News Ireland daily BLOG by Donie

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Ireland Economy recovery very ‘fragile and incomplete’

says Enda Kenny

 

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Charlie Flanagan, at the conference The Global Island: Ireland’s Foreign Policy for a Changing World at Dublin Castle.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny says expectations from improving economy ‘difficult to handle’ in many cases.

Ireland’s economic recovery remains fragile and is in-complete, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has told a gathering of ambassadors in Dublin Castle.

Mr Kenny the Government wanted to help business create 40,000 new jobs in 2015.

“Our economic recovery remains fragile, it’s incomplete and while confidence is rising growth has not yet been felt by significant numbers of the Irish population. We are now dealing with the expectations of success from a rising economy and these are difficult to handle in many cases,” he said.

“That is why the number one goal for the priority of the Government for 2015 is to help businesses in this country to create 40,000 more new jobs this year.”

Mr Kenny told senior diplomats attending the Global Island conference that jobs rather than deficit ratios or bond yields where what mattered most to the Irish people.

Turning to European affairs, he said Ireland wanted the UK to remain in the European Union and it was clearly in the State’s national interest and the wider European interest that our nearest neighbour did not leave.

While Ireland was respectful of the ongoing democratic debate in Britain, “it is impossible for us to remain silent”, he added,

Ireland would give backing where possible for reasonable adjustments in the operation of the EU, “but friendship is predicated on openness and honesty” and Ireland would speak frankly if it felt requests being made were unreasonable.

Despondency and frustration among the peoples of Europewas at a very high level, Mr. Kenny said. “Holding the middle ground is becoming an increasing challenge as people move to the far right and the far left.”

Mr Kenny praised ambassadors and other senior diplomats for rising to the “single greatest foreign policy challenge that our state has ever faced”.

He said they had since 2011 helped restore Ireland’s “battered” reputation, “as the face of the Government overseas during a very difficult and traumatic period”.

He added: “I know that wasn’t easy. I know it often felt like swimming against a very strong tide.”

Mr Kenny said Government had taken a strategic decision to devote time and resources to build reputation internationally, particularly in Europe and the US. The path of constructive engagement had been chosen, rather than confrontational unilateralism.

It had been a formidable task. However, he believed that the strategy and the effort needed to implement it had been vindicated by events.

No effort had been spared by Ireland’s representatives abroad in highlighting this country’s stregnths and winning back confidence its ability to recover.

Mr Kenny said “all but the most committed begruders and eurosceptics” accepted the situation had improved.

He said realising Ireland’s full potential as a global island in the 21st century would not be possible without a dynamic foreign service. Intelligence from Ireland’s network of ambassadors abroad would always be valued in Dublin.

“Who are better at putting our shoulders to the wheel than the Irish?

“The world around us is changing rapidly…and our own country has undergone profound change, not least in the last decade.”

The traditional role of ambulance’s moving patients to hospital could see a change

  

A series of controversies have left te Ambulance service facing serious scrutiny.

Hiqa acknowledges the ageing of the ambulance fleet – one in five vehicles is over eight years old – and points to some examples of unsafe staffing levels, but it suggests major improvements could be made within existing resources – which is rejected by the trade union Siptu.

A number of high-profile controversies in recent times have put Ireland’s ambulance service under serious scrutiny.

They included the case of a woman (70) who was hit by a car in Co Donegal and who lay on a road for 50 minutes before an ambulance arrived. In another incident, a woman who choked on food in Kerry had to wait for half an hour after her husband called 999.

A further case involved a 30-year-old man who was left bleeding so long after being stabbed in Co Louth that a Garda car had to bring him to hospital.

A number of reports have been commissioned to look at the ambulance service. The conclusions in some cases appear to differ and in other cases would involve a major change to traditional views.

Last month, health watchdog Hiqa published a report which, while paying respect to recent improvements, also highlights a lack of co-ordination, poor performance and failure to meet targets.

Hiqa acknowledges the ageing of the ambulance fleet – one in five vehicles is over eight years old – and points to some examples of unsafe staffing levels, but it suggests major improvements could be made within existing resources – a finding rejected by the trade union Siptu.

The most alarming finding in the Hiqa report relates to a lack of co-ordination between the fire brigade, which covers Dublin city, and the National Ambulance Service which covers the rest of the country, including Co Dublin.

Meanwhile, a report from UK consultants into the national ambulance service, commissioned by the HSE, says improvements in response times would require significant investment.

This report by Lightfoot Solutions UK also argues that given the large rural catchment area that it serves, the Hiqa targets for responding to life-threatening and potentially life-threatening calls – known technically as echo and delta calls – could not be met even if the service was fully resourced and was operating to best international practices.

Lightfoot Solutions says it identified 100 locations around the State where there was one call a week. “It would not be sensible to deploy dedicated ambulance resources to these locations and alternative solutions are required.”

It says community first-responder schemes, under which members of local communities are trained in basic life support and the use of a defibrillator, are used in many countries and proved to be very effective in saving lives. However, it says these are not a replacement for the ambulance service.

It maintains that community first-responder schemes inIreland have grown from what was originally a network of cardiac responders. These were designed to deal with life-threatening calls only and this restriction has remained in place, the report says.

“In many other services, community first responders also respond to delta [potentially life-threatening] calls which provides improved patient experience and response times,” it says.

“In Ireland, this extension to respond to delta calls will require a major retraining programme and cultural change. This will clearly take come considerable time and financial investment to achieve.”

Hiqa says the current model, under which the ambulance service’s main role is to bring patients to a hospital, is not in keeping with international best practice “which, when it is safe to do so, now looks to treat patients with certain conditions via telephone consultation, treat patients at the scene and then discharge them or treat patients at the scene and then refer them to an alternate healthcare provider for follow up care”.

Lightfoot Solutions notes that in some countries, more than 40 per cent of patients are successfully treated by paramedics without the need to transport patients to hospital. “Transporting what is an annually increasing number of patients to the emergency department is not sustainable for the two ambulance services or acute hospitals.”

Childcare tax breaks on way for Ireland’s working parents

 

Crippling creche costs to be made more affordable

Working parents are in line for tax breaks and subsidies to support childcare costs under a new Government plan to ease the burden on hard-pressed families.

A major new “affordability of childcare” scheme is being brought to Cabinet tomorrow, amid growing concern about the barriers to mothers getting back to work.

Ireland is now the most expensive country in the world for childcare, along with the United States.

The Irish Independent last week revealed how parents are forced to earn up to €30,000 a year just to fund creche places for two children.

It costs up to €2,035 per month to keep a baby and toddler in childcare.

Senior Government sources are determined to tackle “affordability” issues with a number of measures aimed at working parents.

Tax reliefs and subsidies are on the table for discussion, in the plan to be rolled out over several Budgets.

The new plan also aims to deliver on the Government’s promise of a second free pre-school year, but according to sources, its purpose is “much wider than that”.

The Coalition is also keen to address the “latch-key” child phenomenon by rolling out a range of after school activities that will either be paid for directly by the State or heavily subsidised.

The Government is seeking to identify a range of measures to best utilise the €260m a year spend on childcare.

Included in this is the free pre-school year which benefits more than 100,000 children every year.

“We are spending a lot of money in this area, but what we want is to have a fully informed basis upon which to make policy decisions,” said one source.

It is understood that Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly will establish a seven-department committee which will report by the summer.

It is expected that a range of proposals could be included as early as the Budget this October. The new “high-level” group will be asked to identify four main olicy objectives, including:

*Supporting parents to care for their children

*Improving children’s outcomes

*Addressing issues of disadvantage and poverty

*Improving access to work for parents.

The group is tasked with identifying key ways of helping parents in terms of child support, looking at how best to target State spending.

The plan will “identify and assess options for investment” for pre-school and school age children and will “specify the costs and benefits of each option”.

But while much of the focus has to date been on pre-school children, this policy is also likely to see a radical expansion of initiatives like study clubs, after-school clubs and sports clubs.

A major study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last year showed that a family in Ireland with two children spends 40pc of the average wage just to meet their childcare costs.

This compares with the OECD average of only 12pc and represents the highest cost of any of the OECD’s 34 members.

The Jobless:

It also said that there was little to be gained for a jobless couple if one went off the dole and got a job.

This was unlike the experience in other OECD countries, the report said.

Government sources last night insisted the new plan for families will begin this year, but it would ultimately need to be rolled out over several years and potentially spread over several Budgets.

The plan is a recognition that childcare costs in Ireland are now among the highest in Europe are are a major burden on struggling parents and families.

Less than a third of children under three are enrolled in childcare facilities in Ireland, compared with a figure of 40pc in the UK and 50pc in France.

But it is clear the Government is keen to address the concerns of young working families in some shape ahead of the next general election.

“This will not all happen in one go, but will form the basis of the strategy over several years,” said one senior source.

It will have involvement from the Department of Finance, Department of Public Expenditure, the Department of Education and the Department of the Taoiseach.

Ever wondered what the effects of that ‘stretch in the evenings’ are? 

   

We’ve reached that time of year again — people meet and say, often with a touch of anxiety, ‘I think there’s a bit of a stretch in the evenings’.

For people like us who live at high latitudes this has always been a subject of great importance. After all, our ancestors went about the monumental task of building Newgrange so that they could know that winter had reached its climax and from now on there would be a stretch in the evenings.

We are a bit under four weeks from the winter solstice, which occurred just before Christmas. According to data I got from the internet, sunrise today in Dublin was at 08.35 and sunset will be at 16.32, giving a day length of 7 hours and 57 minutes. This day next week sunrise will be at 08.28 and sunset at 16.43, giving a day length of 8 hours and 15 minutes. This is an increase of 18 minutes in one week — a considerable stretch in the evenings.

Unfortunately calculating day length is rather complicated because the increase is not uniform as spring progresses. Fortunately other people have made the astronomical calculations and done the maths.

The effect of increasing day length on plants and animals is also a rather complicated subject which biologists call photoperiodism. The first studies into plants naturally assumed that the factor controlling things like leaves breaking bud or flowers opening was the length of the day. It was subsequently discovered that it was the length of the night, not the day, that was crucial. But despite this plants are still classified as long-day plants and short-day plants.

The long-day plants are further divided into obligate photoperiodic plants, which absolutely require a long day (actually a short night) before they’ll flower and facultative photoperiodic plants which are more likely to flower under the appropriate light conditions but will eventually do so regardless of night length.

Examples of long-day obligate plants are carnations, henbane and oats. Examples of long-day facultative plants are peas, barley and lettuce. Short-day plants cannot flower after short nights or if a pulse of light is shone on them for several minutes during the course of the night. In Ireland most of these are autumn flowering plants. Some important commercial crops, such as rice, cotton and hemp, are short-day plants. Some plants are day-neutral and flowering is controlled by factors such as temperature or overall maturity. They include cucumbers, roses and tomatoes.

Birds and animals are also affected. It controls things like migration, mating and the growth of fur and feathers. The extent to which human beings are affected is the subject of argument among scientists but my suspicion is that it’s more important than most of them think.

FSAI advises consumers against drinking raw milk

 

Campaign for Raw Milk says matter should be down to individual choice

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland said studies show children are at risk when drinking raw milk.

A recommendation against drinking raw milk has been reiterated after a European food safety body published a paper highlighting the health risks involved.

In an expert opinion, the European Food Safety Authority said drinking raw milk can pose health risks to consumers and in some cases can result in serious illness.

The authority said raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and that implementing good hygiene practices at farm level is essential to reduce the risk of raw milk contamination.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland said it has had a “long-standing recommendation” for consumers not to drink raw milk. “Pathogens such as E. coli O157,Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria can cause severe foodborne illnesses and can be found in raw milk,” the organisation said.

Its chief executive Alan Reilly said studies show children are at risk when drinking raw milk. “We are concerned about the food safety risks involved and particularly the health of infants, children, older adults, pregnant women and those with low immunity,” he said.

But the Campaign for Raw Milk, an organisation that includes a number of food producers, said consumers need to be free to make their own choices.

“People should be able to have a choice about the milk they drink,” said Elisabeth Ryan, a spokeswoman for the group. She said raw milk carries only a very low health risk and many consumers believe it tastes better .

Ms Ryan said some consumers choose raw milk because it doesn’t “undergo an extra stage of processing” through pasturising.

She added that the FSAI’s advice to consumers to boil raw milk “misses the point”. She said although pasturisation does kill harmful pathogens, it also kills beneficial bacteria.

She said the Campaign for Raw Milk was calling on the Government to introduce “a set of fair regulations” around production. These would include labelling stipulations which would advise vulnerable groups, such as young children and elderly people, against drinking raw milk.

Ancient tiny fish fossil sheds light on evolution of jawed vertebrates

  

The advent of the jaw among vertebrates was quite a moment — essential, really. The jaw, the hinge-operated vault of the mouth, opened up a wide world of possibilities for creatures looking to satisfy those ceaseless hunger pangs.

The jaw proved so popular among animals, it can be seen today throughout the Animal Kingdom, from tigers to crocodiles, from sharks to humans.

Now, researchers at Oxford University in England suggest a tiny, ancient fish fossil discovered in Siberia could explain the jaw’s evolutionary origin. The 415-million-year-old fish skull was unearthed in the 1970s, but researchers are only just now coming to realize its paleontological importance.

The fish (Janusiscus schultzei) is named for the Roman god Janus and for Hans-Peter Schultze, the University of Kansas researcher who first described the specimen in 1977. Schultze and his colleagues determined that the ancient skull belonged to a bony fish. In the beginning, fish were the first vertebrates to sport jaws, and there were two kinds, those with bones and those with cartilage.

But scientists have yet to ascertain exactly when and where to the two kinds diverged on the evolutionary timeline.

“There are over 60,000 species of living jawed vertebrates, and they encompass pretty much everything you can think of [with a backbone] that lives on land or in the sea,” lead researcher Sam Giles, a paleobiology doctoral candidate at Oxford, told Live Science. “But we don’t really know what they looked like when they split.”

Analysis by Giles and his colleagues, however, revealed that the ancient skull exhibits characteristics of both bony fish and those with cartilage — suggesting Janusiscus schultzei was one of the two groups’ shared ancestors.

“I think it is a highly significant discovery, as the origin and diversification of modern bony-jawed fishes is still shrouded in mystery,” said John Long, an paleontologist who wasnt’ involved in the study. “But Janiusiscus takes us a big step closer to really understanding this major evolutionary transition, from primitive jawed fishes to the beginning of the modern jawed fish fauna.”