Wednesday 2nd April 2014
Irish Government plans for one-tier health service announced today
The white paper on universal health insurance proposes access based on the needs of our people.
The Government has unveiled plans to create a one-tier health system, supported by universal health insurance, with access based on need rather than ability to pay.
The plans are contained in a white paper on universal health insurance which was launched today by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and senior ministers.
Mr Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore described the document as a “once in a generation opportunity” to build a health service that was currently not fit for purpose. Minister for Health James Reilly claimed the plans will amount to the biggest reform of the health system in the history of the State.
Under the proposals, universal health insurance would be compulsory for everyone, with the State paying or subsidising the cost of premiums for most people. The white paper outlines the key elements of the new system and how it will work. It also examines the future basket of services to be included in the new system, as well as funding mechanisms.
Dr Reilly said the existing two-tier system was not working. “It’s unfair, unaffordable and inefficient. Without change, taxes will need to go up or services will have to be cut.”
The Government was determined that State spending on healthcare under UHI would not exceed existing spending, he emphasised. Specific measures would be introduced to control costs including, if necessary, capping of the profits and claims expenditure of insurers.
The public is being invited to make submission to theDepartment of Health on the proposals before the end of May, and Dr Reilly plans to speak at a series of regional meetings as part of the consultation process.
Under UHI, everyone will have equal access to a standard package of services. Health insurers will not be allowed to sell products that provide faster access to these services.
Dr Reilly said that if patients wanted “cordon blue cooking or five-star accommodation” while in hospital they would have to pay for it themselves.
UHI is not due to be finalised until 2019, so final implementation will be a matter for the next government.
Ireland’s Unemployment rate falls to 11.8% for March
Long-term unemployment still ‘acute’ with 45.8% signing on for more than a year
There was a 1,400 drop in the number of men claiming benefits in the State in March, while the number of women claimants fell by 300.
The unemployment rate fell to 11.8 per cent in March, the lowest level in almost five years.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office show the number of people signing on the Live Register fell by 1,800 last month, marking the 21st month of successive decline in the unemployment rate.
Long-term unemployment remains a significant problem however, with 179,335 people, or 45.8 per cent of all claimants in March, signing on for 12 months or more.
The total number of people on the register, which includes casual and part-time workers as well as those on Jobseekers Allowance, is down 8 per cent or 33,900 since the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the number stood at 396,900 for March. This represents an unemployment rate of 11.8 per cent, down from 11.9 per cent in February.
The fall was most marked among males, with a drop of 1,400 recorded in the number of men on the register in the month, compared to 300 women.
The number of male claimants decreased by 25,807, or 9.6 per cent, to 243, 189 in the 12 months to the end of March, while female claimants fell by 8,049, or 5.2 per cent, to 148, 043 in the period.
There was a significant difference between the declines in short-term and long-term claimants, with the number of people signing on for 12 months or more falling by just 4.6 per cent in the last year, compared to a drop of 10.6 per cent for short-term claimants.
The CSO release also includes figures on the number of people enrolled in labour activation programmes, primarily the long-term unemployed, who are not included in the Live Register figures. There were 85,119 people taking part in February, up 2 per cent or 1,698 on the same month last year.
Commenting on the figures, Investec chief economist Philip O’Sullivan said that while the improvement in the headline Live Register figures was welcome, the problem of long-term unemployment remains “acute”.
“Tackling this issue remains a major priority for policymakers,” he said.
“While the Irish standardised unemployment rate is now inside the Eurozone (whose unemployment rate was 11.9 per cent in February) for the first time since late 2008, that is not much by way of consolation for those awaiting a return to work.”
Mr O’Sullivan added that there are “tell-tale signs that emigration remains a factor” in the declining numbers signing on, with the number of claimants under the age of 25 falling by 11.5 per cent in the year to the end of March, compared to a fall of 7.3 per cent in those aged over 25 in the same period.
Also commenting on the long-term unemployment figures, Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said the Government’s focus should remain on reducing business costs and increasing competitiveness if jobs were to be created.
“The drive for jobs must not be sabotaged by the demands for wage increases, which will simply stall any fragile recovery as the cost of labour is by far the most significant driver of business costs for most enterprises – particularly for micro and small businesses,” he said.
“Despite recent cost improvements, due to the recession,Ireland remains a high cost location for a range of key business inputs and pressure is mounting on a number of costs including wages, property, utilities, transport and credit.”
Davy analyst Conall Mac Coille said today’s figures should “provide reassurance that the recovery in the Irish economy continues, addressing any lingering concerns following the news that Irish GDP contracted by 0.3 per cent in 2013”.
“Jobs growth appears to have been sustained in 2014, consistent with business sentiment surveys that suggest companies expect to expand their employment,” he added.
The Rehab group refuses to reveal CEO Exuctive Angela Kerins’ retirement package
The Rehab group has refused to release the details of chief executive Angela Kerins’ retirement package after her shock resignation decision today.
Angela Kerins has been under massive pressure in recent months over her lavish €240,000 salary and has faced questions about the profitability of the disabilities charity’s scratch cards.
Charity officials are due to make another appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) next week.
This morning, Children Minister Frances Fitzgerald and committee member Deputy Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein, called on M/s Kerins to attend that meeting despite her retirement.
DEDICATED
Announcing her decision to retire four years early, the 56-year-old told staff at the charity: “In recent months, I have become increasingly concerned about the toll that public controversy has taken on the Rehab Group and my own family.
“While I have dedicated my energies and ability to growing and developing the Rehab Group for the last 22 years I am of the view that it is in the best interests of all concerned that I step down at this time.
“In doing so I hope the organisation can focus its entire energies on its core activity of developing and delivering services to people with disabilities and others who are disadvantaged.”
In a statement Rehab Group chairman Brian Kerr thanked M/s Kerins for her “dedication and resolve” over the last seven years and wished her “every success in the future”.
The charity said a management transition process is being put in place “to ensure that the important work of the Rehab Group continues as usual”.
A spokesman this morning refused to reveal details of M/s Kerins’ retirement package including annual pension payments or any lump sum she may be entitled to.
He said the terms of her retirement package “are in line with what her existing contract arrangements are”.
“That’s obviously confidential and something we can’t divulge without the express permission of M/s Kerins,” he said.
M/s Kerins revealed her €240,000 salary at a previous PAC meeting in February after refusing to confirm the sum for weeks beforehand.
She said that her pay was funded by Rehab’s commercial operations but faced questioning over the €80m in public money that the charity receives.
TDs were highly critical of her performance at the PAC, with its chairman John McGuinness accusing her of giving incomplete evidence.
Rehab later provided more information about staff pay, revealing 12 senior members of the management team at Rehab Group earn more than €100,000-a-year.
M/s Kerins was to appear again on April 10, along with another former chief executive Frank Flannery.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Edition, Minister Fitzgerald said “It would be in the interests of Rehab and the interest of the charity sector for her to appear before the public accounts committee.”
She said Mr Flannery should also attend saying: “There have been questions that PAC have put that they want the people who’ve been in charge to answer.”
Mr Flannery faced criticism for not appearing at the PAC with M/s Kerins in February.
His presence had been requested by the committee, which had questions about his pension and other matters, including a coffin importation business.
Mary Lou McDonald said: “Resignation or no resignation Angela Kerins needs to fully cooperate with the Public Accounts Committee inquiry and needs to answer the questions.”
Sligo County Council faces multi-million bill over Lissadell case
7m. 
The Walsh family, Constance (16), Elanor (20), Eddie (10), Harry (19) and Kate (19) the children of Constance Cassidy and Edward Walsh after the verdict last year
Sligo County Council are facing a bill of several million Euro’s after the Supreme Court today ordered them to pay most of the costs (some 75%) of the long and bitter legal row over public rights of way across the historic Lissadell estate in Co Sligo.
The full costs of the case, initiated in 2009, are estimated at least €7m and the five judge court today ordered the Council to pay three quarters of the legal costs incurred by the Lissadell owners, barristers Edward Walsh and Constance Cassidy, in the High and Supreme Courts. The Council must also pay its own legal costs bill.
In making the costs order, the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, noted the owners had sought declarations that there were no public rights of way over four routes in the estate.
The Supreme Court had last November ruled there were no public rights of way over three of those routes and found there was a right of way over part of the fourth route, a coastal route to the beach at Lissadell.
The owners had asked the court to order the Council to pay all of the costs while the Council argued “justice” would be met by an order direccing both sides to pay their own costs. Lawyers for both sides also insisted their clients had made efforts to settle the dispute and each blamed the other over failure to do so.
The court today gave its reserved decision on costs and other issues raised by both sides arising from the court’s judgment allowing the owners’ appeal against the High Court finding of public rights of way across all four routes at Lissadell.
Following that judgment, the Council raised issues concerning particular findings of the court and effectively sought a review of those. The court refused that application in its ruling today.
The Chief Justice also noted the owners had withdrawn their application to remit for hearing by the High Court their claim for damages arising from alleged slander by the Council if their title to Lissadell.
During the costs applications last month, the Council had claimed the owners were determined to proceed with litigation despite its offer to settle the case on the basis of acceptance of a public right of way to the beach at Lissadell. The owners countered that the Council had, both in the High and Supreme Courts, maintained its claim all routes of way through the estate were public.
The owners said they initiated their case in January 2009 in response to the Council passing a resolution in December 2008 aimed at protecting public rights of way at Lissadell. Before that resolution, the Council wrote to the owners warning litigation was inevitable if they persisted in closing off routes at Lissadell.
The Council argued the owners were told that resolution had no legal effect and it also submitted it, as a public body, has a duty to protect public rights of way.
Potential remedy emerges for most common cause of blindness
‘We probably have skipped over years of drug development. This is very exciting news’
Treatment is for age related macular degeneration, a disease that makes blood vessels beneath the retina grow abnormally.
Patients affected by the most common cause of blindness in Ireland may enjoy a brighter future after an important discovery by scientists in Dublin.
They have identified a potential treatment to slow or halt vision loss that relies on a drug that has already been used safely in human trials.
“We probably have skipped over years of drug development. It is very exciting that the translation of this basic research will move very quickly now,” said Matthew Campbell, professor of genetics at Trinity College Dublin.
It is a treatment for age related macular degeneration, a disease that makes blood vessels beneath the retina grow abnormally. This causes the loss of central vision, used for example for reading, driving or looking at a computer screen.
In 2012 Prof Campbell and colleagues discovered that a component of the immune system, known as Il-18, could protect sight by retarding growth of damaging blood vessels.
Coincidentally, he heard that drug company Glaxo Smith Kline was running human trials on Il-18 for the treatment of cancer. “We asked could we use some of their Il-18 in our labs to test whether it was toxic for the eye. And we wanted to see if it could prevent onset of [vision loss]. He joined with lead author Prof Sarah Doyle, an assistant professor in immunology at Trinity, and other colleagues to test Il-18.
They published their findings yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine .
Potent treatment
There were early concerns that Il-18 would harm the retina, said Prof Doyle
“But surprisingly we found that low doses had no adverse effects on the retina and yet still suppressed abnormal blood vessel growth,” she said.
“We found it was very potent in preventing blood vessel development,” said Prof Campbell said. “The next goal is to show this can work in humans.”
It could replace the current best treatment which involves direct injections into the eyeball costing €1,000 per injection, he said.
The drug is being trialled and has not yet received approval. “It is still tiny steps,” said Prof Campbell. But if it is proven to work the treatment could reach the market relatively quickly.
Scientists Solve the Mystery of the Zebra B & W Stripes
Ever wonder why zebras look so darn fashionable with those white and black stripes?
No, they’re not making a statement about prison uniforms. Their chic yet customary outfit is actually used to help ward off insects, including horseflies and tsetse flies.
As previous studies have shown that such flies tend to avoid black-and-white striped surfaces, many hypothesized that the same holds true for these guys.
A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of California led an investigation into the purpose of these zebra markings. The team found that many striped animals were found in common areas that are heavily populated by large numbers of tabanids, otherwise known as horse flies.
Lead study author and biologist of the university Tim Caro notes that these markings help prevent fly bites, which could cause blood loss and even spread disease.
“Biting flies are attracted to hosts by odor, temperature, vision and movement that may act at different stages during host seeking, but vision is thought to be important in the landing response,” researchers said, via a press release.
Caro and his team studied patterns and locations of seven species and 20 subspecies of equines. They also mapped the native locations of these animals and plotted them against areas populated by large numbers of horse flies.
“Conversely, there is no consistent support for camouflage, predator avoidance, heat management or social interaction hypotheses,” researchers note.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallance were the first to study the issue back in 1870 over the role stripes played in the animal’s evolution.
Donie Conway's Ireland News 