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GMA Network
03-06-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
Senators seek increase in PhilHealth's anti-rabies coverage
Two senators asked the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to increase its package for anti-rabies vaccination amid the rising rabies cases. In a hearing on Tuesday, Senator Bong Go said some patients might have hesitation about availing of anti-rabies shots because of the costs. 'Baka ang mga kababayan natin sa takot ayaw na magpa-injection dahil mahal ang babayaran. Lalo na pag talagang positibo na kailangan nila magpa-inject. Baka maaring taasan nyo ang inyong coverage para hindi matakot ang ating mga kababayan na magpa-injection at magpa-gamot dahil may PhilHealth na masasandalan nila,' said Go, chairperson of the Senate Committe on Health. (Perhaps our countrymen are scared of the injection because the fees are expensive. There really is a need for vaccination, especially when they test positive. Perhaps there can be an increase in coverage so that our countrymen would no longer be scared of vaccination and treatment because they can depend on PhilHealth.) 'Ang bilis, ang bilis niyan. Hindi yan pwedeng sandali…. Dapat punta kaagad sa hospital, punta kaagad sa health center, check-up kaagad. At kung kailangan magpa-injection, injection kaagad. Dapat tumugon kaagad ang gobyerno dahil buhay po rito ang nakataya dito,' he added. (It's so fast. They can't delay… You would have to immediately head to a hospital or to a health center for a check-up. If you need an injection, you need to be vaccinated right away. The government has to respond right away because there are lives at stake.) In an advisory in March 2025, PhilHealth noted that its current Animal Bite Package covers P5,850 for vaccinations. Some hospitals offer free vaccinations for humans, while local government offices also offer free vaccinations for pets. Senator Raffy Tulfo said that local government units must allot a budget for anti-rabies vaccinations for both animals and humans. Two rabies deaths occurred within a month —a man who died nine months after the bite and a woman who was bitten two months ago. The two did not avail themselves of anti-rabies shots. In 2024, the DOH reported a total of 426 rabies-related deaths and emphasized the need for pet vaccinations and increased rabies awareness. Meanwhile, Go also asked the Department of Budget and Management to settle the Health Emergency Allowance (HEA) payouts of health workers. 'Unahin niyo bayaran ang mga appeals ng health emergency allowances. Yung mga health workers natin na nagsakripisyo at nakipagpatayan sa atin ng panahon ng pandemya. Kung totoo naman na pinaghirapan nila at pinagtrabahuan nila, sana gawan nyo po ito ng paraan,' he said. (Prioritize paying the appeals of health emergency allowances. Our health workers have sacrificed and faced the frontlines for us during the pandemic. If it is true that they have worked for this, I hope something could be done.) 'Services rendered po yan, pinagpawisan po yan, pinaghirapan po yan ng ating mga health workers. Sila po ang hero ng pandemya. Di natin mararating ito kung hindi dahil sa kanila. Ibigay po what is due,' he continued. (These are rendered services, toiled with sweat and hard work by our health workers. They are the heroes of the pandemic. We will not be able to get here without them. Give them what is due.)—LDF, GMA Integrated News
Irish Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, June 2nd: On PhD students, Israel and Pine Martens
Sir, – Advising potential US PhD students not to come to Ireland is perhaps an understandable reaction from students who have not been able to secure adequate funding for ever-increasing costs of living ( 'As PhD researchers this is our advice: avoid Ireland', Opinion, May 29th) . The article, however, contains a number of inaccuracies and omissions about the general conditions of Ireland's postgraduate research students. A PhD is the highest academic award a university can grant to a student. It comes with rigorous quality control and assessment. The sense of achievement on graduation is enormous, as are the benefits to the PhD graduate. Embarking on the (four-year plus) journey to obtain a PhD qualification is a very individual choice. Our supports for PhD students undoubtedly need to improve, but they are among the best in Europe and are far better than those on offer in most US universities, where many 'funded' students pay fees or work long hours as graduate teaching assistants. The four years is also an investment long term in their individual earning potential. As the recent HEA report on graduate outcomes has demonstrated, a PhD graduate is earning €815 per week compared with the €655 being earned by a graduate with a master's degree. The recent decision by Government and the main funding agencies to increase the PhD stipend to €25,000 per annum was welcome. All universities campaigned for this increase. We need to go further in increasing this base level – on that we all agree. READ MORE However, a direct comparison with the minimum and living-wage levels does not provide the full picture. PhD students do not pay tax or PRSI, unlike minimum wage workers. In addition, almost every student on the €25,000 stipend also has their tuition fees paid, at a further cost of between €5,000 and €13,000 each year – again a financial support not available to minimum wage workers. Dublin City University has moved all of our internally funded PhD students on to this new rate of €25,000, plus fees. This was done without additional Government support – at a significant cost to the university, but it is the right thing to do. The opinion piece suggests that universities seek to attract non-EU research students in order to raise income. Non-EU full-time research students are overwhelmingly on scholarships, where the higher rate of non-EU fee is paid by the research funder or the university, and they do not add significantly to university incomes. All of the universities have argued that the additional costs for those students, including visa fees, should be covered by funders. Furthermore, universities do not make a profit from PhD-based research. That research is significantly subsidised from other activity and through fundraising. Universities are also accused of acting like businesses in 'balancing the books'. The Universities Act sets out an obligation in law for each university to run a balanced budget. There are very significant consequences if this is not achieved. Despite the claim that 'many' of our universities are running financial surpluses, even the Government accepts that there is €307 million annual shortfall in public funding. In the absence of that funding being provided by government, universities have no choice but to seek to raise funds in all sorts of ways – including from business. Seeking external research funding is a key objective for all research-intensive universities. With regards to the profits made by DCU on-campus accommodation, our on-campus accommodation makes a significant portion of its revenue during the summer months when we charge full commercial rates to conference attendees and visitors to Dublin. Income from this period goes straight back into the university to help DCU to keep student accommodation rents as affordable as possible for students and their families. We need to properly fund our PhD students, including the additional costs of visas for international students, as well as increases to the basic stipend. To do that we need a properly funded public university system, and a wider research and innovation ecosystem. That is more urgent than ever in the current geopolitical uncertainty. Education, research and innovation have been at the heart of Ireland's social transformation, and will need to be again, as we adapt to the current turmoil. – Yours, etc, PROF JOHN DOYLE, Vice-president for Research, PROF SHARON O'BRIEN, Dean of Graduate Studies, Dublin City University Dublin 9. Squirrel spotting Sir, – Frank McNally's mentioned the common grey squirrel in a recent Irishman's Diary (Friday, May 30th). As luck would have it, only a day previously, I was fortunate enough to espy the lesser-spotted red variety scaling a tree in a wooded area in the Farnham Estate in Co Cavan. Moments later, a pine marten crossed my path at speed before disappearing into the undergrowth. A local woman to whom I recounted this wildlife encounter opined that the noticeable proliferation of red squirrels in the area was almost suggestive of a veritable truce having been declared between the two species. This state of affairs, she suggested, might be directly related to a corresponding reduction in the numbers of the once-thriving grey variety in the locality. Pine martens, she believes, are now content to ignore the agile red variety and instead concentrate their predatory instincts on their slightly larger and perhaps less athletic grey cousins. – Yours, etc, KIERAN FLYNN, Ballinasloe, Co Galway. Death and Gaza Sir, – As a proud Irish citizen of the European Union, I fear trust in the institutions of government have been irrevocably damaged if not completely eroded over the lack of sanction (or indeed any tangible action) from the EU on Israel's war in Gaza. The elephant in the room is that the EU has put US trade relations way above our human rights obligations as a block. Russia could be immediately sanctioned (rightly so) yet the dithering and feeble posturing over Palestinian slaughter has been embarrassing, infuriating and inhumane. This is not an EU of equals if Germany and Austria, with a few others, get to dictate our response to plausible genocide. Were we wrong to pass Nice and Lisbon treaties (albeit reluctantly) and dilute our voice in Europe? Have we left the warmongers in charge once more. Has business become our master in chief once and for all? I am a citizen, not a 'consumer'. I live in a country not a 'market'. I respect human life and dignity. Why have the citizens not been heeded? Why should we respect or participate in EU institutions any further when it was all fine words about culture, but in reality nothing more than an offshoot of multinational capitalist enterprise? – Yours, etc, SEAMUS HUGHES, Galway. Sir, – As a citizen of the EU, I would like to know what number of dead we in the Republic should expect to endure if we were being attacked by an outside state before we could anticipate that other countries would intervene to help us with actual action. It seems that we could look forward to at least 122 000 deaths (adjusting the current death-toll in Gaza for Irish population statistics). Just for context, in 2024 there were around 34,800 deaths registered here. Not that we need ever worry about being abandoned by the moral countries of the world; their recent track record inspires such confidence and pride. We would never be considered to have deserved such a fate though – we are, after all, far more human than the Palestinians. – Yours, etc, MARY MORAN, Shannon, Co Clare. Respecting the national anthem Sir, – I wish to fully endorse Kevin O'Regan's letter on the national anthem (Letters, May 29th) and fully support his suggestion of the introduction of a mandatory two-minute pause between the end of the anthem and the start of play in intercounty GAA games. I have noticed in recent years, especially at intercounty GAA games, a lack of respect for our national anthem. Some players do not stand to attention, and others break away from formation before the completion of the anthem. At a recent match I attended, the singer clearly didn't know the words, some players didn't even bother to stand to attention, and all players were breaking formation long before the anthem was finished. I understand players are anxious to get on with the game, but is one or two minutes going to make any difference to the starting? Gaelic games are our national games being watched worldwide, our national anthem deserves respect. – Yours, etc, VINCENT CARROLL, Dublin. Sir, – I wholeheartedly agree with your correspondent Kevin O'Regan on the apparent disregard for our national anthem within the GAA. It is a source of annoyance to see these players performing box-jumps and warming up during the anthem and not one of them actually reciting the words. I have long held the view that it should be compulsory for the players to sing the anthem and stand still to show respect. Compared to Six Nations rugby and the pride and passion the players show for their anthems, the GAA should hang their heads in shame. – Yours, etc, MARY LEE, Newbridge, Co Kildare. Sir, – The suggested mandatory two-minute pause between the end of Amhrán na bhFiann and the start of play at GAA matches would not be welcomed by corner forwards. – Yours, etc, LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH, Kiltipper Road, Dublin 24. Climate change and fines Sir, – Ireland generates less than 0.1 per cent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. We are facing potential fines of up to €20-30 billion if climate targets are not reached by the end of the decade. Will the same penalties be proportionately applied to the world's biggest polluters, namely China, India, the United States and Brazil? If so, then their economies will justifiably collapse. A level playing field must surely apply. – Yours, etc, JOHN BURNETT, Co Cork. Cycling days gone by Sir, – I am sure readers of my vintage can recall the centre of Dublin, in places like College Green, being full of bicycles, riding several abreast. I'll wager not one of those riders considered him or herself a 'cyclist,' or had ever read a cycling magazine. The bicycle was transport, unless you were fairly well to do. Now, almost all bikes are ridden by enthusiasts. Having paid up to several thousand euro or pounds for their machines, and a tidy sum for helmets, clothing and accessories, they become members of a sort of parallel society, with its own rules and conventions – one of which seems to have a flagrant disregard for traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. I instinctively dislike extra laws and compulsion, but I feel it would be no bad thing if, as in some other countries, bicycles were registered and displayed a number plate. Where to mount it on some modern machines is another question. – Yours, etc, PAUL GRIFFIN, Liverpool.
Irish Times
06-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Northern Ireland needs to prepare to educate, or prepare to fail
The former head of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi once said that 'productivity growth is the only possible way to achieve prosperity'. High-quality education is crucial to bringing that about. Northern Ireland needs an urgent increase in the number of higher education places it has if it is to stand any chance of closing the investment and productivity gaps with Britain or the Republic of Ireland over the next 25 years. A comparison of 2022/23 data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the United Kingdom and from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for the Republic of Ireland illustrates the chasm that exists. To close the gap with Britain, Northern Ireland needs to increase full-time undergraduate places from 35,000 to 50,000. Overall, higher education places of all types should rise from 60,000 to 80,000. READ MORE Simply put, a better-educated workforce produces more and attracts higher levels of investment than a less educated workforce that is left to work with inferior levels of investment. The examples are everywhere, but it would be futile simply to look on enviously. One must examine why other places succeeded, and copy the lessons. Given UK spending curbs, this is clearly not going to happen quickly, but plans are needed. Taking the regional comparisons of the HESA and HEA student numbers alongside official economic data for 2022, we can illustrate the links between higher education, investment and productivity. Within the 12 regions of the United Kingdom, NI comes second last for the number of higher education places per head, last by a significant margin for investment and third last in productivity. There is a clear pattern here and it stretches back decades. Putting full-time undergraduate student numbers in perspective, Britain has 42 per cent more places per head than Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland has 34,860 full-time undergraduate places compared to 178,515 equivalent places south of the Border, an 86 per cent gap in favour of the Republic per head. Less than 10 per cent of the Republic's undergraduates leave to study abroad compared to 30 per cent of Northern undergraduates, so the Republic's local-full-time-undergraduate-at-local-university ratio is more than double that of Northern Ireland. Using conservative figures for Gross National Income for productivity and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for investment, the Republic's investment/GDP and productivity are also both more than double Northern Ireland's. Comparing the Republic of Ireland to statistics available from Britain, the former had 35 per cent more full-time undergraduate places per head, investment was 46 per cent higher and productivity was 28 per cent higher. [ Ireland has highest rate of third-level education in EU ] Losing students is not all bad as long as most or some come back, especially if students from elsewhere come to study in Northern Ireland and want to stay on to work after they have won their degree. That latter number, however, is dire. One-third of Northern Ireland students come home within six months of graduation. In 2022/3, there were 29,015 Northern full-time students in Northern Ireland universities and 12,180 Northern students in universities in Britain. The number exported was offset by 1,330 students coming from Britain, by 1,840 students from the Republic – versus just 650 NI students studying in the Republic – and by 115 from other European Union counties and by 2,195 undergraduates from non-EU counties. This leaves Northern Ireland losing nearly 11,000 students to Britain. And it has been like this for years, with an average of 12,000 more going to Britain every year than come the other way over the last 10 years. Some Northern Ireland students leave by choice. Most do not. A significant number are forced to leave because of the Maximum Student Numbers ('MASN') cap on full-time undergraduates. In the 2022/23 year, there were about 7,000 available new full-time first-year undergraduate places at Northern Ireland universities for Northern Ireland-domiciled students, but there were 20,000 applications. Universities can admit additional students from outside Northern Ireland (such as from Britain, the Republic of Ireland, or elsewhere), but these are not counted within the student cap. It was introduced in 1994, well before UK university fees were introduced, though it must be said that Northern Ireland's Whitehall subsidy limits fees for NI students at NI universities to half UK levels, which can run to £9,500 (€11,150) a year. The student cap, however, has restricted the number of full-time undergraduate places that are available in Northern Ireland to a third below the equivalent number in Britain, even though Northern Ireland has a superior fertility rate. It also serves indirectly to increase the pressure on disadvantaged students, because they are unable to afford to go to Britain for third-level education if they cannot get a place at home. Put together, this is a demographic missed opportunity – even though Northern Ireland's fertility rate has been 10 per cent higher than Britain's every year for years and is projected to remain that way for decades to come. Northern Ireland is not capitalising upon its most precious advantage. Instead of having 30 per cent fewer places than Britain for those who want third-level education, as it does, it should have 10 per cent more. Instead, Northern Ireland is feeding Britain's demographic deficit. Northern Ireland covers healthcare, social care and education costs for students for 18 years yet the benefits are harvested elsewhere. There is demand for more local places. Just look at the numbers of Northern Ireland students who are taking Open University degrees in 2022/23, which are 94 per cent higher than the equivalent percentage in Britain. Noting the problem in 2022, Westminster's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said it 'places a handbrake on the NI economy', leaving firms less willing to invest, or unable to fill job vacancies and increase their existing investments. The consequences are clear. Prospective investors and local employers laud the quality of our students, but lament their scarcity. Graduate unemployment is practically zero. The lack of more of them is holding Northern Ireland back. To break this cycle, thinking must change. Education is not a cost, it is an investment, one that drives economic growth. Universities and governments together can transform economies. Yes, we face financial constraints. But we must explore creative solutions, including alternative funding and financing for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees that lead graduates on to high-salary professional positions. The future prosperity of Northern Ireland depends on taking the right decisions and quickly. Let's not squander our demographic advantage any longer. It's time to leverage fully the capacity of our greatest asset: our people. Garrett Curran chairs the Queen's University Belfast foundation board and is a board member of Santander Asset Management
Associated Press
25-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Nomura Strategic Ventures makes an investment in Nada
02/24/2025, Dallas, TX // KISS PR Brand Story PressWire // Nada, a leading fintech platform pioneering home equity investment products for homeowners and investors, today announced that Nomura Strategic Ventures, LLC (NSV) has provided financing through its venture debt fund, NSV Fund 1, to support Nada's continued growth and innovation. The investment will accelerate Nada's expansion as an institutional-grade home equity agreement (HEA) originator and fuel the development of Homeshares, its investment platform providing individuals access to the home equity asset class. This transaction provides Nada with flexible, non-dilutive capital and strengthens its engagement with Nomura to explore additional partnerships regarding HEA financing and capital markets strategies. 'We invest capital and also support the business-development objectives of startups,' said Neeraj Hora, CEO of NSV. 'We look forward to collaborating with Nada to explore future partnership opportunities around their home equity agreement asset.' 'In 2024, we experienced significant growth in our partner network and among homeowners embracing this exciting new asset class—home equity agreements. With the added support and partnership from Nomura, we are well-positioned to further accelerate our expansion.' said Tore Steen, CEO of Nada. Nada is the first SEC-qualified issuer, providing individual investors access to the emerging home equity agreement (HEA) asset class. Through its Homeshares platform, Nada has introduced multiple investment products centered on HEAs, including the newly launched U.S. Home Equity Fund I, which offers investors a diversified portfolio of HEAs across the U.S. with an institutional-grade securitization exit strategy. With its in-house originations team, Nada has enabled homeowners across 14 states to unlock home equity without taking on debt. As its capital stack expands, Nada has scaled HEA origination volume to over $10M per month and is well-positioned for continued growth as a market leader in the HEA space. Nada is a fintech platform that offers innovative home equity investment solutions, allowing homeowners to access their home equity without taking on debt. Through its Homeshares investment platform, Nada provides investors with access to diversified residential real estate markets through fractional investments in home equity, supported by institutional-grade financial structures. Nomura is a global financial services group with an integrated network spanning over 30 countries. By connecting markets East & West, Nomura services the needs of individuals, institutions, corporates and governments through its three business divisions: Retail, Wholesale (Global Markets and Investment Banking), and Investment Management. Founded in 1925, the firm is built on a tradition of disciplined entrepreneurship, serving clients with creative solutions and considered thought leadership. For further information about Nomura, visit About NSV NSV is a subsidiary of Nomura Holding America Inc. and manages Nomura Strategic Ventures Fund 1 (NSV Fund 1) as well as the investment activities of the Nomura Group's Financial Innovation office in the United States. This press release may contain forward-looking statements describing future expectations, plans, results, or strategies. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those projected. Changes in product offerings, regulatory plans, and business strategies are potential factors influencing such differences. Media Contact:
