Gifts and inheritances in Ireland. ESRI WP579, December 2017

Information on the frequency, value and composition of household wealth transfers has been fairly limited in Ireland and this paper aims to fill this gap by drawing on the detailed data now available on the pattern of gifts and inheritances from the 2013 Household Finance and Consumption Survey. We find that a considerably larger number of older and wealthier households report having received a gift or inheritance compared to their younger, less wealthy counterparts. The household main residence and businesses/farms are identified as the most important asset type in wealth transfers. Overall slightly over 13% of home-owning households were gifted or inherited their household main residence. We also show some association between inheritance and position in the wealth distribution, controlling for other factors. We find that that having received an inheritance or gift moves a household up the wealth distribution by 15.4 percentiles on average relative to households of the same income level that did not receive an inheritance. This effect is particularly large when the inheritance takes the form of a business or a property (not the main residence)

Scenarios and Distributional Implications of a Household Wealth Tax in Ireland. ifo DICE Report 2/2018 June Volume 16

This paper looks at a range of different wealth tax structures and their potential impact in terms of population coverage and tax yield using household level data on wealth in Ireland. We calculate a number of scenarios based on stylised examples of wealth tax structures similar to those in existence in other European countries. Our results give a wide range of possible scenarios; applying other country models shows how variations in the exemptions and thresholds can result in less than 1% to almost 50% of households being liable to a wealth tax. The scenarios we investigate show that varying the level of the threshold is the key determinant of the number of households that will be affected, which is in keeping with the concentration of wealth at the upper end of the wealth distribution. Given the numbers of households affected, the treatment of the household’s main residence (which is the largest asset for almost all households, apart from the very wealthiest) is an important factor in the level of average tax payment and hence total revenues raised

Language and Occupational Status: Linguistic Elitism in the Irish Labour Market

This paper, using data from the 2006 Irish Census, provides evidence of the structural advantage of Irish speaking, relative to non-speaking workers in Ireland’s labour market with advantage and disadvantage being defined in terms of occupational outcomes. To the best of our knowledge there has been no systematic investigation of any advantage enjoyed by Irish speakers in Ireland and allegations of the comfortable middle class ambience of the Gaelscoileanna have remained at the level of anecdote. Since linguistic elitism is a feature of many societies and since Irish enjoys the constitutional status of the national and first official language of Ireland, such an investigation was, arguably, overdue. This is then compared to the structural advantage of Irish speaking workers in Northern Ireland and of Welsh speaking workers in Wales. Our conclusion is that after controlling for as many relevant factors as the data permitted, a considerable part of the difference between Irish speakers and non-speakers in Ireland, in their proportionate presence in the upper reaches of occupational class, was due to structural advantage. The major contribution of this paper is to lift the debate about the economic position of Irish speakers in Ireland above the level of hearsay: dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi.

Health, Employment, and the Quality of Life in Ireland

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the Quality of Life (QoL) in Ireland using a sample of 3,500 respondents to the Irish Health Service Executive’s Survey of Consumers’ Experience of the Health Services in Ireland (HSE Survey) carried out between November 2006 and March 2007. Using an ordered logit model, we show that the likelihood of being satisfied with one's QoL is enhanced by social class, income, employment and, above all, by health. The methodology's ability to identify persons who might be "at risk" from a low QoL allows one to speculate on the QoL in Ireland today, in the winter of its discontent, compared to that in 2006-2007 when it basked in the summer of the Celtic Tiger. In present circumstances, one would expect that joblessness would play a much more important role in determining QoL: prior to 2008, unemployment meant a short wait till a suitable job turned up; now it is more likely to involve a protracted search at home or emigration. Furthermore, since unemployment often leads to bad health outcomes, one can be reasonably certain that the QoL associated with a 14 percent unemployment rate will be considerably worse than those witnessed during the halcyon days of the economic boom. This raises the question of how this additional, recession-induced, demand for health services will be met at a time when public expenditure on health in Ireland is to be cut by €1.4 billion over the next four years

Improved Food Safety through Sterility of Air in Food Processing and Packaging.

End of Project ReportThe aims of this research were to develop reliable methods for evaluating the level of airborne micro-organisms in food processing facilities and to study the viability and behaviour of micro-organisms in air filtration systems. The main conclusions were as follows: · Assessment of air quality involves monitoring both particulate and microbial levels as there is no simple relationship between these phenomena in a food process environment. · The large fluctuations in microbial levels found in air in these studies underline the necessity of frequent and regular air sampling in processing facilities. · It was established that micro-organisms can grow inside an air filter under certain environmental conditions and give rise to intermittent microbial germ contamination of the cleaned air. · It was demonstrated that flowing air affects the survival of microorganisms and the survival rate is dependent on filter class. Hence more emphasis on filter design aimed at effective microbial control is advised. · A combined system for filtering and sterilisation by ozone was demonstrated to be an efficient technique for extending the microbial separation efficiency of air filters.European Unio

Natural Killer Cells in Obesity: Impaired Function and Increased Susceptibility to the Effects of Cigarette Smoke

Background: Obese individuals who smoke have a 14 year reduction in life expectancy. Both obesity and smoking are independantly associated with increased risk of malignancy. Natural killer cells (NK) are critical mediators of anti-tumour immunity and are compromised in obese patients and smokers. We examined whether NK cell function was differentially affected by cigarette smoke in obese and lean subjects. Methodology and Principal Findings: Clinical data and blood were collected from 40 severely obese subjects (BMI>40 kg/m2) and 20 lean healthy subjects. NK cell levels and function were assessed using flow cytometry and cytotoxicity assays. The effect of cigarette smoke on NK cell ability to kill K562 tumour cells was assessed in the presence or absence of the adipokines leptin and adiponectin. NK cell levels were significantly decreased in obese subjects compared to lean controls (7.6 vs 16.6%, p = 0.0008). NK function was also significantly compromised in obese patients (30% +/− 13% vs 42% +/−12%, p = 0.04). Cigarette smoke inhibited NK cell ability to kill tumour cell lines (p<0.0001). NK cells from obese subjects were even more susceptible to the inhibitory effects of smoke compared to lean subjects (33% vs 28%, p = 0.01). Cigarette smoke prevented NK cell activation, as well as perforin and interferon-gamma secretion upon tumour challenge. Adiponectin but not leptin partially reversed the effects of smoke on NK cell function in both obese (p = 0.002) and lean controls (p = 0.01). Conclusions/Significance Obese: subjects have impaired NK cell activity that is more susceptible to the detrimental effects of cigarette smoke compared to lean subjects. This may play a role in the increase of cancer and infection seen in this population. Adiponectin is capable of restoring NK cell activity and may have therapeutic potential for immunity in obese subjects and smokers

Which are the "best" schools in Ireland? Analysing feeder school performance using student destination data

This paper represents an investigation of the broad factors which underpin the success of feeder schools in terms of the proportion of their “sits” who proceed to third-level education and, also, in terms of the “quality” of their educational destinations. It distinguishes between three school types: public (non-fee paying, English language) private (fee paying, English language), and Gaelscoil (non-fee paying, Irish language). Both private schools and the Gaelscoileanna reported much better results than public schools. From this, the paper disentangles the nature of this advantage by investigating the extent to which private school and Gaelscoil advantage over public schools was predicated on better circumstances and/or on better responses to circumstances. Our results show that private schools and the Gaelscoileanna had a response advantage over public schools: if private schools and the Gaelscoileanna were constrained to responding to their circumstances in the manner in which public schools responded to theirs, the performance of private schools and the Gaelscoileanna would suffer. By constraining the coefficient responses of all three types of schools to be that of public schools, we arrive at a revised list of the "best performing" twenty five feeder schools in Ireland. This is different from, but not dissimilar to, a ranking of the best performing twenty five schools based on their raw performance

Which are the "best" schools in Ireland? Analysing feeder school performance using student destination data

This paper represents an investigation of the broad factors which underpin the success of feeder schools in terms of the proportion of their “sits” who proceed to third-level education and, also, in terms of the “quality” of their educational destinations. It distinguishes between three school types: public (non-fee paying, English language) private (fee paying, English language), and Gaelscoil (non-fee paying, Irish language). Both private schools and the Gaelscoileanna reported much better results than public schools. From this, the paper disentangles the nature of this advantage by investigating the extent to which private school and Gaelscoil advantage over public schools was predicated on better circumstances and/or on better responses to circumstances. Our results show that private schools and the Gaelscoileanna had a response advantage over public schools: if private schools and the Gaelscoileanna were constrained to responding to their circumstances in the manner in which public schools responded to theirs, the performance of private schools and the Gaelscoileanna would suffer. By constraining the coefficient responses of all three types of schools to be that of public schools, we arrive at a revised list of the "best performing" twenty five feeder schools in Ireland. This is different from, but not dissimilar to, a ranking of the best performing twenty five schools based on their raw performance

The effect of hot isostatic pressing on surface integrity, microstructure and strength of hybrid metal injection moulding and laser-based powder bed fusion stainless-steel components

Hybrid manufacture of components by combining capabilities of replication and additive manufacturing processes offer a flexible and sustainable route for producing cost-effectively small batches of metal parts. At present, there are open issues related to surface integrity and performance of such parts, especially when utilising them in safety critical applications. The research presented in this paper investigates the ductility amplification of hybrid components produced using metal injection moulding to preform and then build on them customisable sections by laser-based powder bed fusion. The properties of such hybrid components are studied and optimised through the use of non-conventional post treatment techniques. In particular, hot isostatic pressing (HIP) is employed to improve mechanical strength and to produce hybrid components that have consistent properties across batches and throughout the samples, minimising microstructural heterogeneities between fabrication processes. Thus, the investigated post-processing method can offer an extended service life of hybrid components, especially when operating under severe conditions. The optimised post treatment was found to increase the hybrid components’ strength compared to as-built ones by 68% and ~11% in yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS), respectively. Subsequently, leading to a great pitting resistance, thus, making HIP samples suitable for corrosive environments. The advantages of the HIP treatments in comparison to the conventional heat treatment of hybrid components are discussed and also some potential application areas are proposed