Tag: Ireland

State pension system is unsustainable, says Heather Humphreys

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/state-pension-system-is-unsustainable-says-heather-humphreys-1.4792791

Excerpt:

The State pension system is “not sustainable” and there is “no getting away from that fact”, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has said.

Ms Humphreys also said there are “no easy options” when it comes to reforming the State pension.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands said in its report, published on Wednesday, that the State pension age should not rise beyond the age of 66.

Its view runs counter to the stance of the Pensions Commission which argued the pension age should rise in steps to 67 by 2031 and then to 68 by 2039.

….

“Today we have 4.5 people working for every one pensioner, by 2050 we will have two people working for every pensioner,” Ms Humpreys said.

Author(s): Sarah Burns

Publication Date: 3 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Irish Times

Gardaí investigating after man’s body used in apparent attempt to claim pension

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/garda%C3%AD-investigating-after-man-s-body-used-in-apparent-attempt-to-claim-pension-1.4782598

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Gardaí are investigating the death of a man in Carlow town, whose body was brought into a post office by two others in what appeared to be an attempt to claim the deceased’s pension.

The bizarre series of events began when a man entered the post office at Hosey’s shop on Staplestown Road at about 11.30 am on Friday.

The man wanted to collect a pension payment on behalf of an older man but was informed by a staff member that the pensioner would have to be present if a payment was to be made.

The man left the post office and returned a short time later with two other men, one of whom was in his 60s. The two younger men are understood to have sought a pension payment for the third man, who it appeared was being propped up.

….

The deceased man, named locally as Peadar Doyle, is believed to have been in his late 60s and a resident of Pollerton Road, close to the post office.

Author(s): Jack Power, Ronan McGreevy

Publication Date: 21 Jan 2022

Publication Site: The Irish Times

Two men take corpse into Irish post office to claim dead man’s pension

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/22/two-men-take-corpse-into-irish-post-office-to-claim-dead-mans-pension

Excerpt:

Gardaí have launched an investigation after two men carried a dead body into an Irish post office in an apparent attempt to claim his pension.

The deceased pensioner was described in reports as being “propped up” by the men as they walked into the building in County Carlow on Friday morning.

The outlandish series of events began when one of the men entered the post office at about 11.30am on Friday, asking to collect a pension payment for an older man, the Irish Times reported. He was refused, with staff informing him that the pensioner would have to be present in order for the money to be handed over.

Author(s): Clea Skopeliti

Publication Date: 22 Jan 2022

Publication Site: The Guardian

Pausing AstraZeneca COVID-19 Shots Is a Bad Risk/Benefit Call

Mary Pat Campbell
Pausing AstraZeneca COVID-19 Shots Is a Bad Risk/Benefit Call

Excerpt:

Last week Austria, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland all suspended the administration of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, citing reports of blood clots occurring in a few folks who had been inoculated with it. Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Thailand, and the Netherlands have now joined them.

“There is no causal effect established or anything like that yet,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin told CNBC, “but as a precautionary move in line with the precautionary principle and in an abundance of caution, our clinical advice was to pause the program whilst the EMA does a review of this.”

The precautionary principle is an ideological construct that eschews risk-benefit evaluations and essentially requires that all new technologies be somehow proved entirely risk-free before they can be used.

Author(s): Ronald Bailey

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Reason

Covid-19 Is Speeding Up How Deaths Are Recorded

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-is-speeding-up-how-deaths-are-recorded-11611397800

Excerpt:

When governments realized death tolls were too low, they revamped the way they counted them

….

Weeks after the virus hit Italy last year, doctors, funeral homes and officials realized that government Covid-19 death tolls were too low and many victims weren’t getting included. Informal tallies quickly revealed that thousands of deaths most likely caused by the virus had been omitted. Limited testing left the number of infections unknown, and many people had died outside hospitals, which were the initial source of fatality figures.

Italy’s statistical agency, Istat, scrambled to assemble more reliable information, collecting data from towns and cities faster than ever before. In May, it revealed what people at the front lines had suspected: a 39% jump in nationwide deaths between Feb. 21 and March 31 compared with previous years.

“Normally, they [the data] would have arrived six months later,” said Istat President Gian Carlo Blangiardo in May. “We made an extraordinary effort.”

Author: Daniel Michaels

Publication Date: 23 January 2021

Publication Site: WSJ