Strict Embargo: Monday 21st November 2011

20th November, 2011

2nd Global Health and Dental Price index shows reduction in medical treatment costs nationally

• Irish health and dental charges drop by between 3 and 10% since spring 2011(with some exceptions*)
• Latest survey on Irish medical prices shows variation of up to 70% in some treatments
• International cost comparisons show additional savings of up to 50% achievable by traveling to the likes of Spain, Belgium and Germany for treatment

Avantis Health, Ireland’s only ‘self-pay’ healthcare purchasing specialist, has today published its Autumn 2011 Global Health & Dental Price Index.  The index, this time with a regional breakdown, compares treatment costs within Ireland and globally, for a range of elective procedures under the following categories:

• Dental
• Elective surgery
• Eye surgery
• Cosmetic Surgery

Analysis of the figures indicates a reduction in the cost of many medical procedures with prices for common dental procedures in Ireland down by 21% in some cases, cosmetic surgery procedures dropping by between 10% and 20% and elective medical procedures also showing reductions of up to 16%.  In some cases however, treatments have become more expensive; laser eye surgery is up by 21%, arthroscopy is up by 7%, while the cost of nose reconstruction surgery has increased by 24% in Ireland.

Commenting on the latest Avantis Health Global Health & Dental Price Index, Avantis Health Director, Orla Fahy said “These figures show a modest reduction in health & dental prices overall, reflecting the challenging economic environment. It also shows a startling variation in prices between Irish regions for the same procedures.  Irish patients can make significant savings on their health and dental care, by merely shopping around within Ireland, with substantial savings possible if they are willing to travel abroad for treatment.”

“For example” explained Ms Fahy, “patients requiring a simple dental implant (with crown) can save over 75% or €300 per crown by undergoing the treatment in Dublin as opposed to some other Irish cities in Connaught or Leinster. Patients requiring common but more invasive medical procedures, such as knee replacements, can make savings of 9% or c.€1604 by traveling to Connacht from Leinster.  A further 30% saving can be achieved by engaging the services provided by Avantis Health and having the procedure in Spain.”

“Savings in cosmetic surgery are also particularly evident” added Ms. Fahy.  “A breast augmentation procedure can cost 67% or c.€2000 less in Dublin than in other some other cities in Ireland”.

Although there has been a modest reduction in healthcare costs in Ireland, over the last six months, Ireland remains one of the most expensive countries in Europe for health and dental treatments.. With this in mind, Avantis Health plans to launch a “Campaign for Affordable Healthcare” in the coming months, to encourage health care providers to lower prices for procedures, reflecting the economic climate.

Avantis Health takes the worry out of treatment purchase either at home or abroad.  Consumers can compare treatment costs and get quotes for over fifty procedures. Avantis have negotiated significant discounts for its members as it purchases for all its members and therefore gets “bulk discounts”. Membership of Avantis Health is free.

Avantis works with the patient and his/her medical advisor to source the best value, best quality treatment.

More details about the Avantis Health service and self-funded healthcare are available on www.avantishealth.com.

Please see below for full Avantis Health Global Health & Dental Price Index

Notes:

About this survey: Prices quoted are average procedure costs as provided by hospitals and dentists, from various countries on a “self pay” basis. Self pay is defined as a non-insured patient funding the treatment.  Treatment costs differ among individual treatment providers and all prices have been converted to Euro. Taking changes in exchange rates, prices should be seen as indicative.

Disclaimer:

• The survey is provided purely for information purposes
• There are other consideration other than price when purchasing treatment – these have not been considered as part of this report
• This report does not constitute a recommendation for any country or provider.

About Avantis Health: Avantis Health Limited specialises in healthcare treatment purchasing for self pay business and personal customers.  Consumers can compare

treatment costs and get quotes for over fifty procedures. Avantis have negotiated significant discounts for its members as it purchases for all its members and therefore

gets “bulk discounts”. Membership of Avantis Health is free. Avantis Health has a provider network in eleven countries, including Ireland, who quote for healthcare treatments for Avantis Health members.

Avantis Health is a wholly owned Irish company supported by Enterprise Ireland.  Established in Dublin in 2007, Avantis already offers self-funded healthcare purchasing products across Europe.  The Avantis Health team includes health cost containment professionals with in depth experience in the field of Managed Care. Its ever increasing global network of approved suppliers has over 100 Healthcare providers, including Hospitals, Clinics, Dentists and Health Centers.

For further information please contact Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR & Online Communications on 086 385 6225 or email emily@emilytully.com

Basket – 1 Dental

Tooth Extraction

Oral Examination and Consultation

Crown

IRELAND

Tooth Extraction – Wisdom Tooth

Basket 2 – Elective Surgery

Nose Reconstruction (Rhinoplasty)

Knee Replacement

Basket 3 – Eye Procedures

Cataract Removal

Basket 4 – Cosmetic

IRELAND

Breast Lift

Eyelids – Upper & Lower

Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)

Buí Bolg's Chancy Brothers at the 2011 festival launch!

October 5th, 2011

International Puppet Festival Ireland celebrates its 20th anniversary

• Announces plans for International Puppetry exhibition in 2012 in memory of the late Eugene Lambert
• Festival begins to extend out of Dublin

The 20th anniversary International Puppet Festival Ireland takes place from October 21st – 30th 2011.  Performances and events will be spread across 3 hubs this year; Dublin City Centre, Dun Laoghaire and for the first time, Bray, Co Wicklow.  The festival features 13 different puppet companies from around the world with adult shows and workshops, children’s events and free outdoor family fun.

The Festival Board are also delighted to announce plans for an International Puppetry Exhibition to be held in the RDS in 2012 in memory or the late, great, Eugene Lambert, founder of the Lambert Puppet Theatre and Ireland’s most famous puppeteer.  The exhibition will feature puppets from the Lambert collection along with puppets from all over the world, giving a real insight into the history and development of puppetry in a global context.

Speaking ahead of the 2011 International Puppet Festival, Festival Director Polly O’Loughlin said, “For the past 20 years International Puppet Festival Ireland has brought the world’s finest puppeteers to the Irish stage and this year’s Festival is certainly no exception.  The 2011 programme features artists and performers from China, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and a good sprinkling of Irish puppet companies too.  We will have our usual and hugely popular ‘Puppets in Libraries’ series held in libraries throughout Dublin and an amazing opportunity for adults to attend a workshop in Shadow Puppet making with renowned Hong Kong puppeteer Wong Fai.” she added.

“We have 3 fantastic venues this year” she went on, “The Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College, the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Dun Laoghaire – and the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, Co Wicklow will be our first venture outside of Dublin!  As well as performances in theatres, we have our usual FREE outdoor family fun (weather permitting) in the People’s Park, Dun Laoghaire, the Mermaid Plaza in Bray and in Temple Bar, all on Sunday October 23rd.” said Polly O’Loughlin.

The Festival is again holding a networking and discussion event for professional puppeteers and all those interested in puppetry as an art form are invited to attend the UNIMA Ireland branch meeting on Monday October 24th in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire.

Tickets for all events and venues can be booked on www.puppetfest.ie or on the festival booking line 01 272 4030.  Keep an eye on www.puppetfest.ie, the festival facebook page and @puppetfest on Twitter for news, competitions & updates.

For more information please contact Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR & Online Communications on 086 385 6225 or email emily@emilytully.com

For immediate release

12th September, 2011

Designers, geeks and charities unite for 2nd annual #24theweb charity web design challenge

Got an amazing cause but an unprofessional drab website? Or worse still – no website at all? 24 The Web needs you!  The second annual 24 hour web design challenge will take place on the 29th October 2011 in Dublin.  Over a 24 hour period, 3 teams of 7 professionals will each design, build and populate a brand new website for a worthy cause.  The event, which takes place during Design Week 2011, is kindly supported by Blacknight.

Making the initial call-out for causes, 24 The Web founder and web designer Stewart Curry said “Last year’s 24 The Web challenge was a huge success and we’re hoping to build on that with this year’s challenge.  We’re looking for really worthy causes who couldn’t afford a decent website in a million years!  With such a tight timescale to work with, we also need nominees to have a good pool of decent content already created, like photos, videos, testimonials, and copy about the organisation/cause ready to go.”

“We also need web design professionals to volunteer” he added. “We’re looking for programmers, coders, content writers, project managers and anyone who feels they may have something to add to the project.  We need 3 teams made up of 6 defined roles and a wildcard, so if you can form a full team with friends/colleagues all the better!  All the details of roles and team make-up are available on our website 24theweb.com.”

24 The Web was devised to illustrate the importance of design, standards, content and process in developing a web site, in a fun and challenging way. Last year, websites were built for The Myasthenia Gravis Association, Hand in Hand and the Musical Youth Foundation.

Speaking a year after her site was designed, Karen Clancy, National Coordinator with the  The Myasthenia Gravis Association said “Since our new website went live we have been able to provide a much better service to our members and the general public. It has also helped us to raise funds by promoting our fundraising events and best of all, the design team made it simple for us to edit and update ourselves, saving us even more time and money.  I was working with a fantastic bunch of volunteers and our charity is indebted to 24 The Web and all the volunteers who worked so hard over 24 hours to deliver the website we needed.”

24 The Web is also seeking additional sponsors as well as donations of food and drink to keep hungry volunteers going.  Please see www.24theweb.com for details.

To find out more about getting involved visit www.24theweb.com and follow @24theweb on twitter or the #24theweb hashtag

About our sponsors:

Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally”

For more information and to arrange an interview please contact Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR & Online Communications on 086 385 6225 or email emily@emilytully.com

I’ll have 2 teams battling it out to win the inaugural ‘Social Media Guru’ trophy.

I’m delighted to announce that those teams will be made up of this wonderful bunch of geeks and gurus:

Darragh Doyle @boards_ie

Margaret Ward @margareteward

Stephen O’Leary @stephenoleary

Jennifer O’Connell @jenoconnell

Keith Bohanna @keithbohanna

Rosanne Smith @enormous and @iia for the day job

Chris Donoghue @chrisrdonoghue and @breakfastnt

Georgina Bowes @ginabo

I’d love if you could send me in some tough questions for the teams (and the answers…just in case!).  It can be on anything to do with social media – functionality, history etc.  And let’s see who’s a real guru

You can email your questions to emily@emilytully.com – and if you want to come along and sit in the audience register for Dot Conf here!

Off-site builders encouraged to get online with new construction industry website www.needaservice.ie

A new Irish website, aimed at pulling the construction industry out of the doldrums, is to be launched later this week (Thursday, May 18th) in Dublin.  www.needaservice.ie is designed to get contractors online and using the internet to do business.  The site will bring approved contractors directly to the consumer and vice versa, cutting tendering costs and reassuring consumers.

Speaking ahead of the launch, www.needaservice.ie founder Clive Walsh said “As an engineering consultant myself, I’m only too aware of the challenges facing the construction industry at the moment.  We have had to investigate different routes and new sectors to gain business and we’ve used that knowledge to build www.needaservice.ie.”

“We have focused our site at providing clients with a real tendering alternative to traditional routes that is faster, more secure and focused primarily at business needs. Clients benefit from our expertise and all contractors and professionals are vetted prior to registration not only on quality but tax compliance and insurances.

Contractors receive opportunities at minimal cost to win these contracts on-line. We are focusing our site at businesses and institutions operating in areas such as industrial, commercial,hotel and leisure, education and pharmaceutical and www.needaservice.ie will put contractors in touch with these sectors.” said Mr Walsh.

www.needaservice.ie brings the customer, who requires building or maintenance services, directly to the contractor in a secure online environment.  Clients will be able to post their tender requirements up on the site, safe in the knowledge that only our approved and reliable service providers will be able to access the details and tender for the projects.  Suppliers on the other hand, can tender for work directly with the client, making the process a lot less expensive. Suppliers can sign up today at www.needaservice.ie.

To celebrate the site launch and to introduce contractors to the realms of the online trading world, www.needaservice.ie are hosting seminar entitled “Social Media – Opportunities for the Construction Sector” at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown on Thursday, May 19th 2011 at 6.30pm. Contractors attending the launch and sign up on the night will receive a 12 month subscription to the site FREE. Speakers include needaservice.ie founder, Clive Walsh of PCE Consulting Engineers and Energy Managers,  Emily Tully of Emily Tully PR & Online Communications and Digital Marketing expert Franco De Bonis of The DG Group.  The event is free to attend and all interested in attending can register online here

For more information please contact Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR & Online Communications on 086 385 6225 or email emily@emilytully.com

One Naked Man – One boat – 6000KM

Keith Whelan to begin his epic row across the Indian Ocean this Saturday

Kildare man Keith Whelan, aka the Naked Adventurer, is to depart the Western Australian coastal town of Geraldton this coming Saturday (May 7th, 2011).  Keith is attempting to become the youngest male in the world to row the Indian Ocean solo and the first Irish person to row the Indian ocean ever.

Speaking ahead of his departure the 30 year old rookie rower said “it really will be a baptism of fire for the first 50 miles. I will have to contend with a current which runs in the opposite direction to where I need to be, as well as on-shore breezes constantly pushing me back towards the coastline. That, coupled with big swells caused by the continental shelf as well as trying to avoid the islands just off the coastline will make for very slow and dangerous start. In spite of all that, I am fired up and ready to row!”

The challenge will see Keith row 12 hours every day, 2 hours on and 2 hours off, for the 120 days he will be at sea.   That’s 1.8 million oar strokes in searing heat, massive ocean swells and vicious storms.

Keith will be blogging, updating his facebook page and tweeting throughout his journey.  You can also see his real-time location onwww.thenakedadventurer.com. It may be possible for Keith to conduct interviews via sat phone while at sea.  All requests are to be directed to Emily Tully.

Keith is also raising funds for Keep a Child Alive – donations can be made via www.thenakedadventurer.com

The challenge is kindly supported by Fyffes, 53 degrees North, Rowhire, Powerbar, Extreme Ireland, Broderick’s Bros. and Relinquish Clothing amongst other generous contributors whom you can learn about here.

For further information or to keep track of Keith while at sea, please contact Emily Tully, Emily Tully PR & Online Communications on 086 385 6225 or email emily@emilytully.com