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THE COELIAC SOCIETY has said it is “seeking clarification” regarding the cuts to the gluten-free product allowance that were publicised yesterday by the Irish Pharmacy Union.
The HSE said that gluten-free products will no longer be covered under State schemes such as the medical card, drug repayment schemes and long-term illness schemes.
It said that it is estimated that the decision to remove gluten-free products from the list will result in savings of around €3.6m on an annual basis.
The HSE commented:
Many European countries do not reimburse for gluten-free foods. Such products are considerably cheaper in a supermarket. For Medical Card holders, a Social Welfare Allowance is available. For non Medical Card holders, monies spent are taken into account for tax purposes.
Today, the Coeliac Society said that it had not been contacted directly by the HSE about these cuts.
We are working with the INDI (Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute) to strongly highlight the adverse effects of these possible cuts to the relevant bodies and as soon as we have more information we will be making a statement and keeping members updated in this regard.
One in every 100 people in Ireland suffer from coeliac disease, meaning the country has one of the highest incidences of the disease in the world.
The IPU said that the news of the cuts came with notice of the removal of three drugs from the list of those which can be reimbursed under certain State schemes. These are:
A HSE spokesperson said that the cuts would total €6 million, but she did not know exactly what percentage of this the gluten-free products represented.
The cut came into effect last Friday (September 1) and the notice of the cut was circulated at midday yesterday (September 3).
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He came to the right country for acting the bolix and gettin away with it in court!
“Sick joke” If the judge didn’t say somebody on here would have.
All well and good but could someone in the know explain to me how a judge can just decide which organisation receives money from defendants. Is it at the judges discretion or is there a list??
PaddyMac
He didn’t get away with anything in the Court. It is a matter of public record that the man was charged with a grievous offence and paid a substantial fine which will benefit a needy charity.
It is highly likely that his employers will be aware of this shameful episode within hours and his business reputation will be in tatters. Indeed most Companies would regard this as gross misconduct warranting dismissal as the man was on business at the time of the offence.
So, no Paddy I don’t think he got away with anything in the Irish Court.
He doesn’t have a conviction recorded against him, so yes, he did indeed get away with acting the bolix.
He didn’t pay a “substantial fine” and it is not a matter of public record. He made a charitable donation and had a charge brought against him struck out.
If you are a registered charity for example, I think you can ask your local court to be added to a list which can be used to receive money from certain types of fines. How the judge does it, I have no idea. Check with your local court first.
On the money Paddy. A few months in Mountjoy would show these clowns that you don’t mess around in this country and bring an airport to a standstill. As it is the Irish judiciary show once again that the poor box is considered punishment enough
Are you talking about AL or the Italian lad?
It wasn’t a fine.
The fine and the general fuss about this incident is completely over the top. Get a grip, people.
Can’t agree. People thinking they can say what they want, or do what they want and that there are no repercussions is not acceptable. People should be held to account for their actions, simple as. And when it comes to issues that do have real world serious consequences like Ebola, people shouldn’t be allowed to make fun of it. It is a waste of already over stretched resources by health workers, airport police, Gardai, airport fire brigade, the court system, the prison service, disruption to Aer Lingus and to Dublin Airport…never mind the rest of the passengers on the flight that were left in limbo.
So it may have been a stupid joke, but some things should not be joked about as the repercussions of it turning out to be real and not been a joke is that people die.
Are you actually for real?
An over reaction worthy of our American cousins.
Laughable.
Tertullian so you are happy that tax pages have spent many many thousands of euros for his little joke? Airline costs, airport costs, gardai costs, ambulance costs, legal costs, judge’s costs, courtroom time and probably others u haven’t thought of.
it is fecking daft that it went this far at all. stupidity of the highest order and im not talking about the Italian guy either.
Tertullian what would your response be if he was infected and told no one or if the airline staff just ignored it and carried on? If you are on a plane and make or pose a threat then it has to be taken seriously especially if you have 300 people in a plane at 30,000 feet who could freak out and cause a disaster over one idiots idea of a joke. Only recently a passenger was detained by 3-4 other passengers on a jet because he was out of order. If people on this flight heard that this guy had said that he had one of the scariest diseases going and they all decided to go to the front and/or back of the plane it could have resulted in the plane becoming unstable and crashing.
Oh my God. Are you actually serious?
He said it was a joke.
What’s the point? What’s the f@&€ing point?
Lets be realistic Brian.
If he had ebola and diagnosed with it he wouldn’t be a plane
If he had ebola incubating within with flu symptoms / high temperature. Indeed action is needed.
If he had ebola incubating with no temperature then he wouldn’t know. Nor would anyone.
Common sense really. The staff shoukd have accepted it was a joke and moved on.
Alan and Gerbeen I really hope that ye don’t have a role in airline security if your attitude is “Ah sure he said it was a joke, lets move on” then I doubt that I will ever fly again! Airline security is a no nonsense business where even the slightest security threat is taken very seriously.
“If he had ebola incubating within with flu symptoms / high temperature. Indeed action is needed.”
If he had ebola how were the airline staff to know? He could have been someone coming from a dump like Liberia and figuring that he had a better chance of survival in a Western Hospital than in an African. He could have had it and lied about it, but sure if he says it was a joke sure leave him off!
What I can not understand is the attitude that you can act the maggot on a plane, pose a threat and then people think that if you say you are joking then everything is all right!!!
I suppose if you lads were staff on the plane that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was on and he said that he had a bomb in his pants ye would have passed that off as a joke as well.
What happened was:
Mum Dad and daughter flying to Dublin from Milan.
Dad takes a sip of coffee from daughters coffee cup. She happens to be very particular about germs etc and told the Dad off.
He write “beware abola” on the cup to annoy her a bit more, joking of course.
At the end of the flight he handed the coffee cup to the flight attendant when she was collecting the rubbish.
She read this and the rest is history. I have never heard anything as stupid in all my life. 99 out a 100 flight attendants would have looked at that family and made an educated guess from dealing with customers and decided there was no bad intent here and dumped that cup in the black bag where it was intended for.
The only good thing is that Brother Kevin got 2 and a half grand for his soup kitchen
The world is gone mad!!!.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s like the 9 11 stuff where anyone with a funny name got hauled off. Totally over the top. We had the ira and uvf shooting away for years and we didn’t go into lockdown in the republic.
Only he didn’t act the maggot or pose a threat. Simple explanation was given. Sometimes you have to use common sense.
I guess he will be flying home via Bergamo.
Your last paragraph comparing it to someone saying they had a bomb is laughable also.
@Brian – ‘the plane could crash’ – What an absolutely ridiculous comment!
The throwaway, what about the nurse that is treating people who refuses to wear a mask or any form of personal protection is she taking it seriously? It was a private joke, cop yourself on for gods sake
Unfortunately Brian, there are people who work in professions where the luxury of a joke isn’t there. The risks of getting it wrong and it turning out not to be a joke are too great. If and when it turns out to be a joke there is obvious relief and with hindsight everything is put into a neat and organised perspective from which we can say ‘sure wasn’t that stupid’. At the time you only have so much information in front of you with which to base a decision on a next step. And like I said, if you go wrong, that next step could have disastrous consequences.
There takes all sides of people to make a balance, and in matters of hazmat and security there is, quite rightly, a no joking attitude.
I’ll also go back to my point that I don’t think it’s acceptable that people should not be held to account for their actions. He could have drawn a funny picture of a germ, or any number of things. But instead he chose a high profile topic and didn’t think of the consequences of his actions. With hindsight as I said, everything can be put into neat boxes and laughed at. But when you’re the person who has to decide, inevitably you will find yourself been overly-cautious weighing up the potential for a joke, or the fact that the consequences of you getting it wrong could be horrendous. There is a tremendous professional and personal responsibility when considering that this time could be that one time when it goes wrong.
At a low level high volume incident such as a car crash you see people making these same decisions. The casualty may not have any discernible injuries, but paramedics will still treat at scene on the assumption that there could be tremendous damage done and as such will treat as though the patient has spinal injuries or internal injuries.
For the Gardai as an example, you could receive a report of a suspicious male in a park. You treat it as though this could potentially be a sexual offender, a person looking to carry out a robbery or whatever, the reality is likely to be nothing of interest. The point been that you cannot take the line sure that suspicious person is harmless without carrying out the necessary steps, for the off chance of that one time where you do and that person does turn out to cause harm. Or likewise, you don’t tell the casualty ‘sure hop out of the car for us will ya’ for fear that it could that one time there is a serious injury.
The point I’m trying to make is that on hindsight and with distance it is very easy to see this instance as stupid. At the time, with decisions been made in a confined space and timeline on often times confused and changing information, weighing up the potential for the risk to be real, all usually conspire to mean that the possibility of the risk outweighs the chance of it been nothing.
He wrote it as a joke slagging his daughter. Complete hisifit by air steward and over reaction by everyone.
Can I point out Brian that if said passenger had Ebola and fancied his chances better in a western hospital I can guarantee he would not be so stupid as to have written on a coffee cup that he had a potentially fatal disease.
It is absolute rubbish that this went to court. It was a private joke between the man and his daughter on a flight (flights are boring and alot of nonsence is talked on flights), this was their little joke, that some stupid flight attendant wanted to make into a national emergency. The flight attendant should have just put the cup in the bleedin bag.
Exactly how I see it. The hostess obviously watches waaaaaay too much SkyNews in departure lounges. Complete lack of common sense. That said, we are talking about people with one of the highest levels of entitlement and self-regard in Ireland. Cup. Bin. Over.
Well Eddie o’ you seem to be the only one talking sense on here, it was a private joke between a father & daughter which a nosey flight attendant spoiled, if he had written(as the judge said) on a napkin that there was a bomb on board and handed it to the flight attendant that would be different but he didn’t, in my opinion arresting & taking this family to court is a fu.king disgrace, Welcome To Ireland
Totally over the top, I wonder if he contested this in court before a jury would he be convicted, I’d find it very hard to arrive at a guilty verdict.
Irish Judge admits he can’t think of more serious offence than writing on a cup.
- Explains all the ridiculously inappropriate suspended sentences we read about daily in our newspapers then I suppose…..
Also a Capuchian Friary gets 2,500 out of this? Why in the name of Buddah would the money go to some bloody stupid God club when there’s going to be so many misfortunates sleeping on our streets tonight to name but one example???????? Is this picked by the Judge, could it be his local golf club so??????
Could have sent one of the Limerick Regional ambulances in for a valve job!
Do the Friars do valve jobs?
See Mary Lyons post above re who Brother Kevin is.
€2500 !!!! FOR WHAT !!!!? Having a laugh with his daughter !! Unbelievable
This seems a bit Orwellian
Writing Ebola on a coffee cup and being brought up on charges over it. I just wrote Ebola twice in a comment which could be viewed by thousands should I expect similar treatment.
Glen, transfer €2,500 into my account and we will say no more on the matter
I tell you what, you jump on an American Airlines flight to New York and write “I’ve got Ebola” on a coffee cup and see what happens..
Post your details !
Glen, yes, there is going to be a knock on your door in 10,9,8……….
Cosmo
He didn’t write “I’ve got Ebola” read the article.
He said attention ebola in Italian… It’s more or less saying he has Ebola
The reporting yesterday suggested he had been trying to bring it to the attention of the cabin crew. The report today says he wasn’t, which changes my view:
“Judge Halpin said in Binashi was not attempting to bring the cup to the attention of staff, rather he simply wanted to dispose of the cup.”
He was trying to share a joke with his daughter. While the joke was about a serious issue, many of us regularly make bad or inappropriate jokes about serious things. Ridiculous that he was brought to court over this.
Cosmo, only if you try really hard to interpret it as such.
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for the money to have been donated to an aid charity working to help Ebola stricken areas?
Yes. What on earth are a Friary of monks going to do it with? Why are so many religious orders pet charities for District Court judges?
Spend it on alcohol, gambling and prostitutes.
Capuchin Friary in Dublin provide 1000′s of free meals for the poor and homeless in dublin on daily a basis , The money will feed those that can’t afford to feed themselves
@ Winding down
I am open to correction but dont they operate a meals service in dublin city for the homeless,if im correct its not a bad choice.
Very true the homeless here in our own country need helping first. Before any other charity. Look after our own first
Well Capuchin Brother Kevin has been feeding the poor and the homeless for years in Dublin.
He is very well know for his work and I dont think anyone would begrudge him this money.
He works tirelessly and he is nearly 80 years old He depends on donations.
Would’nt give a penny to the Catholic Church myself but this is one charity that really deserves it.
Brother Kevin is one of the good guys!
Wow get a grip Aerlingus. Poor guy.
Well he is an idiot for doing it but on reading this version of events it seems like a mountain was made from a molehill by AL. Unless he had flu like symptoms of course.
Totally agree. Absolutely ridiculous. From AerLingus to the gardaí and the judge. Just preposterous.
And if Aer Lingus bad let all passengers into Ireland who shared the aircraft with his man who may of had ebola. Im sure the views would be very different.
I do think the language barrier may of made the situation worse.
He explained to the flight attendant that it was a joke between himself and his daughter! FFS!
If he had flu like symptoms then yes Ronan the correct action was taken. If he was perfectly healthy then he wasn’t diagnosed with Ebola.
Btw he bought the coffee so he owned the cup. He can write what he wants on it.
Probably turned out to be the most expensive cup of Irish coffee ever…
A storm in a cardboard coffee cup!!!
Am I missing something here? Surely what he wrote was in the context of a private joke with his daughter. If this is correct, where is the criminal act here? Surely he is entitled to share a private joke with his daughter without a hysterical idiot member of the cabin crew turning it into this.
Shame on the cabin crew member. Must of been some stuck up biatch who doesn’t know how to handle a situation. Shocking.
Exactly, storm in a teacup/coffee cup, clowns the lot of em.
thats what i was thinking too. but it says in the article he became abusive too, so i am guessing he just dug a hole for himself?
He probably did act like a d*ick and dug a hole for himself. The sooner people like him realise you will never ever ‘win’ against the crew, the better.
@Jack – Absolutely correct! Given the context, an absolute scandal that he ended up in court. Shame on Aer Lingus and their over zealous staff.
What was the actual charge?
“Acting in a manner likely to disturb the peace when surrounded by morons”!
This is ridiculous he wrote attention Ebola on the lid of his daughters coffee cup, he didn’t shout around the plane that he had the disease he didn’t bring it to the attention of the cabin crew, maybe I shouldn’t have wrote it here myself probably get a knock on the door now. Complete and utter over reaction.
The judge made an inaccurate comparison in saying it’s the same as writing there’s a bomb on a napkin and giving it to staff. That is unless he’s presuming that the bomb on napkin quote wasn’t meant for the staff. The guy says it was something he scribbled for his daughter. It’s an over the top fine when an apology would have done.
Attentione, idiot.
A load of over emotional bollocks!
Meanwhile in the real world…….. in Temple Bar people are being mugged daily by the ‘walkers’, parts of West Dublin are being plagued by drug-selling s(um and theft and robbery by ‘certain people’ in Waterford is hitting the headlines.
I despair for this country with some of the people we have making decisions.
I don’t see the big deal .i had Ebola cornflakes this morning and a Ebola frosties yesterday.
‘Sick joke’. Well it was a joke about Ebola after all.
Only in Ireland could you get arrested for having a private joke. No harm was intended. He didn’t intend bringing it to anyone’s attention, he threw it in the bin. It was written on the cup for the amusement of his daughter. But it’s Ireland. Let’s cause a huge fuss and embarrass ourselves.
its another sick joke that the money went to a religious organisation
In fairness, he did nothing wrong. His kid could of written it. Or indeed, he should have just blamed his kid. Or he was showing his family how the word is spelled. Nothing story.
Try writing ‘Michael O’Leary’ on your cup and see the reaction that you get.
I can’t help but feel that ship was blown way out of proportion. Had he drawn attention to the cup and tried to bring the flight crew into his joke that would be one thing. But it appears that this was a private joke between him and his daughter. When the stewardess noticed it she could have defused the whole thing by asking what was going on.
Normally I would say throw the book at anyone who messes on a flight but this was a silly joke between 2 members of a family and NO way should he have had to spend the night in Ballymun station and pay a 2.5k fine.
It would appear the man wasn’t trying to cause alarm to people, but his doodling went too far unknowingly.
I wonder will Halloween pranksters who dress up as Ebola victims tonight, be arrested?
Maybe a simple conversation could have resolved this. Maybe not.
Seems he is not the sharpest tool in the box , writing that on a flight is just pure stupidity considering how jittery the whole world is about Ebola .
Thanks Captain Obvious!
@retired. He is a Director of his own IT company and was on his way to a conference in Dublin.
Total over reaction to what was a silly joke between father and child
Note to self: never try to be funny, trivial, amusing, privately entertaining, witty, droll, self deprecating or show any kind of personality when on a flight. This story is complete nonsense. The staff are humourless and compassionless idiots.
This is a ridiculous conviction. Attention Ebola is as credible a threat as writing Attention Zombie. The law was written to prevent people making credible threats that endanger an aircraft and/or frighten people. Attention Ebola is not credible nor is it a threat, it’s unclear statement that can be interpreted in several ways. He did not say there is a weapon aboard, he did not say there was threat to the aircraft or anyone on-board. And most important of all, he did not draw attention to the writing on the coffee lid but wanted it disposed of.
This could have be easily argued in court and won, but of course Mr. Binaschi does not want attention nor can he incur the expense of a lengthy court case. If the judge had any backbone he would have thrown this case out of court and admonished Aer Lingus for wasting the court’s time and causing disruption to passengers.
Judge Anthony Halpin told the court that he “cannot think of a more serious offence given the nature of Ebola”.
Before going on to say…
“The only comparable example I can think of is writing on a napkin, ‘there is a bomb on the plane’”
Ok. The judge is also an idiot. Should have been thrown out of court. Utter nonsense. The air hostess is clearly an idiot as well.
The judge should resign. If the legislation exists, he should be impeached.
The district courts are full of these politically appointed twits – with the power of contempt laws at their disposal! Ever been through the family courts in this country? I take my chances in Angola rather than here.
Just an observation:
He cracked an Ebola joke and now has to give money to the Capuchin Charity.
In the Dustin Hoffman film, “Outbreak”, the Ebola virus arrived by an animal host, a “Capuchin” Monkey!!! (Same spelling)
How coincidental is that?
So I commit a crime I can just donate money to charity and get away with it?
What was his crime? A bad joke? And you want him jailed for this?
The only joke worse is Aer Lingus’ reaction to it.
He “cannot think of a more serious offence given the nature of Ebola”. Here’s one – throwing a coffee cup of bodily fluids from an Ebola patient into someone’s face. That would be more serious.
It would appear the man wasn’t trying to cause alarm to people, but his doodling went too far unknowingly.
I wonder will Halloween pranksters who dress up as Ebola victims tonight, be arrested?
Maybe a simple conversation could have resolved this. Maybe not.
For f** sake , when are our little jump suits being delivered to us ? You can scratch your arse now……Heil Europe …
Innocent joke with his daughter that got out of hand. Watching it on the news. He took a sip of coffee from his daughters cup and then wrote “warning, Ebola ” on it. The daughter finished the coffee, the air steward collected the empty cup, and as she was literally dropping the cup into the bin she noticed the writing on the cup.
You all know the rest
Did you hear about the guy who joked about ebola on a plane? never mind! its very serious to spread around.
Private joke. Public fiasco.
Way, way over the top. Poor family must have thought they were flying Craggy Island Airways
What a dope, i thought he would be a young fella!
So who’s gonna pick up the tab?
It’s a sick joke alright. I would have expected something like this in the US or UK, but not in Ireland. Sounds like the air steward either bored or having a bad day and just wanted to pick a fight.
What a load of ebollox.
Beware.
Ebola.
(Oh crap, better have €2500 ready)
Having worked in the Aviation industry since the 90s, Security is and always will be a priority.
I have been trained in numerous things regarding security like bomb hoaxes etc, And how to differentiate between a possible threat and a hoax along with other things.
For obvious reasons I’m not going go in to the details, From reading the article the guy wrote on his daughters cup the word Ebola.
He then preceded to hand the cup over to the cabin crew member without mentioning the word ebola who saw it, And more than likely reported it to the nbr 1.
So the cabin crew supervisor probably popped down the aisle to the guy and asked him if he wrote that, The guy says yes then all hell breaks loose.
What should have happened is for the crew member to ask him for his passport, So they could verify if he actually was in a country where the disease is.
After checking his passport and there is no evidence that he was in a country with the disease, The crew member should have warned him about writing stupid things and leave it at that.
Now on the other hand if the guy was shouting out I have Ebola and was verbally abusive to the crew and passengers, Well yes the Gardai should have been called.
A lot of common sense goes a long way in dealing with issues like this.
Made me laugh, fair play to him.
If you’re gonna be arrested for making a joke, it should at least be a funny one.
I doubt if an Irish guy pulled that stunt on an Italian Flight landing in Italy he would get away with it? Yeah right
It’s high time air stewards / stewardesses were made take aptitude tests before they are hired,I have never read anything so fu**king half witted as the dummy who actually thought this guy had Ebola,I mean jaysus get a grip of yourself you donkey.
1. Way too harsh decision to take him to the court. Flight attendant mad thing.
2. Court one thing but imagine head wrecking he’ll get from his wife for that…lol
Nice to see (not really) an Irish judge getting away with abusing his power by ordering someone to pay a third party a substantial sum. Is the Irish justice really reduced to that of a kangaroo court?
5+6 = 11
I had made comments on an earlier report on this story that I now retract. This was a private joke between him and his daughter, regarding the sharing of a cup. Aer Lingus cabin crew over-reacted, and the over-reaction didn’t stop there, it went all the way to the court room. Yes, it might have been a joke that is in bad taste, but it is not for our judiciary to be arbiters of what is or is not in good taste. I’m at a loss to understand what crime he committed. I hope he sues the behind off Aer Lingus for having put him through this.
Che imbecille !!!!!!
Chi? Tu?
This whole scenario is ridiculous. A father shared a joke with his daughter. End of story. If he offended somebody, it is not illegal unless he has personally victimised. I’m not a lawyer, but surely his right to free speech can be extended here? I accept it’s offensive to some people but what isn’t? You’ll always have a moaner who disagrees because they don’t like what they hear/see. However, it’s now against the law do share a private joke? Obviously the man just didn’t want a criminal record but I personally would have argued my case and not give in to the people who were offended. I apologise to you, Roberto Binaschi, on behalf of this ridiculous country. Prioritise judicial cases!!!
Harsh. Hes italian ffs he was just looking for a bowla soup
€10 if he had flown swine air…. :)
I deserve 1 red thumb for that lol
I suppose with these new courts,we will now see all these corrupt,bankers ,politicians,Etc Will they ever get there day in court ,?????????????? Corrupt ,I hope the devil has plenty of oil down below ,one way or the other he going to be a busy man.
I thought it was funny
Absolute joke that this was even newsworthy.
Not the first time this judge made the news either.
Take it away Joe! http://youtu.be/sFacWGBJ_cs
Idiota!
Si, e’ vero. Sei un idiota.
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