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THE BIRD FLU found in a number of West Cork pheasants does not pose a risk to public health, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has said.
The department announced today that final laboratory test results confirm that the Avian Influenza virus found last week in samples from pheasants in a flock of game birds on a premises near Clonakilty in Cork “are, as expected, a low pathogenic strain of the virus and there is no risk to public health as a result”.
This means it is not the more deadly H5N1 strain, which poses a risk to humans. Laboratory results from a broiler flock in the same area tested negative for Avian Influenza, indicating that the virus has not spread, the department added.
Further laboratory test results relating to pheasants found in the Barryroe area of West Cork will be available in the coming days.
The birds have been slaughtered as a precautionary measure but the department stated that “all necessary biosecurity measures will remain in place in Barryroe”, while these further test results are awaited. These include the 1km temporary restriction zone.
In this zone, additional surveillance will continue to be undertaken by Department veterinary staff, and the movement of poultry, other birds, and their products and other animals on poultry holdings is prohibited, except under license from the Regional Veterinary Office.
The temporary zone in Clonakilty has now been replaced by a Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza restriction zone of 1km and this will remain in place for at least 21 days after the preliminary cleaning and disinfection of the infected site has been completed.
Full details of the origin of the birds have been established by the Department and it stated today that “further temporary restriction zones will be put in place should this prove necessary”.
The Department reiterated that there is “no concern relating to the consumption of poultry meat or poultry meat products and there are no restrictions on poultry movements outside the 1km restriction zones”.
It added that persons having contact with birds “should nonetheless ensure that appropriate biosecurity measures are in place, as set out in the Department’s guidelines”.
They should check birds regularly and if an unusually high number of sick or dead birds are noticed, they should notify their Regional Veterinary Office.
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My grandfather was diagnosed with vascular dementia a couple of years back, my mum left work and cared for him full time (she never claimed carers allowance or anything like that) but in the last year it became too much for us, we couldn’t look after him home anymore, he needed a level of care 24/7 thatwe just could not provide. It took us over a year on waiting lists and phoning every week to even be approved for the fair deal and then another 18months waiting for a bed. He finally went in somewhere in December just after Christmas, his health has improved so much since he went in as he is receiving the care he needs that we just couldn’t give.
Without the fair deal we couldn’t afford the care he needs, were contributing as much as we can from our own pockets and using his pension to make up the rest. This is a proud hard working man who worked his whole life and paid his own way, people complaining that “we expect things for free” we don’t expect anything but an old person, especially one who needs care that a family cannot provide should be looked after, you say “someone has to pay”, he has paid, he contributed for 67 years, his wife did too, his kids all contribute and his grand kids. Is it too much to ask that he be allowed live the rest of his days with a bit of dignity ? Even if we pooled all our savings we couldn’t afford to pay all his fees and the only person who suffers is him. I would much rather knowing my taxes are helping pay someone’s home fees than lining a politicians pocket.
Billing someone for necessary health care because they develop dementia, become frail or suffer a stroke is deeply inequitable. I people protest regularly on this site that paying €200 per year for what they say is a basic right. People on the Fair Deal have to pay €600 or €700 / week to get nursing care but it’s quietly ignored by most the population. The great majority of people ending up in nursing home are there because they need to be there to get the care they need, not because they want to go.
Ok, but where does the money come from?
An argument for you .hypothetically your parent gets dementia and dies after several years in a Nursing home. All their savings are used up and after they die you have to sell their home because 25% of its value is owed to the state. What’s left is subject to inheritance taxes but for each child the first €200000 is tax free so most escape that. On the other hand my parent gets Cancer and is treated by the state for free with the exemption of a €100 per night hospital charge capped at a grand. The Cancer treatment fails and they are cared for free in a hospice. Myself and my sibs inherit everything.
What is the difference? Sheer bloody luck. So pay for it with a wider spread inheritance tax. People who care for an older person at home get a tax break or carers allowance for saving the state money. If people want a posher home then let them pay more for it, but the basics of necessary care for all our old people should be borne by all of us.
No country for old men (or women)
The youth have essentially been subsidising the elderly throughout the entire crisis. I read a report in the Irish Independent which showed that overall the elderly were actually up money since 2010.
So we’re generalising. ‘the youth’, what youth exactly? Does Johnny Ronan count as ‘the youth’ what about Sean Quinn’s kids. The elderly? Are we talking about the large number of pensioners who lost everything when their ‘safe’ pensions invested in Blue Chip shares like BoI and Allied Irish became worthless overnight whilst the bond holders were bailed out. I wonder if you’d think whether the bond traders were ‘young’ or ‘old’. How about the old people I meet who’ve entire families have had to emigrate, they’re the luck ones alright.
Why don’t you just go and annoy people in Belfast, “Darren “. What we do here need not concern you. I’m sure you’d be a wow.
what goes around comes around. You are young now and subsidise the elderly and when you are old the next young generation will subsidise you. This present generation of elderly were once youths in a much tougher harder regime than the present one.
Darren, I think you need a hug.
Its the same here in Qld Australia.My uncle’s (deceased) wife at 94 is in a home.Her house was sold as the family had to put up $250.000.00 deposit, even though they took her pension as well.Anything left over when she dies is left to the family.Disgusting as these were people who had 12 children,worked hard and paid their taxes all their life.Is it too much to ask to be cared for when a person gets old.
Why is it called the fair deal sceam there is nothing fair about it Bloody Mary Harney
Do you know the scheme before fair deal, all assets where in the pot not just this 7.5% over 3 years. Why should taxpayers with zero hard assets be trying to leave an nest egg for someone elses children.
The fair deal scheme was never sustainable ! With long term costing on average €1200 per week (60k) per year (Dublin region).
Most pensioners on state pension and having a modest valued home would not even cover one weeks payment each month!
this sounds just like another elderly care insurance or elderly care tax. everyone has to pay it but only some of them will need it…
A fair decision by the government. Some people will always expect everything handed to them for free.
If, God forbid, you get Cancer you will have more or less every cent of your care paid for by the state. If you need a transplant, the same. If you end up with a terminal illness thankfully, hospice care will be provided for you, free of charge. If you suffer a stroke or dementia and can’t go home the state will make you pay for the care you need right up to the second you die even though it would for many, cost less than some of the Cancer treatments and transplants. It is an expedient decision by the government, fairness has nothing to do with it.
Again Joe, lovely sentiment, but someone must pay here – so who pays for all of this free stuff you want to be given out?
Eugene…..f**k off with your new Twitter account you sad troll.
Who pays for the cancer care? Who pays for the Soliris drug, paid for by the state at €400,000 per person per year? Who pays for the Special Needs assistants that are provided for free because Kids need them.? Should parents be forced to pay for them if they can afford to. Remember the outcry here and elsewhere when people with chronic illnesses had their medical cards withdrawn. Who pays for the Garda? Do we introduce a rule that you should only have to pay for them if you get robbed?
The frail elderly are an easy group to single out for treatment.
TAXES
And I just want to emphasise that it is not always the elderly that end up in nursing homes. Young people, middle aged people with young families also end up in care homes.
I agree with you Joe, people are so reactionary about costs at the moment that they forget that other people besides themselves also pay taxes and they would be the first people up in arms when they realise they were being shafted.
The questions come down to basically this, are some people more equal than others? And, is it okay as long as it’s not me? How much do we value the suffering of others? And what is the financial loss in being a decent human being?
If the current scheme doesn’t work. Find something that does. But increasing the burden? That isn’t sustainable and when the burden is based on the nature of your medical misfortune…that is just not equitable. A scheme that works by seizing the financial assets of the incapacitated and the elderly, is a scheme that is broken from the getgo and one divorced from the reality of individual circumstance.
Those who need the fair deal scheme for care, are not the ones who can afford it.
You judge a society on how it treats its weakest citizens. Health care for elderly should be paid for out of general taxation. Dementia is a medical condition. Cancer is a medical condition yet dementia sufferers are expected to pay for their medical care in a safe environment.
Ronan you forgot to mention as part of the 7.5% per annum for 3 years on your assets you also have to pay 80% of your weekly income every week until death. So if your total assets are 400.000 and your weekly income inc pension is 400 per week nursing home will cost you 896 per week for 3 years then reduced to 320 per week at existing rate
Lets face it, this country cannot afford to pay for long term care. People are complaining about water charges, if we have to pay for nursing home are we can minus at least another 100 euros from our pay check. I have no problem with the government taking 50% of the value of the older persons home. People in this country don’t want to pay for anything and as the saying goes nothing in life is free!
AGAIN OUR TAXES
My father has early onset Alzheimer’s. My mother had to give up her job to be his full time carer. They’ve been paying taxes all their working life and if but more likely when he needs full time care we will loose up to 22.5% of the value of our home, where me and my mother live having only paid off a mortgage that cost a fraction of what they will want us to pay based on “value”. And that fraction took 30 years to clear. If my mother predeceases my father this causes even more difficulty as it is my home, what happens to me? I moved home so my mother would have support, a few hours peace here and there. There is nothing ‘fair’ about taking any security a family has because one of them was unlucky enough to fall foul of a horrific disease is his mid 50′s. Our home is in a suburban council estate, my parents worked hard and bought it and my mother paid it off hoping for some security mortgage free as she will likely be on a sole pension by her later years. Under the fair deal we would have been better off and more secure being council tenants rather than home owners. What a sorry state of affairs that is.
So your family have an asset of a 200k house, fair deal will at max charge 25-30k leaving an asset of 170k. As a council tenant you’d be paying rent of up to 100 euro every week forever and have no asset. Sorry but there’s no comparision
My family have a roof over our head. The only security we have. it is not an ‘asset’, it is a home, shelter is one of the basic requirements for survival. We haven’t got a mansion in Killiney, we don’t even have a car. Our home is something that my parents worked their asses off for while paying taxes that are supposed to be used for collective social resources in case of illness as well as communal needs such as roads etc. My father got sick with a disease that can’t be preempted or prevented. It is not self inflicted, there is no cure. He is on a long and horrific downward spiral. However, if his fortune led him to a different disease that meant years of inpatient or outpatient treatment, hospice care etc he would be covered. But some illnesses deserve more benefits that others? Is that the rhetoric we want? Cancer is a more cost efficient disease than Dementia? Heart Disease more than stroke? As it is my mother cares for my father full time, saving the states thousands in care costs and sacrificing her own remaining years which is heartbreaking to see. Had my father been a single man with no assets this wouldn’t be an issue. So why is a family home fair game because of the nature of the tragedy? Nobody should be punished because they fall ill. You say there is no comparison, but 100 euro a week, between me and my mam, budgeting and scrimping is a lot different than a max charge (upwards of 40k actually) levelled in one go against the value of your house. Meaning you can’t even downsize because you are already on the lowest property rung of your area and the percentage will be taken against any sale of a house. As it is my family is being punished financially because of the design of the illness my father suffered from. This is a man who worked nights my entire life, sacrificing time with his family to make a home that is being pillaged because the government believes that all people will Alzheimer’s have houses that only they inhabit, that all people will Alzheimer’s are 70+ when illness strikes? Over 4000 people in Ireland today have Alzheimers that is early onset, that can strike as low as their 30′s. I met someone in their 30s with a severe form of MS in a nursing home so it is not just Dementia. Should his young family be punished because of this misfortune? The comparison lies in the burden that is placed on people who are faced with a MASSIVE financial burden that they would not face if they were not property owners. They would also not be faced with upgrade and repair costs, maintenance etc.Like I said before, my mother JUST paid off the house. It was a burden off her mind and it gave her great piece of mind. For awhile. Until she realised that eventually my dad, would be too much to manage and she may need to put him into care, a horrible thought to even entertain but that is the reality of caring for someone bigger, stronger than you who looses themselves. You talk about the value of the asset, as if 200k is something tangible. Money we could pull from thin air. Not the actual amount my mother paid for it that like I said before took 30 years to pay and is less than half of the amount we would owe under the fair deal. A fair deal that asks 3 times the initial mortgage you just paid off? Maybe 25-30k (40k) seems like small fry to you. We are not people with hundreds of thousands in savings accounts. I’m a graduate currently trying to get only an employment ladder that isn’t low paid internships. My mother was a hard working sales assistant who worked right up until the day she had to look after my Dad. It is not ‘fair’ to devalue the only thing we actually have to our name. And to say that ‘somebody’ has to pay for it? Because we have paid our taxes just like you. The only difference is that you may be lucky enough the avoid such a badly dealt hand of faith. And I wouldn’t wish this illness of anyone in the world. But we shouldn’t be punished for it.
Not much comments about the payment of property tax taken from people just to live in their Own Homes .
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