Donie's Ireland dily news BLOG Friday

Central Bank concern over mortgage solutions offered to distressed Irish borrowers

 

Lenders meeting mortgage solution targets but Central Bank questions sustainability of proposals

The country’s main banks have met their targets for providing solutions to struggling mortgage holders, the Central Bank announced today.

However, it raised concerns about the sustainability of some solutions being offered to customers in mortgage distress.

Banks are required to propose solutions for 20 per cent of mortgages in arrears of more than 90 days by the end of June, rising to 30 per cent by the end of September.

According to an audit by the Central Bank, the county’s six main mortgage lenders – AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, ACC Bank and KBC Bank – made sufficient proposals to meet these targets, and in some cases exceeded them.

As part of the audit, the Central Bank said it examined processes of determining and proposing sustainable solutions in the banks against its own sustainability guidelines.

It said number of issues were identified which will need to be addressed if the solutions being proposed are to be sustainable in the long term.

Specifically, the Central Bank said short-term loan modifications were proposed in some cases where there was no tangible evidence of a borrower’s circumstances improving, or clarity on the ultimate long-term solution.

It also identified resolution proposals where there was “an absence of requisite information”, such as verification of borrower income or property value.

In other cases, it pinpointed the absence of “legal follow up” in cases categorised under a legal resolution heading on the banks’ books.

The issues, however, were not enough to result in any of the lenders failing to hit their targets, the Central Bank said.

The audit found that, as of the end of September, the six lenders had issued proposals to 43 per cent of mortgage accounts in arrears, exceeding the 30 per cent target required of them.

“We are now starting to see some signs of progress in addressing the significant issue of mortgage arrears,” director of credit institutions and insurance at the Central Bank, Fiona Muldoon, said.

“The audit process, while highlighting some key issues which require attention, shows evidence of long-term loan modifications being offered to borrowers who are no longer able to afford the original repayment requirements.”

“The latest data on mortgage arrears is also encouraging, with indications that the level of new arrears cases is declining and an emerging pattern of stabilisation in the numbers generally.”

“We expect that lenders will continue to progress and develop their approaches to ensure that future sustainability targets will be achieved. With indications the banks are now offering long term sustainable solutions to customers, the Central Bank continues to encourage meaningful engagement between lenders and borrowers.”

Charity donations not for ‘lavish salaries’ says Joan Burton

 

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton says revelations about CRC ‘extremely disturbing’

Charitable donations should not be used to fund “lavish salaries”, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said.

Speaking at the Labour Party National Conference in Killarney tonight, Ms Burton said revelations about the use of donated funds to top-up salaries at the Central Remedial Clinic were “extremely disturbing”.

She said it was “very important” that the organisation came out and clarified the issues that have been disclosed so far.

Ms Burton said the CRC needed to provide details of its fundraising and additional sources of income and explain how that money is spent.

“What happens after that depends on what they have to tell us,” she said. “I think they need to produce full accounting details and records and information in relation to it. Where it is inappropriate I would hope to see them change or modify that practice.”

The organisation yesterday admitted that money raised by a charitable company had been used to top up the salaries of staff including its former chief executive.

Five senior staff at the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) are still in receipt of top-up payments.

The organisation’s then chief executive Paul Kiely, who was on a State salary of €106,900 prior to his retirement, received a further €136,000 supplemented by the clinic.

Ms Burton said the public needed assurances that their generous donations to charities were being used for the purpose they hoped when selecting a charity to give money to.

This was particularly important in the lead up to Christmas, which was an important fundraising period, she added.

“I’m sure there is a huge amount of concern about the revelations because charity donations are not meant to fund lavish salaries way in excess of what the Taoiseach of the country is earning.”

The Taoiseach receives a salary of €185,350 annually.

Earlier, Fundraising Ireland, an umbrella organisation for professional fundraisers including a number of well-known Irish charities, said its members’ were reporting people cancelling their charitable donations as a result of the top up revelations.

Chief executive Anne Hanniffy said the revelations were having a “disproportionate and unfair impact on the funding efforts of charities and critically, people reliant” on such charities

“This is concerning for hard-pressed organisations so openly reliant on public generosity and support,” she said.

“It is doubly concerning when the source of people’s frustration is an issue which has absolutely nothing to do with the way in which the vast majority of high quality not-for-profit organisations are funded and operated.”

She said Fundraising Ireland believed transparency, accountability and regulation were vital to any healthy institution: “We owe it to donors that their money goes where they expect it to go,” she said.

Ireland’s health care customers in a real ‘vicious cycle of rising costs’

AS GLOHEALTH INCREASES PREMIUMS

 

GLO-HEALTH POLICY PRICE HIKES TO BE INTRODUCED ON DECEMBER 31ST

Health insurance provider GloHealth has announced that policy prices will go up by 5.2% from the end of the year.

In a statement, the company said continued increases in health insurance costs had resulted in a flow of young people out of the market.

Families with health insurance are caught in a vicious cycle of rising premiums, which rise as more people jettison cover, politicians were warned.

Jim Dowdall, chief executive of GloHealth, said various measures are creating a circle of rising premiums.

He said this was leading to increased cancellations, resulting in further premium increases.

“Recent measures by Government will add significantly to the price paid for health insurance and will acerbate the affordability issues faced by so many citizens,” he told an Oireachtas Health Committee.

“Also, if measures are not taken with urgency to encourage and retain younger, healthier members into the health insurance market, all that will remain of the market will be policies for the elite with both younger and old having been priced out of the market.”

He said the cost of a private room in a public hospital has doubled since 2005, the cost of a semi-private room in a public hospital has risen by more than 137pc in the same time period.

“Since the market contraction began in 2008 the cost of a private bed has increased by 38pc while the cost of a semi-private bed has increased by over 57pc.

“They illustrate the hollowness of the minister’s exertions to health insurers to cut costs when his decisions are the major driver of increased costs.”

Public hospitals can charge private patients in public beds €813 a night.

“Where previously only 20pc of beds were designated for private use in public hospitals now the hospital can charge for every bed, in effect, allowing for the privatisation of the whole public hospital system.

“The change will have the effect of giving a very clear financial incentives to public hospitals to treat private patients ahead of public patients.”

This will worsen the two-tier system within public hospitals, he predicted.

The committee also heard that people with private health cover would each cost insurers €700 more a year if a system of credits was not in place.

Liam Sloyan, chief executive of the Health Insurance Authority, said this was an estimate which applied for older people.

The government introduced a number of measures in Budget 2014 that will impact on the health insurance industry.

Among them was a proposal to increase the health insurance levy, a measure which health insurance providers said could drive up premia by as much as 15%.

It said this increase was ‘unavoidable.’

Superbugs’ antibiotic resistance now decoded by Scientists

  

Scientists have discovered the complex process by which antibiotic resistance allows bacteria to multiply in the presence of drugs. 

Many approaches are being employed to limit the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria – such as limiting the use of antibiotics in livestock, controlling prescriptions of antibiotics and developing new drugs against bacteria already resistant to conventional drug treatments.

“Understanding how bacteria harbouring antibiotic resistance grow in the presence of antibiotics is critical for predicting the spread and evolution of drug resistance,” scientists from the University of California, San Diego said.

Researchers found that the expression of antibiotic resistance genes in strains of the model bacterium E coli depends on a complex relationship between the bacterial colony’s growth status and the effectiveness of the resistance mechanism.

“In the course of developing complete resistance to a drug, a strain of bacteria often first acquires a mechanism with very limited efficacy,” said Terry Hwa, a professor of physics and biology who headed the research effort.

The interaction between drug and drug-resistance is complex because the degree of drug resistance expressed in a bacterium depends on its state of growth, which in turn depends on the efficacy of drug, with the latter depending on the expression of drug resistance itself, according to Hwa.

For a class of common drugs, researchers realised that this chain of circular relations acted effectively to promote the efficacy of drug resistance for an intermediate range of drug doses.

In their experiments, E coli cells possessing varying degrees of resistance to an antibiotic were grown in carefully controlled environments kept at different drug doses in “microfluidic” devices.

Researchers found a range of drug doses for which genetically identical bacterial cells exhibited drastically different behaviours: while a substantial fraction of cells stopped growing despite carrying the resistance gene, other cells continued to grow at a high rate.

This phenomenon, called “growth bi-stability,” occurred as quantitatively predicted by the researchers’ mathematical models, in terms of both the dependence on the drug dose, which is set by the environment, and on the degree of drug resistance a strain possesses, which is set by the genetic makeup of the strain and is subject to change during evolution.

“Exposing this behaviour generates insight into the evolution of drug resistance. With this model we can chart how resistance is picked up and evaluate quantitatively the efficacy of a drug,” said Hwa.

Heartache as dolphins die after being washed up on Co Mayo beach

  

ALMOST ALL OF 13 -STRONG POD DIED AFTER FOLLOWING A SICK DOLPHIN ASHORE

Ten dolphins died despite a major rescue operation to save them.

This heartbreaking footage shows the desperate bid locals made to return the animals to the Atlantic Ocean after they were cut adrift.

The tragedy happened after experts reckon a 13-strong pod may have followed a sick relative into shore – and became trapped in the sand.

The sad scenes were filmed by wildlife cameraman Fergus Sweeney on the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo last Sunday.

The dad-of-one, 34, said: “At 4pm I got a call to say four had been washed ashore, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said there were 13 common dolphins overall.

“Some were taken to deeper waters. I was one of the first on the beach and saw an adult dolphin beside an adolescent, and that scene was repeated further up the beach.

“That would indicate that the younger ones weren’t aware of the dangers of the shallow water.

“The other theory is that as they work in pods, when one gets sick, they all accompany them to the shoreline.”

Seven of the 13 animals in trouble managed to get back into deeper water themselves but local residents and members of the RNLI refloated the others.

But the following day, rescuers found a dead female dolphin at Elly beach.

Her young calf was in waters nearby but conservation ranger with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Irene O’Brien, believes the animal later died without milk from its mum.

Ms O’Brien said: “The calf was not seen later that day but we think it would not have survived anyway as it was still dependent on milk from its mother, who had died.”

Later that day, another adult female and calf who were stranded in “very poor condition” were euthanized by animal experts.

On Wednesday, another four adults and two calves died.

Two of these dolphins and a calf had been refloated earlier in the day and died after getting beached again later that evening.

The IWDG (Irish Whale and Dolphin Group) have recorded a total of 34 live strandings from Co Mayo and 17 of these have been around the Mullet Peninsula.

Ms O’Brien said: “This is maybe the fourth such stranding here this year but this is definitely one of the biggest. No-one knows why they get stranded. Some think the dolphins follow the food into shallow waters and get into difficulty.

“In recent weeks, fishing has been great around here and fishermen have reported seeing hundreds of dolphins at sea.

“You could go two years without seeing any stranded dolphins and then you might have two or three instances a year.”

Irish bog bodies may have been victims of climate change

 

A BBC documentary says Irish high kings may have been killed to appease gods after bad harvests

The bog body in the Bord Na Mona Cashel Bog, in Co. Laois found by machine operator Jason Phelan in 2011. The body is estimated to be over 2000 years old , possibly that of a human sacrifice, found deposited in a leather bag.

He may have been among the first victims of climate change, sacrificed because of changing weather patterns 4,000 years ago.Cashel man, so named because of his discovery in a bog in Cashel, Co Laois in 2011, is the oldest bog body in the world and one of about 300 found in North West Europe.

His life, death and the reasons for it are the subject of a BBC 4 documentary tonight entitled ‘4,000 year-old Cold Case: The body in the Bog’.

It follows a two-year forensic examination by a team of international scientists and archaeologists, including State pathologist Marie Cassidy.

Historians differ on the reasons for their deaths but the link between them all is the evidence of ritual and very violent murder.

The programme examines the theory of team leader and keeper of antiquities at the National Museum Ned Kelly that Cashel man was a pre-historic king, killed by his followers to appease the deities because of bad harvests.

Scientists and archaeologists involved in the investigation discovered through scans and other high tech tests that Cashel man had a protein-rich diet of meat, dairy and cereals indicating a person of high social status.

Previous Irish bog bodies – Old Croghan man and Clonycavan man – were also believed to be high status individuals, said Mr Kelly.

There is a relatively huge volume of very early literary material, unlike other countries where Celts lived, and the writings of monks highlighted stories of high kings being sacrificed.

All three were buried at the foot of inauguration hills, where hill and bog mark the boundaries of ancient kingdoms. Far more was done to the men than was needed to kill them.

“The more violent the killing, the more valuable the sacrifice” to appease the gods, according to Mr Kelly.

A one-metre depth of peat can yield 1,000 years of history and analysis of fossilised amoebas by wetlands archaeologist Dr Ben Geary of UCC reveals a shift to a wetter, colder environment during the Bronze/Iron Age, where rainfall increased and weather cooled.

For pre-historic tribes it was a disaster, destroying the harvest and leaving the community facing starvation.

Their solution, according to the theory is to kill the king, appease the gods and hope for a better harvest – an early response to climate change.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Central Remedial Clinic voluntary donations used to pay Staff top-ups

  

CLINIC GETS €19M IN STATE FUNDING TO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The clinic’s fundraising literature states that although it is largely State-funded, it has a “significant annual shortfall which must be made up through voluntary donations and fundraising”.

The Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) receives €19 million a year to provide support to thousands of children and adults with disabilities.

The clinic’s fundraising literature states that although it is largely State-funded, it has a “significant annual shortfall which must be made up through voluntary donations and fundraising”.

It adds: “Your support is vital, without it the Central Remedial Clinic would not be able to deliver such high standards of service.”

A charity linked to the clinic – the Friends and Supporters of the Central Remedial Clinic – raises about €2 million for the organisation each year.

Most of the money raised by the Friends and Supporters organisation is generated from a lottery that is administered by the Care Trust.

Donors to the lottery are invited to make monthly contributions, either by direct debit or credit card, starting from €3.50 a month upwards.

Yesterday, the CRC confirmed that some of the funding generated by the Friends and Supporters organisation was being used to pay top-up allowances to senior staff in the clinic.

Large projects
However, it said most of the money had enabled the clinic to fund a large number of capital projects, such as services in Waterford, Limerick and Dublin.

Accounts for the Friends and Supporters company state that its aims are to “distribute [lottery] funds in accordance with its objectives” and that it intended to “continue to support the Central Remedial Clinic Clontarf and other services for people with physical disability”.

Separately, the CRC also invites potential donors on its website to become a “friend” of the organisation for a minimum subscription of €50 a year.

“In doing so, you will be supporting the clinic’s work for children and adults with physical disabilities and helping to maintain the high standard of services for which we have become renowned,” it states.

High profile
The clinic is also involved in a range of other high-profile fundraising events such as the Santa Bear appeal and a comedy night.

There is no evidence to suggest these funds are being used to make top-up
payments because the clinic has declined to comment beyond the activities of the Friends and Supporters organisation.

Overall, the clinic is acknowledged to have played a vital role in improving the lives of children and adults with physical disabilities since it was established in the 1950s.

Today, the Central Remedial Clinic has expanded to include services in the greater Dublin area, as well as Waterford and Limerick.

Irish Government told HSE overspend could be as much as €300m

 

Health agency says deficit may be double Minister for Health’s estimate in worst-case scenario

The Health Service Executive has told the Government that in a worst-case scenario its financial deficit for this year could be close to €300 million, significantly higher than previously stated.

The director general of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, warned the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last month that its latest cash forecasts were indicating a net revenue deficit for the year of about €286 million.

In official correspondence, seen by The Irish Times, he also said this figure could rise as it assumed that funding outside the HSE’s control, such as the receipt of income from the British authorities for citizens treated in Ireland, would come in on target.

The correspondence said that in September receipts from the British department of health were €25 million behind expected levels.

Some Government sources maintained that the potential €286 million deficit did not take into account any additional savings that could be generated before the end of the year or any reduction in the rate of spending in the health service.

Minister for Health James Reilly had forecast after the budget last month that the HSE deficit could be about €150 million this year.

Financial projections 
A spokesman for Dr Reilly last night declined to comment on the HSE’s financial projections on its potential deficit for the year.

One key element in determining ultimately whether the HSE deficit for the year will be close to the €286 million worst-case scenario or nearer the Minister’s estimate will be whether €104 million in accelerated cash receipts earmarked from health insurers actually materialises.

Over recent weeks there has in effect been a stand-off between the health insurance industry and the Department of Health over this issue.

The industry has linked the issue of the €100 million in accelerated receipts to reforms for charging insurers for private patients treated in public hospitals, which the Minister wants to introduce from January.

Fee structure
The Minister said a new fee structure he is seeking to put in place was aimed at generating €30 million in revenue.

Insurers have contended the new fees would realise far more for the Government and have maintained that independent assessments on the issue, which the Minister had sought, had validated their position.

The representative body for the sector, Insurance Ireland Health Insurance Council, yesterday said the current proposed rates would raise an additional €130 million for the HSE rather than the €30 million announced by the Minister.

The council said this represented an additional €100 million over and above the amount planned for and was completely unacceptable.

“These charges come into effect on January 1st, 2014, and if left unchanged they will result in private health insurance customers again having to pay more for their health insurance,” it said.

The exact level of supplementary funding to be provided by the Government to the HSE is likely to be decided formally over the coming week or so and will be debated in theOireachtas in December.

The Department of Health is considering the HSE’s service plan for next year, which was scheduled to produce cuts of between €666 million and €1 billion.

M.A.P. Pill may not work for heavy women

 

IRELAND’S only over-the-counter morning-after pill is being reviewed by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) after a manufacturer said it would not work for women who weigh over 12-and-a-half stone.

Two pills are under review – Levonelle which is available on prescription and Norlevo which is the over-the-counter product accessible here.

Levonelle is also less effective for women weighing more than 11 stone 11 pounds.

The average Irish woman weighs 11 stone and the new findings mean women who have taken emergency contraception could still fall pregnant.

DATA: “The Irish Medicines Board together with its EU counterparts is also currently reviewing the available data on this issue,” said the IMB in a statement.

Alison Begas, CEO of the Dublin Well Woman Centre, told the Herald there is an alternative drug women can take.

Ella One, a five-day emergency contraceptive pill which is only available on prescription, is 99pc effective and works as well on day five as it does on day one.

The two drugs under scrutiny are only 95pc effective on day one and after 24 hours the effect diminishes to 58pc. Also available is a five-day post-coital coil which must be fitted by a qualified doctor.

The alarming news, an-nounced by manufacturer HRA Pharma comes only two years after over-the-counter emergency contraception was made available here.

A number of pharmacies contacted were not aware of the recent medical development.

Dad-of-two makes full recovery after dying 17 times

 

John Gilmartin studies a photograph of hospital medics working to save his life

A man whose heart needed restarting 17 times is making a recovery after doctors carried out an emergency operation on him in an A&E department.

John Gilmartin (41) from Derby in England had his heart restarted 11 times on the way to hospital and a further six times at Royal Derby Hospital.

Doctors operated in the A&E department’s resuscitation room. They also carried out a procedure to fit a miniature pump in Mr Gilmartin’s heart while he was still in A&E — in what has been described as a first for the hospital.

Mr Gilmartin is recovering at home with wife Sally and children Jade (11) and Jack (14).

He told ‘The Derby Telegraph’: “I can hardly remember any of it but I’m so grateful to be alive. I remember nothing until I woke up in intensive care. The whole thing is so surreal.

“It’s a complete blank until intensive care — I had no idea what had happened.”

Mrs Gilmartin said: “He woke up that morning and he was fine — he went to the shop, came back and went upstairs.

“It was when he came back he said he wasn’t feeling very well and I noticed his face was drained of colour.

“He went outside for a bit of fresh air but then he was sick down the drain, so I told him to go and lie down.

“The next thing, he’s lying on the bed all stiff and purple, with his eyes in the back of his head, and I’m shouting, ‘John! John!’ at him but getting nothing back.

Dr Gareth Hughes, who worked on keeping Mr Gilmartin alive, said that in repeated-resuscitation cases the patient nearly always suffers neurological damage.

He said: “It’s incredibly unusual to have such a successful outcome that not only did he survive but survived completely neurologically intact.

“The fact that he’s quite young and probably has reasonable cardiac functions has helped him in this case in that we were able to recover it.”

Did the comet ISON flame out on its trip around the sun?

   

Like Icarus, comet ISON appears to have flown too close to the sun and broken up in its corona.

Scientists had hoped that the comet from the farthest reaches of the solar system would be able to slingshot around the sun Thursday and emerge streaming a tail visible to the naked eye next month.

But after NASA telescopes tracked the comet plunging into the sun’s corona, no evidence of it emerged on the other side. Scientists said they would continue to analyze imagery from the telescopes for signs of the comet or debris from it breaking up.

“At this point, I do suspect that the comet has broken up and died,” says Karl Battams, a comet scientist for the Naval Research Laboratory, who joined a NASA and Google+ chat from Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona. “Let’s at least give it a couple of more hours before we start writing the obituary.”

Even if the comet broke up, it offered a very rare opportunity to see how one of the oldest objects in the solar system interacted with the sun’s magnetic field.

The comet originated in the Oort Cloud, a region halfway from the sun to the next closest star. Scientists say comet ISON would have been nudged by gravity from other stars into its 5-million-year plunge toward the sun.

But while scientists have tracked other comets from the Oort Cloud, Battams said this one was the first in recorded astronomy from so far away that passed so close to the sun, passing the sun at a distance of about 1 million miles.

“This is a spectacularly rare event,” Battams said. “We have no idea when we’re going to see something this amazing again.”

The reason scientists study comets is to find out what they contain because they were born along with the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. When comets pass close enough to the sun, their ice melts away and dust gives off signals that describe its composition.

Even if comet ISON evaporated and broke apart near the sun, its behavior in the sun’s magnetic field will help scientists understand more about both comets and the sun.

“This gives us an opportunity to see and study these magnetic fields in a way we normally couldn’t do,” said Alex Young, a solar physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Nature is giving us this unique opportunity to study these magnetic fields.”

ISON, pronounced ice-on, stands for International Scientific Optical Network. It was discovered in September 2012 by a pair of amateur astronomers in Russia.

Two NASA telescopes that tracked the comet’s approach to the sun were called SOHO, for Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and SDO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

SOHO has a metal coin that blocks out the sun’s direct light, so that the corona of fountains of magnetic field can be seen splashing off the sun. Comet ISON was visible in SOHO’s red-and-blue images as it approached the sun with a long tail.

But as it approached its closest point to the sun at 1:48 p.m. ET, the half-mile point of the comet faded and the tail thousands of miles across became fuzzier. That suggested it might have broken up.

“We’re not really seeing the head of the comet,” Phil Plait, an astronomer and author who writes for Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog, said of a SOHO image taken at 12:24 p.m. “That to me looks like the \\nucleus broke up.”

SDO, which showed the sun in ultraviolet light as a smoldering yellow marble, glimpsed comet ISON racing toward the sun. But as SDO shifted to watch the comet reappear on the other side, ISON never showed.

This was puzzling because Dean Pesnell, a solar physicist and project scientist for SDO, said even if the comet broke up, its remains should have been visible in the magnetic field for 45 minutes.

“I’d like to know what happened to our half-mile of material that was going around the sun,” Pesnell said of the comet. “We should be able to see something.”

Scientists said they would continue to review images from 11 telescopes worldwide that tracked the comet, to learn what became of it and learn more about the sun.

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Taoiseach Kenny wants to visit Marie Fleming

   

Taoiseach Enda Kenny wants to meet terminally ill multiple sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming in her home, her partner has revealed.

The right-to-die campaigner had called on the Taoiseach and other legislators to see how she lives in a bid to get them to pass laws on assisted suicide.

Her partner Tom Curran held a “good frank conversation” with Mr Kenny for an hour after he previously rejected the possibility of legislation on the controversial issue.

“She (Marie) wants people to understand her point of view and the way she lives and then make the decision themselves,” said Mr Curran outside Government Buildings.

“So it’s from that point of view that she is saying ‘come and live my life’ not necessarily come and visit me.

“But he did express a wish to come and see her and he’d be more than welcome.”

Ms Fleming, 59, who lost a Supreme Court challenge earlier this year to end her life with assistance, is wheelchair bound and can only move her head.

She lives in constant pain, cannot swallow and suffers choking sessions which she fears will eventually kill her.

Mr Curran – who said his partner has plenty to live for at the moment – faces up to 14 years in jail if convicted of helping her to die.

The meeting with Mr Kenny was arranged before health chiefs were criticised for forcing the couple to prove Ms Fleming’s sickness to have a medical card renewed.

Mr Curran said the Taoiseach also felt the incident had been deplorable.

But the carer and former IT worker said he accepted an explanation that the issuing of medial cards was now centralised through a computer system and no longer personally at a local level.

“The human element hasn’t been put in to it,” said Mr Curran.

“But the thing that infuriated me so much about it was that when media did get hold of it the problem seemed to be resolved.

“I had made several phone calls and all I was getting was numerous letters and the ridiculous situation of being asked to verify Marie’s condition.

“Why couldn’t they have responded to my phone calls?”

He said the couple – who survive on her disability benefit and his carer’s allowance – knew she would eventually get a new card but feared they would not be able to pay for the 30 plus tablets a day Ms Fleming takes when her current card expired at the end of the month.

She was one of thousands of sick people being assessed for eligibility for free health care in a cost-saving crackdown.

Mr Curran said found Mr Kenny “a very understanding man” during their meeting to discuss his views on assisted suicide.

He said they both had differing views, but he understood Mr Kenny’s concerns over safeguards.

“Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and he has an opinion,” he said.

“He is in a position where he has to legislate and where he has to think about everybody else and the whole issue that comes up every time is thing of safeguards.”

Mr Curran has put together a working group to examine possible legislation and safeguards in other countries where assisted suicide is permitted.

“No safeguard going to be completely fool proof,” he added.

“There are going people who will abuse, there’s no doubt about that.

“But for the small number of people that that will happen I don’t think people like Marie and other people, for instance we had eight people travel to Dignitas to be helped to die from Ireland, so it’s obviously something people do want.

“Everybody we speak to is in favour.”

Cesareans births are higher among Irish private patients

  

Private patients twice as likely to have scheduled caesarean, study of Irish hospital patients finds

A study of more than 30,000 women who gave birth at an Irish hospital found that private patients were more likely to have a C-section or a surgical delivery

)Pregnant women with private health care are twice as likely to have a scheduled caesarean birth, according to a new study.

A study of more than 30,000 women who gave birth at an Irish hospital found that private patients were more likely to have a C-section or a surgical delivery with vacuum or forceps than those whose treatment was publicly funded.

Although women with private health care are generally older, and therefore at higher risk of complications in childbirth, the disparity between the two groups was not fully explained by differences in their medical condition, researchers said.

It was not clear whether the higher rate of operative deliveries was driven by patients or doctors but it “seems quite likely that private patients are provided with greater choice”, they added.

The researchers, from Trinity College Dublin, studied data on 5,479 private patients and 24,574 publicly funded patients at the same Irish hospital to determine whether private care results in greater use of expensive procedures by doctors.

Caesarean deliveries and formula feeding linked to lifelong diseases:

Private patients were on average older, wealthier and better educated than publicly         funded patients, and were less likely to be single, childless, to have had an unplanned pregnancy or to have booked late for obstetric care.

Although they were less likely to have a medical disorder, private patients were also more likely to have had fertility treatment, problems with miscarriages, or had a previous stillbirth or child who died in infancy.

Results published in the BMJ Open journal showed that 21 per cent of private patients had a scheduled caesarean compared with nine per cent of public patients.

The difference was particularly great among women who had given birth before by C-section, while private patients were also more likely to have a surgical vaginal delivery using a vacuum or forceps.

One common argument for planned C-section is that the procedure does less damage to the pelvic floor than a natural birth, but the study showed that very few requests of this type were made.

Researchers said that older age and higher income among private patients could have played a part, while older and better educated women may also be more influenced by the fact that many obstetricians choose scheduled caesarean section for themselves.

They said the study “highlighted important differences in operative delivery rates that raise questions about equity.”

American studies have suggested that private health care can result in patients being over treated because of financial incentives which reward inefficiency.

Private accommodation charges are estimated to generate up to 20 per cent of the hospital budget in Dublin Maternity Hospitals, and changes to UK health policy mean English hospitals will now be allowed to generate up to 49 per cent of their income from private hospitals.

The researchers wrote: “One would expect that every woman, irrespective of the funding source, is managed in a way that results in the best possible outcomes for mother and baby.

“Although speculative, it seems quite likely that private patients are provided with greater choice in relation to a scheduled caesarean section. It is debatable whether this is actually in the woman’s best interest, particularly when it comes to the next birth.

“What does need to be addressed is whether higher rates of scheduled caesarean sections among private patients create access issues for medically indicated caesarean sections, and whether these patients place a disproportionate burden on the service in the postoperative period.”

Many five-year children in Ireland are overweight or obese

 

Economic background and amount of ‘screen-time’ linked with poor eating

Children who spent three or more hours in front of a screen were considerably more likely to consume unhealthy foods more often and five-year-olds from more socially disadvantaged families were found to have higher levels of daily screen-time

One in five five-year-olds is either overweight or obese, according to findings from the Growing Up in Irelandlongitudinal study published today.

The latest findings represent the results of interviews with the families of 11,100 five-year-olds, previously interviewed in 2008 and 2011. The interviews were carried out between March and September this year.

The problem of obesity was first identified when the children were three years old and continues to be a cause for concern. Girls are more likely than boys to be overweight.

Fifteen per cent of the children are overweight and 5 per cent are obese.

Some 39 per cent of those who were overweight at three years remain so at five with 11 per cent moving into the obese category while 38 per cent of those who were obese at three remained so at five.

A child’s socioeconomic background continues to be associated with being overweight or obese – both occur more frequently among less advantaged families.

Nine per cent of children whose mother had a Junior Certificate or less were in the obese range compared with 4 per cent of those whose mother had a degree.

The study found that the average five-year-old consumed about 1,500 calories per day while children from lower income groups consumed about d 23 per cent more calories on average each day.

The amount of “screen- time” the children engage in – hours spent each day in front of any type of screen such as TV, smartphone, computer – is associated with poorer eating habits and higher levels of obesity.

Children who spent three or more hours in front of a screen were considerably more likely to consume unhealthy foods more often and five-year-olds from more socially disadvantaged families were found to have higher levels of daily screen-time.

Prof James Williams, research professor at the ESRI and principal investigator of the Growing Up in Ireland study, said the issue of obesity needed to be addressed.

“In the main our five-year- olds are in good health. However, the overweight and obesity issue is a major one. If you have a child who is manifesting these trends at this stage of their lives the chances are they have a much higher probability of sustaining that later in life into adulthood and the effects of that are felt in a number of different areas,” he said.

“The child’s immediate wellbeing is affected, their sense of self-esteem can be adversely impacted upon and their peer relationships affected. Into later life you start to pick up other issues – cardiovascular and respiratory problems and a higher chance of type 2 diabetes.”

While the study found that 98 per cent of the five-year-olds were in good health, Prof Williams said it was important to remember the 2 per cent who were not.

The number finding it difficult to make ends meet financially has more than doubled since the families were first interviewed five years ago at the onset of the recession.

Prof Williams said the fact that one in four parents would not have been able to afford to send their child to preschool were it not for the free preschool scheme was significant.

The study found that the majority of parents reported their children had adjusted well to starting school with 84 per cent of them looking forward to going to school more than once a week. Girls were more positive about school than boys.

Most parents have a positive relationship with their five- year-olds, scoring very highly on positive aspects of parent- child relationship scales and being in the lower ranges of scales measuring parent-child conflict.

The Growing Up in Ireland study is funded by theDepartment of Children and Youth Affairs and conducted by researchers led by the Economic and Social Research Institute and Trinity College Dublin.