Child Health Care in Ireland

The Irish health care system is based on a complex and costly mix of private, statutory, and voluntary provisions. The majority of health care expenditure comes from the state, with a significant proportion of acute hospital care funded from private insurance, but there are relatively high out-of-pocket costs for most service users. There is free access to acute hospital care, but not for primary care, for all children. About 40% of the population have free access to primary care. Universal preventive public health services, including vaccination and immunization, newborn blood spot screening, and universal neonatal hearing screening are free. Major health challenges include poverty, obesity, drug and alcohol use, and mental health. The health care system has been dominated for the last 5 years by the impact of the current recession, which has led to very sharp cuts in health care expenditure. It is unclear if the necessary substantial reform of the system will happen. Government policy calls for a move toward a patient-centered, primary care-led system, but without very substantial transfers of resources and investment in Information and Communication Technology, this is unlikely to occur

A History of Soil Research with Emphasis on Pedology

While commentary on the productivity of Irish pastures can be dated as far back as 55 BC, direct references to the different kinds of soil only begin in the eighth century AD. Early scientific information on Irish soils typically came from the endeavours of geologists or other professionals who studied rock and outcropping patterns. The Geological Survey of Ireland, a constituent of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, developed small-scale county soil maps, largely for the southern counties in the mid-1800s. In relation to pedology, John Hodges, an Irish soil analyst described soil profiles in the 1850s in terms identical with those dated to the Dokuchaev School in 1880s Russia. Soil science in Ireland has typically been delivered with agricultural and environmental science at University level. Agricultural extension dates back to 1731 through the Dublin Society employment of itinerant instructors. The soil test, pioneered by P H Gallagher in the 1930s became the single most important tool for the advisory service. In their essays on the characteristics of Irish soil types he, together with Dr. Tom Walsh, laid the groundwork for future classification and mapping. In 1945, the Department of Agriculture established a research centre at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford. The soil division of An Foras Talúntais was headquartered there and the National Soil Survey of Ireland established. In 1980 the second edition, General Soil Map of Ireland, was published. This survey was discontinued in 1988. In 1998, the Spatial Analysis Unit was established in Teagasc a key output of which was the first nationally complete digital subsoil and indicative soil map in 2009. Not long after, the 3rd Edition National Soil Map of Ireland was launched in 2014, through the collaboration of the Spatial Analysis Unit and Teagasc Johnstown Castle

Soil Formation

Parent material, topography, organisms and climate represent the key soil forming factors that interact over a timespan of millennia to produce soil. These soil forming factors produce soil through physical, chemical and biological weathering occurring overtime. The relative influence of the individual factors is responsible for differences found in soils. Soils in Ireland are relatively young, having formed since the retreat of the last ice age approximately 15,000 years ago. Parent materials in Ireland are broadly categorised into solid bedrock geology and bedrock derived glacial geology, with the latter accounting for the majority of parent materials across the Irish landscape. The Irish climate is strongly influenced by its position on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean and on the western fringes of continental Europe resulting in a mild maritime climate with prevailing south-westerly winds. The high rainfall rates in Ireland are a dominant driver of soil genesis with leaching and gleying as the two main processes driving soil development