Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

President Higgins starts eight-day visit to Vietnam and Laos

HIGGINS SAYS IRISH IMPRESSED BY VIETNAM’S DEFEAT OF SEVERAL IMPERIALIST AGGRESSORS.

   

PRESIDENT MICHAEL D. HIGGINS AND HIS WIFE WERE WELCOMED AT NOI BAI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

PRESIDENT MICHAEL D HIGGINS: “I THINK ONE OF THE GREAT CHALLENGES FACING BOTH COUNTRIES, HERE IN IRELAND AND IN VIETNAM, IS TO GET AN ECONOMIC MODEL THAT WILL BENEFIT ALL THE PEOPLE.”

President Michael D Higgins has begun an eight-day visit to Vietnam and Laos that will focus on boosting bilateral ties, especially in trade, investment, development, education and training.

Mr Higgins is due to meet Vietnamese president Tran Dai Quang at the presidential palace on Monday and later in the day he will also meet Nguyen Thim Kim Ngan, chair of the National Assembly.

A strong focus of the trip will be Irish Aid projects in Vietnam and Laos, and on Tuesday President Higgins will give a keynote address to the country’s oldest university, the Vietnam National University. He will be accompanied by Sabina Higgins, as well as Minister for Foreign Affairs Charles Flanagan

A significant part of the visit will be focused on aid. Vietnam is the only Irish Aid Key Partner country outside Sub-Saharan Africa, and while it continues to have significant development challenges, Vietnam has made major progress in recent years.

Imperialism

In an interview with Vietnam News, Mr Higgins said Ireland and Vietnam shared a struggle for independence, and he said Irish people were impressed by how the Vietnamese people had to defeat not one but several imperialist aggressors.

“I think one of the great challenges facing both countries, here in Ireland and in Vietnam, is to get an economic model that will benefit all the people, when all the citizens have an opportunity to get an education, get housing, etc,” he said.

“In this context, the reduction of poverty from 70 per cent to less than 23 per cent is a very significant achievement,” the president said.

Vietnam is four times bigger than Ireland and has a population of over 88 million. Ireland gave $150 million (€134.88 million) in non-refundable aid to Vietnam between 2007 and 2016, focusing on poverty reduction, support for vulnerable groups, and improving economic management.

Ireland has provided €1.54 million for research into the climate impacts on the Lower Mekong Basin work through the EU-led Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) from 2012 to 2015.

Climate-sensitive development

Ireland provides support to civil society organisations (CSOs) working to pilot and scale up new models in community-based climate-sensitive development. Of the total funding under the bilateral development co-operation programme in Vietnam, administered and co-ordinated by the Irish Embassy in Hanoi, €3.33 million relates to climate finance.

The state visit marks 20 years of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Vietnam.

Bilateral trade reached $402 million (€360.55 million) in 2015, up 28 per cent from the previous year. Ireland currently has 17 investment projects with combined capital of $20.7 million (€18.7 million) in Vietnam, ranking 67th among 115 countries and territories investing here.

Pepper Money sells out new mortgage’s with geographic criteria

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL FIRM SELLING MORTGAGES THAT EXCLUDE CERTAIN IRISH COUNTIES

  

PEPPER MONEY WILL PROVIDE MORTGAGES FOR BOTH RESIDENTIAL AND BUY-TO-LET CUSTOMERS, AND IT SPECIALISES IN AREAS INCLUDING REFINANCERS, BUY-TO-LET, THE SELF-EMPLOYED AND PEOPLE WITH HISTORIC CREDIT ISSUES.

Pepper, the Irish subsidiary of the Australian-listed financial services group, is to start selling mortgages directly to Irish customers for the first time through the launch of a new direct-to-consumer platform .

Pepper Money will provide mortgages for both residential and buy-to-let customers, and it specialises in a number of areas including refinancers, buy-to-let, the self-employed and people with historic credit issues.

Customers can apply for a mortgage with the lender via its website (peppermoney.ie) or its customer services team in Shannon. Customers can also still submit an application through Pepper’s panel of approved mortgage brokers. Pepper promises to respond with an approval in principle for customers within 24 hours.

Paul Doddrell, chief executive of Pepper Ireland, said the move was a reflection of the success of its mortgage launch in the Irish market, particularly for groups of consumers with otherwise limited options.

“ Our products are intended to target a broader and more diverse range of customers so we tailor our loans based on people’s needs; for example, our Advantage mortgage is really unique and fit-for-purpose in this market because it gives people with a legacy credit event an option they probably won’t find elsewhere.”

POST-CRASH

Pepper became the first new mortgage lender in the Irish market since the banking crash in late 2008 and the first non-bank group to offer home loans, when it started offering mortgages last February through a small group of brokers. Now it’s ramping up its presence.

Pepper Money is the new consumer-facing brand launched globally by Pepper Group, and it offers a range of consumer finance products including mortgages, personal and car loans, equipment finance and credit cards. It is expected that the group will roll out some of these additional products, such as car loans, in Ireland too.

“The new Pepper Money brand will support our ambition to expand our finance products into areas such as auto and personal loans, as we look to grow the business,” Mr Doddrell said.

THREE PRODUCTS

Pepper offers three mortgage products, with specific products available for self-employed professionals or those with non-standard employment types, as well as those with legacy credit issues that may hinder their ability to borrow. Rates start from 3.1 per cent or 3.23 per cent APR for borrowers with a loan to value of less than 50 per cent, or from 3.85 per cent (4.01) for those with credit issues. For investors, Pepper has buy-to-let rates starting at 4.4 per cent. However, there are restrictions in where it will lend; on its website Pepper says it will only lend in Dublin and surrounding counties (Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow); Cork city; Galway city; Limerick city; Ennis; Shannon; and Kilkenny. However, according to Pepper, while its initial focus is on the main geographic regions and commuter belts, it will look to expand to new locations over time, and recently added Kilkenny to its approved locations.

Pepper first came to Ireland in 2012 and it now employs more than 400 people in Shannon and Dublin, where its offices are located. It has over €16 billion of assets under management.

Ireland’s new home buyers are using big deposits to buy their properties

    

NEW HOME BUYERS ARE USING BIG DEPOSITS TO BUY PROPERTIES here, A NEW RESEARCH SHOWS.

The findings come just weeks before of the Central Bank is due to announce a review of its mortgage lending restrictions.

These rules set out that first and second-time buyers have to have big deposits when buying, and limit lending based on income.

Now economists working for the Central Bank have looked at most mortgages issued this year and found that the average first-time buyer has a deposit of €64,000.

This represents 26% of the value of the home, new research carried out by Central Bank economists shows.

The average income for these borrowers was €66,000.

Small numbers of borrowers can get exemptions from the limits, but these tend to be Dublin-based, with high income.

When those getting an exemption are excluded, the average deposit size for a first-time buyer works out at 21% of the property’s value, economists Christina Kinghan, Paul Lyons and Yvonne McCarthy found.

The findings come ahead of a review of Central Bank lending restrictions, the outcome of which is expected to be announced before the end of this month.

The lending limits have proved hugely controversial, with estate agents and mortgage brokers claiming they are slowing down the home-buying market. They were introduced in February 2015.

The Government’s new help-to-buy scheme is seen as an attempt to circumvent the rules.

Under the regulations first-time buyers can borrow with a deposit of at least 10% for the first €220,000, and need a 20% deposit for all amounts over this. They are limited to borrowing only three and a half times their income.

Second-time buyers need a deposit of at least 20%, and have the same income limit on borrowing. There are some exemptions.

The average second-time buyers have equity of €170,000 when moving home, the research shows.

Those not getting an exemption have equity of 34% on average when moving.

Why it’s no surprise that hypochondriacs get more heart disease

  

HYPOCHONDRIACS ARE MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP HEART DISEASE, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN IN NORWAY.

The ‘worried well’ were 73% more likely to develop heart disease than those who are not anxious about their health.

The link may be explained by the fact that stress of any kind has long been recognised as a risk factor for the disease.

During the study, published in the journal BMJ Open, the researchers examined health data from more than 7,000 people born in Norway in the 1950s. The participants’ heart health was tracked using national data on hospital treatment for heart conditions. Their anxiety was measured using a standard scale.

By 2009, 234 people in the group had experienced acute angina or myocardial infarction (a heart attack). The researchers said they were unable to establish a causal relationship between anxiety and heart disease, and that people with anxiety were more likely to have other mental health problems which could contribute to poor health.

The researchers wrote: ‘These findings illustrate the dilemma for clinicians between reassuring the patient that current physical symptoms of anxiety do not represent heart disease, contrasted against the emerging knowledge on how anxiety, over time, may be causally associated with increased risk of coronary artery disease.

‘Our research indicates that characteristic behaviour among persons with health anxiety, such as monitoring and frequent check-ups of symptoms, does not reduce the risk of coronary heart disease events.’

This study was a prospective cohort study examining the relationship between health anxiety (determined by validated questionnaire) and the development of coronary heart disease (defined as heart disease leading to angina or a heart attack). Studies like this do not establish causation but usually highlight correlation.

During the seven-year follow-up period, double the number of people with health anxiety experienced a cardiac event compared to those without (6.1% versus 3%). After analysis, men and women with anxiety were almost twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease, with the effect more pronounced in men, even after adjusting for risk factors.

The results are consistent with previous data suggesting stress is an important risk factor for heart disease; anxiety about health is also a form of stress, and so it should come as no surprise that this relationship was found.

What would have been interesting is if the activities of those patients most at risk had been tracked. Did their health anxiety translate into ‘heart-healthy’ activities? Did they attempt to make positive lifestyle changes in order to alleviate risk?

Take-home message: mental health is as important as physical health.

Things you need to be doing to get a good night’s sleep

    

According to various researches, it has been found out that there are a myriad of habits and practices that can help you have a good night’s sleep. This is also called “Sleep Hygiene”. By following these habits, you can be benefited even if you’re suffering from insomnia.

These habits when practised regularly will help you have a peaceful sleep. Sleep is the most important thing that each one of us require on a daily basis. Ideally, 7-8 hours of sleep time is a must to rejuvenate your body and also have a calm, peaceful mind. Here are some things you need to do for a good sleep.

THINGS YOU NEED TO DO FOR A GOOD SLEEP ARE:

1.Hit the sack when you feel tired: There is no need to struggle to fall asleep. If you don’t have a busy schedule, try to keep yourself engaged with various other activities like gym, cycling, grocery shopping, cooking, reading, etc. After a totally busy day, you will automatically feel tired enough to doze off in no time. This is one of the simplest tips for a healthy sleep.

2.Say Goodbye To Alcohol, Caffeine, Nicotine, etc: If you want to have a good quality sleep, you must avoid all the caffeinated stuff because they contain caffeine, which is a stimulant that keeps you active and awake. Stay away from coffee, cola, chocolate, tea, etc, for at least 4-5 hours before your bedtime. If you’re addicted to smoking, you should avoid cigarette just before hitting the bed.

3.Exercise Is A Must: Exercise stimulates your body to secrete the “cortisol” (stress-related hormone) which helps to trigger the alerting mechanism in your brain. Exercise also promotes a good night’s sleep if it is done at the right time. One of the simplest tips for a healthy sleep is to work out early in the morning and avoid exercising when you are too close to your bedtime.

4.Always Keep Your Sleep Schedule Constant: Always keep your wake-up time and your bedtime same, even on your weekends. This will help to control your body’s clock and will help you fall asleep every night at the same time.

5.Avoid the afternoon naps: If you have the habit of taking naps during the daytime, then this can keep you awake till late night. Thus, avoid napping, especially in the afternoon, to get a better and sound sleep throughout the night.

6.Have a light Dinner: Having rich foods, very close to your bedtime, can trigger indigestion which can disrupt your sleep. Take a light dinner that includes the necessary nutrients and try to finish your dinner a few hours before hitting the bed. This is what you need to do for a good sleep.

7.Take a balanced intake of fluids: Hydrate yourself enough before going to bed, so that you do not wake up feeling thirsty during the night. However, make sure you do this a couple of hours before hitting the bed, so that you don’t have to wake up to go to the bathroom in the night.

8.Make your room devoid of all the disruptions: One of the simplest tips for a healthy sleep is to slumber in a tranquil and cool room. Make sure the room is dark while you sleep and there should also be no noises or any other disturbances during your bedtime.

9.Make your bed comfortable: Make sure that your mattress and pillows are soft and comfy. If you have been using the same mattress for more than 9-10 years now, then it is time you got a new one. Keep beautiful and comfortable pillows on your bed that invite you for sleep.

THEY ARE THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO FOR A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP.

Ireland ratifies Paris Agreement on global climate change

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS TO PARTICIPATE IN UN CLIMATE TALKS IN MOROCCO NEXT WEEK

    

UN CLIMATE CHIEF PATRICIA ESPINOSA (ABOVE) SAID NO ONE CAN DOUBT THAT THE WORLD IS DETERMINED TO SHIFT TOWARDS A “LOW-EMISSION, RESILIENT SOCIETY”.

Ireland has formally ratified the Paris Agreement on global climate change, it was announced on Monday.

Minister for Communications Denis Naughten completed the process last Friday, the day the deal came into force.

A spokeswoman for Mr Naughten said Ireland had “deposited the instrument of ratification” with the United Nations last week.

The confirmation came as leaders from almost 200 countries met in Marrakesh, Morocco, for the annual United Nations climate talks.

UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa told delegates “no politician or citizen, no business manager or investor” can doubt that the world is determined to shift towards a “low-emission, resilient society”.

The agreement marks the first time all countries have pledged to fight global warming by curbing the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.

Ms Espinosa said: “Achieving the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement is not a given. The peaking of global emissions is urgent, as is attaining far more climate-resilient societies.”

Mr Naughten is expected to travel to Morocco next week to participate in the discussions.

Delegates will meet for two weeks to work on the rules for implementing the deal, including how to measure and report emissions so that countries can be held accountable.

The goal of the agreement is to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times.   

Irish households continue to cut its debt by repaying loans 

LATEST FIGURES FROM CENTRAL BANK SHOW HOUSEHOLDS STILL THIRD MOST INDEBTED IN THE EU

    

HOUSEHOLD DEBT HAS DECLINED CONTINUOUSLY FOR THE LAST 29 QUARTERS AND HAS FALLEN BY 26.6% SINCE ITS PEAK. 

Irish household debt fell by 1.1% in the fourth quarter of last year as borrowers focused on repaying loans.

The latest figures from the Central Bank show household debt continued to decrease, falling by €1.6bn, or 1.1%, to €149.6bn.

This represented a household debt per capita of €32,269. Household debt is now at its lowest level since the first quarter of 2006.

The Central Bank said the decline over the quarter reflected net debt repayments (-€1.1bn) and debt write-downs (-€0.6bn), which were slightly offset by positive reclassifications (€0.1bn).

Household net worth increased by 1.4% to €626.1bn, or €135,078 per capita, during the same period. This increase was largely driven by a rise in housing asset values (€6.3bn), as well as a further decline in household liabilities (€1.6bn).

Compared to a post-crisis low of €444.0bn in the second quarter of 2012, household net worth has risen by 41%. However, it is still 12.8% lower than its pre-crisis peak of €718bn in the second quarter of 2007.

Household debt has declined continuously for the last 29 quarters and has fallen by 26.6% since its peak of €203.7bn in the third quarter of 2008.

Indicators of household debt sustainability continued to improve during the same period. Debt as a proportion of disposable income fell from 159.8% to 155.1%, reflecting both the decline in household debt, as well as strong growth in annualised disposable income.

Overall, the ratio of household debt to disposable income has fallen by 60.2% since its peak of 215.3% in the second quarter of 2011.

Debt as a proportion of total assets also decreased, falling to from 19.5% to 19.1% over the quarter.

Despite a “significant decline” in debt as a proportion of disposable income over the year to Q4, Irish households continued to be the third most indebted in the European Union. Irish household debt fell by 25.1 per points over the year.

The Central Bank noted this was “significantly more” than any other country examined.

Spanish and Portuguese household debt also fell considerably over the year declining by 6.1%% and 4.6% respectively.

Household investment in financial assets rose to €1.9bn. This represented the highest level of investment in financial assets by households since the third quarter of 2009.

The increase in financial assets over the quarter largely reflected transactions into deposits.

Investigation launched after death of a man in his (70s) in Garda custody

GSOC CONFIRM GARDAÍ ADMINISTERED CPR AFTER MAN ‘BECAME UNWELL WITH BREATHING DIFFICULTIES’ IN A GARDA CELL.

   

THE GARDA OMBUDSMAN HAS CONFIRMED THAT THEY ARE INVESTIGATING THE DEATH OF A MAN IN CUSTODY.

The man, who was in his 70s, was discovered dead in a cell at Westport Garda station in Co Mayo at 11am.

The man was detained earlier today and sources have indicated he may have suffered a heart attack.

A spokeswoman for the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has confirmed that a team is on their way to the scene where an investigation will be carried out.

A referral was made to the body under section 102 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.

This evening GSOC released a statement about the incident.

A statement?

A spokeswoman confirmed: “The Garda Ombudsman is examining the circumstances surrounding the death of a man in his 70s while in custody at Westport Garda Station, Co. Mayo.

“The incident was referred to GSOC by the Garda Síochána under section 102 of the Garda Síochána Act at about 12.30pm this afternoon.

“The man who was under arrest became unwell with breathing difficulties and CPR was administered by gardaí. A doctor and the emergency services were called and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The State Pathologist has been informed and a post-mortem is scheduled to take place in Castlebar in the coming days.

“GSOC Investigators are at the scene and an independent examination is underway to establish the facts of the situation.”

The published Panama Papers reveals thousands of secret offshore companies

A SEARCHABLE DATABASE DISPLAYS MORE THAN 200,000 ENTITIES FROM THE PANAMA PAPERS

     

THE INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS (ICIJ) TONIGHT PUBLISHES A SEARCHABLE DATABASE (HTTPS://OFFSHORELEAKS.ICIJ.ORG) THAT STRIPS AWAY THE SECRECY OF NEARLY 214,000 OFFSHORE ENTITIES CREATED IN 21 JURISDICTIONS, FROM NEVADA TO HONG KONG AND THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS.

The data, part of the Panama Papers investigation, is the largest ever release of information about offshore companies and the people behind them. This includes, when available, the names of the real owners of those opaque structures.

The database also displays information about more than 100,000 additional offshore entities the ICIJ had already disclosed in its 2013 Offshore Leaks investigation.

THE PANAMA PAPERS DATABASE.  

(HTTPS://OFFSHORELEAKS.ICIJ.ORG)

THE ICIJ IS PUBLISHING THE INFORMATION IN THE INTEREST OF THE PUBLIC .

The data the ICIJ is now making public represents a fraction of the Panama Papers, a trove of more than 11.5 million leaked files from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s top creators of hard-to-trace companies, trusts and foundations.

The consortium is not publishing the totality of the leak, and it is not disclosing raw documents or personal information en masse. The database contains a great deal of information about company owners, proxies and intermediaries in secrecy jurisdictions, but it does not disclose bank accounts, email exchanges and financial transactions contained in the documents.

In all, the database reveals more than 360,000 names of people and companies behind secret offshore structures. As the data are from leaked sources and not a standardised registry, there may be some duplication of names.

The data was originally obtained from an anonymous source by reporters at the German newspaper Süeddeustche Zeitung, who asked ICIJ to organise a global reporting collaboration to analyse the files.

More than 370 reporters (https://panamapapers.icij.org/about.html) in nearly 80 countries investigated the files for a year. Their investigations uncovered the secret offshore holdings of 12 world leaders, more than 128 other politicians and scores of fraudsters, drug traffickers and other criminals whose companies had been blacklisted in the US and elsewhere.

Their status as outlaws or public officials did not prevent them from obtaining shell companies in locales where secrecy laws often make it impossible for prosecutors and other investigators to trace their assets.

The files revealed, for example, that associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies.

THE GLOBAL REACTION? 

The reaction to the Panama Papers was immediate and viral.

Outraged citizens took to the streets in Reykjavik, Malta and London while the hashtag #panamapapers trended on Twitter for days after the story broke on April 3rd.

The prime minister of Iceland resigned over the British Virgin Islands company he co-owned with his wife, while other world leaders scrambled to explain their secret holdings.

It took UK’s prime minister David Cameron three days to publicly acknowledge he had profited from an investment fund, created by his father, that was incorporated in Panama and managed in the Bahamas.

In Spain a minister resigned after being caught in a series of lies about his connections to offshore, and in Uruguay police arrested five individuals suspected of laundering money for a powerful Mexican drug cartel.

The Panama Papers underscore the fundamental injustices and inequalities created by the offshore system, media commentators and political leaders say.

“When taxes are evaded, when state assets are taken and put into these havens, all of these things can have a tremendous negative effect on our mission to end poverty and boost prosperity,”

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, said as he opened the spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington soon after ICIJ and more than 100 other news organisations, including The Irish Times, began revealing the results of the media collaboration’s investigation.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, pointed out that the biggest problem was that many of the schemes revealed by the Panama Papers were legal. “It’s not that they’re breaking the laws, it’s that the laws are so poorly designed,” he said.

The revelations reignited the debate about the need for public registries in which information about who ultimately controls a company be accessible to all. The UK has made disclosure of beneficial owner data mandatory and public, but British Overseas Territories such the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, some the busiest offshore havens, have agreed to share that information by law enforcement.

Citing the Panama Papers, the US government also announced on Thursday that it has sent legislation to Congress to create a centralised federal registry of the actual owners of any newly created company.

The registry would help law enforcement authorities ferret out the real people behind anonymous companies used in money laundering and other wrongdoing.

The governments of Australia and Germany have said that they too intend to create public registries of company owners.

On Friday, the anonymous leaker of the Panama Papers, known only as “John Doe, ” spoke publicly for the first time in a written statement and called out for concrete steps to combat tax havens .

“In the European Union, every member state’s corporate register should be freely accessible, with detailed data plainly available on ultimate beneficial owners,” the source wrote. Doe added that the US “can clearly no longer trust its fifty states to make sound decisions about their own corporate data.”

EXPLORING THE DATABASE? 

(HTTPS://OFFSHORELEAKS.ICIJ.ORG)

The searchable database that ICIJ publishes today allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used – and sometimes abused – the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries. The leaked data covers nearly 40 years, from 1977 through the end of 2015.

The data, which includes postal addresses, displays links to more than 200 countries and territories, from China to Chile.

Users can filter the information by country and by offshore jurisdiction. They can also explore the role of banks, law firms and other gatekeepers of the financial system in facilitating the creation of offshore companies for high net worth individuals.

For the first time, they can see details about shadowy Panamanian private foundations, including when available information about who controls them.

While the database opens up a world that has never been shown in this much detail, not every owner of a company that appears in the Panama Papers shows up in the public database.

This is because ownership information is often buried in emails, power-of-attorney letters and internal notes of Mossack Fonseca employees and cannot easily be extracted in a systematic manner.

In addition, Mossack Fonseca often failed to collect the necessary information about the ultimate owners of companies, relying instead on banks and other intermediaries to keep track of that essential data.

Still, it is expected that Panama Papers revelations will continue to surface as regulators and ordinary citizens from around the globe probe the newly available data and find new connections that may have escaped reporters. Concerned citizens are encouraged to share tips with ICIJ and the Panama Papers journalists who continue to investigate the documents. The full dataset is also available for download: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/pages/database.

“Transparency is not going to move backward,” Kim said in his World Bank spring meetings remarks, warning that those trying to avoid taxes or steal money from public treasuries should be “very careful” because they will eventually be tracked down.

“The world is only going to become more and more transparent as we move forward.”

Aldi and Lidl prove incredibly astute at tapping into what Irish consumers want

IRISH CONSUMERS MOVING TO OWN-BRAND OFFERINGS IS NO SURPRISE

    

IRISH CONSUMERS ARE NOW DISCARDING BRAND NAMES MORE IN FAVOUR OF THE OWN-BRAND OFFERINGS ON THE SHELVES OF ALDI AND LIDL IN GREATER NUMBERS THAN EVER SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE.

The share of the Irish grocery market held by the German discounters Aldiand Lidl has just increased dramatically, with confirmation due on Monday that nearly one in four Irish consumers do their shopping in either one of the two stores.

Last month, figures from industry analysts Kantar Worldpanel painted a very different picture.

THOSE FIGURES PUT SUPERVALU ON 24.9% OF THE IRISH MARKET, WHILE TESCO HAD 23.9% -JUST 0.4% AHEAD OF DUNNES STORES.

Lidl and Aldi had 8.5% and 8.4% market share respectively – good certainly, but nowhere as near as good as the new figures suggest.

The change is due to a recalibration from Kantar rather than any shift in spending.

There is no change in the running order, with Supervalu still in the number one position and Aldi still in fifth – but the combined market share of Aldi and Lidl is 22.1%. Lidl now has 11.5% of the Irish market, while Aldi is just behind it on 11.2%.

Aldi is arguably the better performing of the pair, because it has an almost identical market share with significantly fewer stores.

Brand names:  That Irish consumers are eschewing brand names in favour of the own-brand offerings on the shelves of Aldi and Lidl in greater numbers than ever should come as no surprise.

In the mid-1990s, Lidl and Aldi were unfamiliar to most Irish shoppers. Then, in 1998, Lidl arrived and was joined the following year by Aldi.

In the early days growth was slow, with Irish people reluctant to swap branded products for unfamiliar labels, while Irish suppliers and producers were reluctant to do business with untested chains who were not highly regarded among shoppers.

People were amused by the pair’s eclectic weekly special offer – but the allure of delights such as jackhammers jostling for position with canoes, luridly coloured onesies and flat-pack gazebos was not enough to bring people through their doors in significant numbers.

Their Spartan shelves did Lidl and Aldi no favours either. A big Tesco outlet might have more than 20,000 different items on their shelves, while the discounters contented themselves with around 1,000.

Then the bubble burst – and everything changed. The growth of both retailers has been relentless ever since but it would be wrong to suggest that growth has been simply down to cash strapped times. Far from it.

Both Aldi and Lidl have proved themselves to be incredibly astute at tapping into what Irish consumers want. They tweaked their product lines to offer more Irish produce, their ranges improved dramatically and they established very good relationships with Irish suppliers.

Crucially, both Aldi and Lidl were also able to prove that people who did their shopping in their stores saved money, a lot of money.

Canny shoppers realised they could easily knock over a third off their annual grocery spend by shopping with the Germans, without sacrificing anything significant in terms of quality.

The perception of both companies is also very good. Both featured in the top 10 most respected companies in the Republic in a survey published last month by the Reputations Agency, while a separate survey from Amárach on consumers’ attitudes published late last year rated Aldi fourth most highly rated company in Ireland in a poll of more than 2,700 people.

“That really surprised me,” said Gerard O’Neill of Amárach when the survey was published.

“We lived through the recession and watched as the discounters changed the retail rules and relentlessly pushed down prices, but now they are changing the rules again. They are aiming for better prices, better experiences, and better service.”

Speaking yesterday, O’Neill elaborated. “The recession gave them [discounters] a foothold – but there is more to it than that. They have completely changed the conversation about value and made people realise it is not all about price.

“It is about affordability, but also about the sense of how a person feels shopping. Aldi and Lidl have made people who shop in their stores feel prudent, discerning, more astute – almost German.”

O’Neill said the two had been “very clever in how they have dealt with their competition. It has been like a bait and switch. They made the conversation about price and then switched it to Irishness and community.

“If a Martian was to arrive in Ireland they would be sure that both Aldi and Lidl were indigenous companies, so embedded in the local communities do they appear,” he suggested.

Customer experience

He pointed out that customer experience “is driven not by value for money – because we rationalise that after the fact – but by something more emotional. We like to come away from the shopping experience feeling smug – in the nice sense of the word – and safe in the knowledge that we have got a bargain. Aldi and Lidl understand that.”

It is not just by offering good value and toying with our emotions that Aldi and Lidl have grown so strongly. Both have opened stores at a phenomenal rate.

Last Thursday, the former opened its 124th – and largest – store in Sallynogginin Co Dublin, while Lidl has 147 stores.

Both have plans for more openings in the months ahead.

Damian O’Reilly, who lectures in retail management in the Dublin Institute of Management, described how effectively the discounters have been playing the retail game in recent years, capitalising on changing economic conditions, improving consumer knowledge and very effective store design and stock maintenance.

He pointed out that their modular units were very cheap to put up – a store can be opened for about €3 million – and their compact size means they can be squeezed into small spaces in rural towns which has allowed them to take on Supervalu in areas where that retailer used to be traditionally untouchable.

And, he said, Aldi and Lidl have been outspending their rivals on television and newspaper ads over the last two years, working relentlessly to promote their Irishness.

They also have some canny tricks they play. “They have longer conveyor belts leading to the cash registers, so shoppers think they are nearly there when they start putting their shopping out – even though there might still be three people ahead of them. The staff have to scan 30 items a minute – so the check-out process moves very quickly.”

But where to next? “In terms of market share I think they are nearly there,” O’Reilly says. “They might be able to grow another couple of per cent but the rate at which they are opening stores is slowing and that will put a limit on how much they will grow.”

O’Neill agreed, although he suggested the Germans could get to 30% of the market. “They will be constrained by the amount of real estate they can buy and the competition is not just going to sit there and watch as they grow bigger.”

Full moons influence less sleep in children

    

THE FULL MOON CAN SOMEHOW INFLUENCE CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR AND EVEN AFFECT THEIR SLEEP? ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO STRENGTHEN ANCIENT BELIEF ON THE LUNAR PHASES’ EFFECTS ON HUMAN BIOLOGY.

A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics showed that children are no more active during full moon than in any other phase of the moon. The full moon, on the other hand, may interfere with their sleeping time, potentially owing to its brightness particularly “if the window curtain is not sufficiently opaque.”

“[S]leep duration was 1 percent shorter at full moon compared to new moon, while activity behaviours were not significantly associated with the lunar cycle in this global sample of children,” wrote the researchers, with this specific finding translating to around five minutes less sleep.

According to researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Canada, the study offers “solid evidence” that the links between moon phases and children’s sleep duration and activity behaviors do not come across as meaningful from a public health perspective.

The team analyzed data from over 5,800 children, who were ages 9 to 11 and came from 12 countries. Unlike previous research relying on human judgment, subjects wore accelerometers, which are akin to fitness trackers recording body movements or monitoring sleep for 24 hours a day for at least seven days.

The kids got five minutes shorter sleep on nights with a full moon, deemed an effect “unlikely to be important.” And it remains unclear why children had less shuteye on full-moon nights.

 It could be that the full moon’s brightness was interfering with sleep, although the researchers considered this implausible given the abundance of artificial light – such as from smartphones and mobile devices – in modern societies.

The team urged future studies to see if the human body is somehow synchronized with the moon’s cycles, or if the full moon has a more pronounced effect on certain groups of people.

The belief that the moon affects people’s behavior dates back ancient times, although studies have seen little evidence to back up this idea. The moon mystery, suffice it to say, has fascinated many civilizations and generations.

For instance, no peer-reviewed study yet has seen any notable association between the full moon and epileptic seizures, psychiatric ward visits, or emergency room cases. Even when it comes to menstrual cycles, there is no research so far that makes a significant correlation between lunar phases and the condition across a huge swath of participants.

In addition, the effects of the moon on the ocean are notable not only during the full moon – the tides, too, are highest during the new moon.