Four out of 10 people have trouble reading, understanding, and acting on health information, a major conference on tackling health inequalities was told.

With the election campaign now in full swing we will be hearing a lot more about the fiscal space, fiscal deficit and long-term economic plans.

Disability charity Cope Foundation has won Ireland’s first ‘plain English’ award for it’s easy-to-understand website.

Doctors and nurses should use less jargon when talking to patients, according to a survey that reveals one in five patients have taken the wrong amount of medication at least once.

A health literacy smart phone app has been developed to help people at risk of breast cancer better understand the condition, after a major study found the vast majority of information about the illness on the web is inaccurate.

The provision of courses to match skills needs of the economy are among the top priorities in a five-year strategy for the €800m-a-year further education and training sector.

THE Puffin ward in the children’s unit, Cork University Hospital, (CUH) is busy.

Things are bad enough when the taxman takes money from a person’s wage packet but when workers are paid less because they cannot read, it is a damning comment on the Irish education system.

LET’S CELEBRATE playing Scrabble.

ALMOST half of people between the ages of 35 and 54 have not started planning for retirement.

SHOCKING research on adult numeracy has shown that 40% of Irish adults have difficulty with basic maths calculations.

THERE have been fresh calls for a new adult literacy strategy after it emerged that 700 people contacted the National Adult Literacy Agency in the past two weeks alone.

FOR the first time men are out-stripping the numbers of woman seeking help for basic reading and writing skills.

ONE out of every four Irish adults are unable to read drug prescriptions, menus or work documents, with more than 10,000 people contacting support groups with their concerns since the start of 2008.

THE problems confronting people with literacy difficulties were highlighted at the ploughing championships through the case histories of two men.

The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) says more learning supports are needed for people with literacy problems.

YOU provided comprehensive coverage of the recent Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report on the post-Leaving Cert sector (Irish Examiner, August 31).

Key financial terms remain a mystery to many consumers according to new research. Figures show that 31% feel that banks or financial institutions should provide information and brochures that are easy to understand.

Complaints of racial discrimination at work have risen by 70% in the first three months of 2006, it emerged today.

Minister for Social Affairs Seamus Brennan today pledged to implement a plain English policy in his department.

LITERACY programmes aimed at helping the 500,000 adults in Ireland with reading and writing problems are almost entirely dependent on volunteers.

GOVERNMENT and council officials, political organisations and other groups which use wordy language with the public are to be given a few lessons in using plain English.

ONE in three Irish adults do not know the definition of one of the most common financial terms, APR, according to research commissioned by the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA).

PEOPLE who have excelled in improving their basic education skills will be honoured later this year.

NEARLY everybody seems to have a mobile phone these days.

AN A to Z guide to financial jargon was launched yesterday by adult literacy experts and a leading financial institution.

The National Adult Literacy Agency has published a booklet to help people with literacy problems understand financial jargon.

THE National Adult Literacy Awareness Week (NALAW), scheduled from September 20 to 24, will tackle the issue of financial jargon.

THE Government should support parents with low literacy levels to help tackle the issue of children with similar problems, according to the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA).

IRISH teenagers are among the best at reading in the developed world, according to an international survey.

HELPING half a million adult workers who suffer poor literacy skills would significantly boost the Irish jobs market, a conference in Dublin was told yesterday.

The National Adult Literacy Agency has launched a 'health and literacy' campaign to coincide with National Literacy Awareness Week.

For quite some time there has been considerable concern about the low literacy levels in this country and it is perplexing that there are still half a million people with serious difficulty in this regard.