cell lines and mice, will one day lead to an effective treatment.

“We believe this is the true Achilles’ heel of pancreatic cancer, because knocking out Yap crushes this really aggressive cancer,” said US study leader Dr Chunling Yi, from Georgetown University Medical Centre.

“This appears to be the critical switch that promotes cancer growth and progression.”

DEFECTS: Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed late and has one of the worst cancer survival records.

Yap is over-active in pancreatic cancer and other cancers, including those affecting the lungs, liver and stomach.

The new study, reported in the journal Science Signalling, involved mice with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), which accounts for 95pc of human pancreatic cancers.

Like humans with the disease, the mice have mutations in two key genes, KRAS and p53.

It has proved very difficult to develop drugs that target either of these gene defects. But Dr Yi’s team discovered links between Yap and both KRAS and p53.

KRAS activates Yap, and Yap shuts down p53 – an oncogene that offers protection from cancer when it is not faulty.

Researchers claim that the “North Sea Atlantis” was hit by a Tsunami 8,000 years ago

  

According to a new research conducted by the scientists at Imperial College, North Sea ‘Atlantis’, a prehistoric low lying land mass that previously connected Britain to Mainland Europe, may have been hit by a 5m high tsunami about 8000 years ago.

The research has been presented in Vienna at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly.

According to geophysicists, Dr Hill and his colleagues, Alexandros Avdis, Gareth Collins, Stephan Kramer and Matthew Piggott, a devastating subsea landslide off the coast of Norway, called the Storegga slide, generated the tsunami which submerged the island of a low-lying Atlantis, Doggerland. It was, once, inhabited by Mesolithic tribe.

Dr Jon Hill, a researcher from Imperial College who has published the team’s findings in the journal Ocean Modellingstated that the tsunami would have completely inundated the landmass and that any human living there would have suffered a catastrophic event. Scientists used computer modelling techniques to track the course of tsunami. He also informed that if one takes that sediment and lays it over Scotland, then, it would cover it to a depth of 8m.The tsunami appears to have put an end to any human activity in Doggerland or anywhere else in the region.

The location of Doggerland was first discovered two years back by Scottish archaeologists. It was located in the area between modern day Northern Scotland and Denmark. At that point of time, sea levels were much lower as well as the region was a continuous landmass. North Sea fishermen had picked up ancient artifacts, human bones etc in their nets.

It was, however, a matter of suspicion for a long time that some sort of settlement had been located in the area. As the glaciers of the “Ice Age” began to melt about 20,000 years ago, the sea levels gradually started to rise and, as such, the people began to shift elsewhere.

Donie's news Ireland daily BLOG update

Super-Valu now breathes down Tesco’s neck in Irish supermarket share

 

Aldi and Lidl increase market share in Ireland while overall grocery sales are down.

Superquinn in Blackrock was one of 24 supermarkets rebranded as SuperValu last month

Tesco is perilously close to losing its pre-eminent position in the Irish supermarket sector with the latest figures from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel indicating that its market share has fallen again while both Aldi and Lidl outperform the market.

The research published this morning, shows that Aldi and Lidl are growing while the market as a whole is shrinking. The German discounters have seen their market share increase by 1.4 and 0.8 percentage points respectively.

SuperValu is now the State’s Ireland’s second largest grocer after last month’s rebranding of 24 Superquinn stores to SuperValu’s fascia. The supermarket share figures cover the 12 weeks ending up to March 2nd and show that it now accounts for just over 25 per cent of the total market. Tesco remains the most popular retailer although the gap between first and second is now little more than 1 per cent.

“Bringing 24 Superquinn stores under the SuperValu banner has enhanced the retailer’s position as a major player in the grocery market,” said Kantar Worldpanel’s commercial director David Berry. “SuperValu now accounts for 25.3%t of Irish shoppers’ grocery market spend, just 1.1 percentage points behind Tesco. Its sales have remained broadly in line with the market, which shows that it has been able to retain its market share while acquiring assets.”

He said the main challenge for SuperValu was to convince previously loyal Superquinn shoppers of the merits of its brand and “ultimately hold onto their custom”.

Although the overall grocery market has declined for the fifth successive month, Aldi and Lidl continue to impress with retailers are delivering double digit sales growth and increasing their overall market shares by 1.4 and 0.8 percentage points respectively.

“Over the past three years Aldi and Lidl have captured a combined 3.8 share points from the competition, and have grown sales by 37 per cent in an overall grocery market which has grown by just 1 per cent,” Mr Berry said. “Conversely, Tesco and Dunnes have both experienced declines in market share and actual sales as the result of the pressure exerted by the increasingly competitive market place.”

Last month saw the grocery market’s weakest performance since September 2011 with sales declining by 0.6 per cent. Falling inflation has played a significant part in this as vegetables and bread, two important staple items, are now cheaper than they were last year.

Grocery inflation stands at 1.7 per cent for the 12 week period ending March 2nd down from 2.9 per cent over the previous 12 weeks and the lowest level since April 2012.

Galway consultants highlight a lack of intensive care resources

  

Two Galway hospital consultants are among a group from around the country who are expressing concern about intensive care resources.

Dr. Patrick Neligan and Dr. Michael Scully, both consultants in Intensive Care Medicine at UHG have joined their counterparts from other hospitals to highlight the issue.

In a letter to an Irish Newspaper, the consultants, who are members of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, highlight a 2008 report which showed that intensive care was below standard in Ireland.

However half way through that timeframe, the bed capacity has been significantly reduced.

The consultants feel that more resources need to be poured into intensive care facilities, otherwise there is concern that patients who are seriously ill would not be allocated a bed.

MEANWHILE:

Ireland’s state consultants warn on intensive care facilities

 

‘Real danger’ that road traffic victims may not get an intensive-care bed, say doctors

Consultants said for any patient faced with an acute life-threatening illness, “delay in accessing intensive care units demonstrably reduces the prospect of survival”.

The State’s foremost intensive care consultants have expressed concern over the availability of resources for treating patients who need emergency medicine.

In a letter in The Irish Times today the president and the council of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland draw attention to a 2008 report, Towards Excellence in Critical Care , which found standards of care fell short of those required.

The president, Dr Patrick Seigne, a consultant with Cork University Hospital, yesterday told this newspaper the consultants who signed the letter had been reluctant “to go to the media” on the issue.

However, he said since 2008 resources in intensive care units had suffered further cuts and the situation had deteriorated. The situation was now at the point where consultants in all the main hospitals who signed the letter had “reasons to have concern for the care of patients”.

Centralised hospitals

He said intensive care facilities in “peripheral” hospitals have been closed in a centralisation move which saw no increase in resources in centralised hospitals.

Dr Seigne said there was now “a real danger” that someone seriously injured in a road traffic incident, for example, would not be allocated a bed in an intensive care unit.

He said intensive care units across the State were using resuscitation rooms in casualty departments and recovery rooms for patients who should be cared for in fully-staffed intensive care units.

In his own base of Cork University Hospital there were just 10 “general” intensive care unit beds and a further six “cardiac” intensive care unit beds. There were a further 22 intensive care beds at the hospital which were closed.

Specialist nursing staff

A significant factor in the difficulty was the availability of specialist nursing staff. He said each intensive care bed required five to six nurses to provide cover during a 24-hour period. This meant there was a very strong need for resources at a time when nurses were leaving the country for well-paid jobs in places like Bahrain. “We are training nurses for Bahrain,” he said.

Dr Seigne said part of the solution would be to immediately set up educational programmes to encourage more nurses into the field, but “salary has to be looked at”.

In the letter the consultants said the recommendation to double bed capacity by 2020 is not on track. “Half way through this timeframe bed capacity has actually been actively reduced.”

The consultants said for any patient faced with an acute life-threatening illness, “delay in accessing intensive care units demonstrably reduces the prospect of survival”.

The letter is signed by consultants at Beaumont, St James’s, the Mater, Tallaght, St Vincent’s, James Connolly, UCH Galway, the Mid-Western, CUH Cork, and Waterford Regional hospitals.

Scientists finally find what makes dark chocolate healthy

  

After decades of scientific inquiry, John Finley from Louisiana State University (Pic. above right) and colleagues have found what makes dark chocolate good for you according to their presentation on March 18, 2014, at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Dallas, Texas.

The researchers fund that Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria in the lower digestive tract love dark chocolate.

The bacteriametabolize chemical components in dark chocolate into anti-inflammatory agents that reduce cardiovascular inflammation and the risk of stroke and heart disease.

The researchers proved their concept using cocoa powder and human fecal bacteria in a glass digestive tract that simulated the human lower gut.

Cocoa powder contains antioxidants and fiber that are not acted on by digestive enzymes or digestive secretions in the upper digestive tract and are not absorbed in the upper digestive tract.

Lower digestive tract bacteria convert the antioxidants and fiber into smaller molecules that can be absorbed and used as anti-inflammatory agents and digestive regulators in the lower digestive tract.

The researchers add that eating a prebiotic like garlic can assist the bacteria that metabolize dark chocolate by increasing the rate and of conversion of anti-inflammatory agents in dark chocolate to compounds the human body can absorb.

We should keep to six teaspoons of sugar per day says Prof. O’Shea

 

Ireland’s top obesity expert Prof Donal O’Shea has welcomed the recommendation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) that an adult should consume a maximum of 10% of their total energy intake from sugar with added benefits if this is reduced to 5%.

He said that 5% is equivalent to around 25 grams (around six teaspoons) of sugar per day for an adult of normal Body Mass Index (BMI). For children, the amount would be much lower.

Prof Donal O’Shea, co-chair of the Royal College of Physicians’s Policy Group on on obesity said: “I am very pleased with the WHO draft guidelines. The consumption of free sugars – those added to food and drink – has soared in the last three decades and is a key target for tackling the obesity epidemic.”

He pointed out that “the amount of sugar in a standard can of coke, for example, is well in excess of this recommended intake. Energy drink and sports drinks often contain even higher levels of sugar. For example flavoured Lucozade Energy (380ml) contains 47.5 grams of sugar (approx 12 teaspoons)”.

“Free sugars are a key culprit in our current obesity epidemic. Consumption of free sugars increases overall energy intake and reduces the intake of foods containing more nutritionally adequate calories. Excess sugar also increases the risk of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and dental diseases especially dental care.

“As a policy group we have previously called for the introduction of a tax on sugar sweetened drinks.

“Today’s announcement highlights the serious health issue posed by these drinks, and others products containing high levels of added sugar. The Government needs to take action on this to safeguard the health of the nation and to realise its vision of a healthy Ireland”.

It is disappointing too that such products are actively promoted by sportspeople in their capacity as role models to adults and children alike.

“Sports drinks especially are designed for athletes and sports people expending high levels of energy.

“For the rest of us, they are not recommended due to the high sugar content,” said Prof O’Shea, an endocrinologist in St Vincent’s and St Columcilles hospitals in Dublin.

Meanwhile, the Irish Dental Association has warned that a diet high in sugary, energy-dense foods has serious implications not alone for dental health but can also lead to chronic health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.

According to its President, Dr Sean Malone, half of all Irish 12-year-olds and three quarters of all 15-year-olds have some decay in their permanent teeth. This makes it the most common chronic disease children experience in Ireland.

“According to figures from the Department of Health 37pc of Irish children consume sweets once a day or more while 21pc report drinking soft drinks daily.

“There is overwhelming evidence that sugars in food and beverages are the main dietary cause of tooth decay and erosion in children and adults.

“In addition to dental decay, people who consume excess sugar suffer higher rates of heart disease and diabetes.”

How to quickly cut down on sugar in your diet

• Cereal bar – despite their healthy image, many cereal bars can be high in sugar and fat. Look out for bars that are lower in sugar, fat and salt.

• Chocolate – swap for a lower-calorie hot instant chocolate drink. You can also get chocolate with coffee, and chocolate with malt varieties.

• Biscuits – swap for oatcakes, oat biscuits or unsalted rice cakes, which also provide fibre.

• Sweets – try dried fruit such as raisins, dates, apricots or figs, which all count towards your five a day.

• Nearly one-quarter of our added sugar in our diets comes from sugary drinks such as fizzy drinks, sweetened juices, squashes and cordials. A 500ml bottle of cola contains the equivalent of 17 cubes of sugar. Try sugar-free varieties or, better yet, water, lower-fat milk, or soda water with a splash of fruit juice.

• If you take sugar in tea or coffee, gradually reduce the amount until you can cut it out altogether or try swapping to sweeteners instead.

• Try some new flavours with herbal teas or make your own with hot water and a slice of lemon or ginger.

•   Don’t drink all your fruit. Like fizzy drinks, fruit juice can be high in sugar. When juice is extracted from the whole fruit to make fruit juice, sugar is released and this can cause damage to our teeth.

•   Drinking fruit juice doesn’t fill you up as much as eating fruit.

•   It takes about two-and-a-half oranges to make a glass of juice.

•   But a glass of juice isn’t as filling as eating two-and-a-half oranges because the fibre in the fruit makes you feel fuller for longer.

Ireland ranks fourth out of 30 countries for pancreatic cancer care treatment

  

Pancreatic cancer is known as a ‘silent killer’ as it is both difficult to detect and treat.

Ireland has been ranked fourth out of 30 surveyed countries in the first ever comparison of pancreatic cancer treatment across Europe.

The Euro Pancreatic Cancer Index (EPCI), published today by the Sweden-based research organisation Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), covers 30 indicators, including patient rights, information and accessibility to care, prevention, treatment outcomes, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and palliative care.

The Netherlands comes out top with 879 of a possible 1,000 points, followed by Denmark (872), France (812), Ireland (807) and the UK in fifth position (786). Bulgaria is the lowest rated country in the index at 470 points.

In spite of causing almost as many deaths as breast cancer, pancreatic cancer is neglected by most European healthcare systems, contends the EPCI. In four out of five countries, treatment outcomes data are not monitored and there are no agreed best practice protocols in place.

There are about 370 cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed annually in Ireland and it is the ninth most commonly diagnosed cancer here.

Ireland is one of few countries offering many of the necessary elements of relevant pancreatic cancer care, confirmed Dr Arne Bjornberg, head of HCP Index production.

Patients here are empowered and can inform themselves about treatment options, while diagnostics, outcomes, documentation and access to medicines are among the best in the surveyed countries, the index found. Despite this, however, in Ireland the average five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 5-6 per cent, though this matches the European and US average.

Welcoming Ireland’s positive ranking, Dr Brian Bird, consultant medical oncologist, Bon Secours Hospital Cork, said Irish patients had better access to multidisciplinary teams (in Cork and Dublin) that specialise in treating pancreatic cancer than patients in the UK. “In addition, in Irish medicine we are allowed cross refer so if a patient having a scan for back pain is found to have pancreatic cancer, they can be referred to an appropriate consultant as opposed to having to be referred back to the GP which entails delays,

Pancreatic cancer is known as a “silent killer” as it is both difficult to detect and treat. Because it causes few symptoms in its early stages, and some symptoms are quite vague (such as abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue), correct diagnosis is frequently not made until the cancer is very advanced.

While detection remains a serious issue, recent advances in chemotherapy treatment are improving outcomes, and immunotherapy could offer patients more encouraging survival chances in the future, Dr Bird said.

Endangered primate born at Animal park zoo in England

  

Francois’ langurs are an endangered species native to Vietnam and China.

One of the world’s rarest primates, both in the wild and in captivity, has been born at a British zoo.

The newborn Francois’ langur is the first ever of its species be born at Howletts Wild Animal Park, near Canterbury, Kent, and is a step towards the conservation of the endangered species.

Francois’ langurs, which are listed as endangered, are born with striking red fur, which will gradually darken until they are one year old and turn black, a spokeswoman for the zoo said.

The primates live in a matriarchal group that is led by females, who share parenting duties between them.

The species is native to north-east Vietnam and southern China, where they live at a slightly higher altitude than most langurs, the spokeswoman said.

They inhabit semi-tropical monsoon forest and well-sheltered areas in limestone ranges, but because of major changes in land use the population of Francois’ langurs has diminished.

Their population in the Guangxi Province in China alone has decreased by 85% as a result of hunting and habitat loss, the zoo said.

Matt Ford, head of primates, said: “This is the first time that we have bred Francois’ langurs at Howletts so it is a very exciting and important time for us.

“We are still trying to work out the sex of the newborn Francois’ langur, as the female is a first time mother and will therefore keep the infant tucked away out of view for longer.”