3 October 2014 Gardening

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day off to the Post Office and the Coop, sweep the path at the side of the house. .

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down rabbit for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

Times:

Sir, The UK is home to a new generation of “micropreneurs” — very small companies — as a result of the recession. Because of this I was especially interested in “Small businesses need more than money to survive and grow”, Business, Oct 1). If we want a sustained economic recovery, we must help small and medium-sized enterprises achieve their full potential. Despite the government’s efforts, small businesses are still crying out for more support and better access to information. For instance, clear direction on where to turn to for advice, and extending the current apprenticeship scheme, could have a significant impact.
David Swigciski
SME trading director, RSA,
London EC3

Sir, With the demise of the tax disc, would it not be timely for motor insurance companies to issue a “currently insured” replacement? This would reassure other motorists that they were not dealing with an uninsured driver or vehicle. Like the tax disc it would probably need security markings. If all insurance companies issued them, then any vehicle not displaying one would be viewed with suspicion.
Joe Jefferies
Everton, Notts

Sir, For those readers wondering what to do with redundant car tax discs, I find that they are very attractive when glued to the outside of Guinness bottles.
Ron Osmond
Hinckley, Leics

Telegraph:

SIR – The abolition of the paper car disc as of yesterday does no favours to drivers of vehicles which they do not own – particularly as they are liable for a fine if found driving one that isn’t taxed.

6:56AM BST 02 Oct 2014

Comments

It it is now difficult even to get in to many London museums due to crowds

6:57AM BST 02 Oct 2014

Comments

6:59AM BST 02 Oct 2014

Comments

SIR – How can David Cameron pledge billions for the NHS at the same time as he promises to reduce the deficit? Surely the only thing to be done for the NHS is to reduce the number of administrators together with their wages, and abolish non-jobs altogether.

SIR – I agree wholeheartedly with David Cameron’s promised tax cuts once he has eliminated the deficit. However, his Government is still spending £100 billion a year beyond its income.

SIR – Is the widespread official defeatism in the face of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant justified? No. Every successful terrorist movement in history has had one or both of the following two things.

SIR – I made six attempts to re-tax my car on the DVLA website, which appeared to crash each time. In exasperation I rang the contact number on the renewal form, only to be told that the service was “suspended for essential maintenance”.

Irish Times:

Sir, – In the context of the discussions relating to the system of appointments to the boards of State bodies and public institutions, would it be too much to expect that eventual candidates might actually exhibit certain basic qualities? These might include experience related to the particular sector and, especially, evidence of some real sense of vision for the future of the particular institution itself and its contribution to the public good. Would independence of thought be just too much to suggest as a further desirable quality? – Yours, etc,

GERARD WILKINSON,

Menaggio,

Italy.

Sir, – The level of criticism that accompanies any decision taken by anyone in authority is going to lead to a situation where those capable of adding value in the public service will be unwilling to take up the challenge because the level of scrutiny taking place has gone too far. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN POWER,

Dublin 2.

A chara, – In relation to the truth as told in yesterday’s “Dáil Sketch”, all I can say is, thank God for Miriam Lord! – Is mise,

PÁDRAIG Ó CÍOBHÁIN,

Bearna,

Co Galway.

Sir, – I note with some amusement the flurry of outrage in your letters page concerning “McNulty-Gate”. I suspect the majority of those who felt strongly enough to write to your paper have rarely if ever been to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and in the ordinary course of events, pay no attention whatever to the Seanad. A political stroke? Certainly. But surely not one that merits quite this level of hysteria. – Yours, etc,

CONOR O’MAHONY,

Sandymount, Dublin 4.

Sir, – I read with growing amusement the excuses, reasons and explanations of politicians (current and possibly future) for why they do what they do. We are awash with worthy, well-qualified and dedicated people who have risen without a trace, and having done so, either get elected, having demonstrated a “track record” and a tireless capacity for hard work, or hang about in various jobs, appointments, committees and boards, or anywhere that will turn a decent euro, which they claim never to be concerned about, until they can be re-elected, demonstrating an enhanced track record and an even more tireless capacity, to support their candidacy. Maybe they are worthy of these appointments, but perhaps on the basis of an “internship” or “JobBridge” basis until they demonstrate real ability for the job. – Yours, etc,

PAT QUINN,

Inchicore, Dublin 8.

Sir, – Witnessing Simon Harris – a young, intelligent and energetic politician – getting wheeled out to defend the indefensible this week was particularly dispiriting. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN KENNY,

Leixlip,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole (“Does appointment of McNulty to board of Imma meet seven principles of public office?”, Opinion & Analysis, September 30th) outlined seven principles of public life set out by the UK Committee on Standards in Public Life and argued that these principles could be usefully adopted by the Government. Before the last general election Enda Kenny promised a report card on his Ministers. Needless to say, this was not done. It would be interesting to see how the Government would perform when measured under the principles Mr O’Toole has outlined. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN ROSS ,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – If it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, then it’s a duck, they say. In this case, however, there was a quack, but the creature looked like it had a stiff neck, a small head very quick to use a bill, a body covered in dour plumage, two webbed feet that work independently of each other and a fondness for water. It’s internal structures are hidden. I hope this draws a line under the matter. – Yours, etc,

CONAN DOYLE,

Pococke Lower,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – Yesterday I looked up the value of my pension fund to find that it had reduced substantially due to the pension levy charge. In the current year, this charge equates to many months of contributions.

Ministers of finance levy taxes on citizens – that is their job. However every citizen should be assured that taxes are levied in a fair and equitable manner and are not ageist in orientation. The pension levy fails on all three counts.

The levy affects citizens in private-sector defined contribution schemes (as almost all private-sector defined benefit schemes are now closed off). State employees who enjoy defined benefit schemes are unaffected by this levy – as State pensions are funded on a pay-as-you-go basis by the State and no actual fund exists. In any objective review, the application of this levy in this manner is unfair and inequitable.

In addition it is ageist in orientation. As the levy is based on a percentage of the fund value, older workers who have been contributing to a pension plan over a long number of years will have built up a much higher capital value than younger workers starting off. Therefore older people pay more.

The levy takes no account that these same citizens will be dependent on these funds in the not too distant future and will need every penny they can get to support themselves in their old age. On the other hand, the Government Ministers will enjoy guaranteed pensions from their “gold-plated” defined benefit, post-retirement pension indexation schemes which are being paid for by the levy on their fellow citizens in the private sector. And they will probably be appointed to state boards as well just to give them a little extra!

How inequitable and unfair can life be in this country of ours? – Yours, etc,

JOHN McDONNELL,

Ballyclough, Limerick.

A chara, – Further to “Veganism is tough, but has many benefits” (Health + Family, September 30th), far from being a “strict” regime that is not for the “faint-hearted”, a plant-based diet includes a much wider range of foods than the traditional “meat and two veg” that most omnivores consume. Each meal is a celebration of a different combination of vegetables, grains, pulses, fruits, nuts and seeds. For those who hanker for animal foods, there are plant-based alternatives for burgers, sausages, mince, pies, steak, fish, cheese, eggs, cream, ice cream and confectionery.

A poorly planned plant-based diet can be worth little more to the person consuming it than any junk food diet. However, most responsible people eat responsibly.

Responsible vegans are usually better informed about nutritional needs than most of the omnivorous population. They eat a well-balanced diet that includes fortified foods or supplements because it is in the interests of ethical living and consideration for other animals that vegans consume a diet that is sustainable in terms of personal health and wellbeing.

Consuming a plant-based diet does not make one vegan. Veganism is a non-violent philosophy that avoids inflicting intentional harm on anyone. It eliminates the harm that an omnivorous lifestyle contributes to the environment. It alleviates the degree to which other humans are impacted by climate change and harmed by their work in animal agriculture, slaughterhouses, and other exploitative food production systems. For ethical vegans, the personal health benefits of a plant-based diet are more of a happy coincidence than the motivating factor. – Is mise,

SANDRA HIGGINS,

Slane,

Co Meath.

Sir, – While the creation of Irish Water has not been welcomed by the Irish populace, it must be acknowledged as a massive public undertaking, on a par with the creation of the ESB in 1927. Irish Water involves the amalgamation of an essential function currently carried out on a separate basis by local authorities across Ireland and may, if operated properly, lead to a safe, coherent and efficient national policy approach to the provision of water to the Irish people.

The initial days of Irish Water will be crucial to its development; its starting form and structure will dictate whether it is a relative success like the ESB, or a bloated failure like the HSE. The policies, procedures and practices introduced at its foundation will determine the pattern of behaviour for decades to come; it is at this time that the mould will be set for this organisation’s approach to the management of hundreds of millions of euro in public money and the overall provision of services.

It says much about the difficult birth of Irish Water that a person might favour a position ferrying a Minister for State from engagement to engagement over a directorship on its highest board. However, the resignation of Hilary Quinlan cannot be the end of the national discussion surrounding its composition.

It is essential that each member of the new organisation’s management be in a position to set down unimpeachable procedures and practices that will be followed throughout its existence. There can can be no room for purely political appointments; a nascent institution can not bear the weight of deadwood to the same degree as an established one. Each member should be an expert chosen for their skills and merits.

If our nation is to engage in this difficult undertaking, then we must do it well. – Yours,etc,

STEPHEN FITZPATRICK,

Foxrock,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – Angela McNamara (October 1st) says her generation was toughened by rations during “the Emergency”, and recommends good humour with regard to the rationing of water in the 21st century.

Rations do not necessarily toughen people, as they can be equitable or inequitable in their effects. Wartime rations in Britain, for example, actually improved the diet of many working-class households.

By contrast, rationing of water on the basis of wealth in today’s Ireland simply impoverishes working-class households whilst wealthy households can power-shower to their heart’s content. As a consequence, the people doing the laughing this time around will be the ones shouting “tough!” – Yours, etc,

RICHARD McALEAVEY,

Balbriggan,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – Eoin O’Loughlin (October 2nd) asks how I would feel if “children of Catholic parents had to attend Muslim or Jewish school”. Perhaps he should ask a Catholic parent that question. For my own part, two of my children attend the local community school, which has a Catholic ethos, and I find it to be extremely inclusive. Indeed they invite me, as the local Church of Ireland rector, to take part in all the school services, and the school chaplain has been very welcoming of my being involved with the school in other ways as well. So having some experience of being “on the other side of the fence”, as Mr O’Loughlin puts it, I am far from being “blasé”; rather I am grateful for the flexibility displayed daily by our system.

Mr O’Loughlin ends his letter by wondering why Ireland can’t have a “secular education system” just like Turkey does. The Turkish system accords with its constitution even as ours does with ours; this means that in Turkey the teaching of religion in primary and secondary school is mandatory, with mainly Sunni theology being taught, overseen, if I understand correctly, by their directorate of religious affairs, which is under the authority of the prime minister’s office. As such it is not, perhaps, quite the secular model that Mr O’Loughlin is after. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Sir, – Kenneth Matthews, chief executive of the Irish Wind Energy Association, calls for an expansion of wind energy capacity in Ireland (“Why wind is the answer to Ireland’s energy question”, Opinion & Analysis, October 1st).

Members of the public are not opposed to wind energy but to plans for the location of enormous industrial wind turbines, many over 180 metres high, as close as 500 metres from their homes under current guidelines.

While it is understandable that the private sector seeks to maximise the interests of shareholders, it is the job of Government to protect the common good. Better to locate these massive structures offshore or, if on land, in open spaces well away from people’s homes. – Yours, etc,

GERALD O’CONNOR,

Ballynacargy,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Robert Lowery is so right (October 1st) when he complains about the lack of courtesy to people coping with travelling with small children. I am 76 and when in Dublin I frequently use public transport to get to my suburban family.

Sometimes I have to stand, and if anybody does offer me their seat, almost invariably he or she will be from a part of the world where the elderly are still honoured and respected, – Yours, etc,

BRIAN LOUGHEED,

Killarney,

Co Kerry.

A chara, – As a six-month pregnant lady who commutes daily by bus and Luas, I’m sad to say nobody offers up a seat anymore. I wear my “baby on board” badge daily but to date I have had to stand for every journey.

Today was particularly bad – when a seat became available and I started to make my way towards it, I was elbowed out of the way by a young man. Are these the times we live in? – Is mise,

IRENE O’DONOVAN,

Rathfarnham,

A chara, – I was moved by Tuesday’s feature on the problem of reporters calling on families who suffer “newsworthy” bereavements (“Death knocks: the dark side of journalism”, September 30th). It is indeed disturbing to read of journalistic practices of this sort being so widespread. But what demonstrated this further was that its author had to conceal his or her identity and so the article was published anonymously. Does our media industry have to be so nasty that when unethical practices are exposed by journalists, their careers are threatened? – Is mise,

DONAL Mac ERLAINE,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – We can prevent another credit-fuelled property bubble by insisting that all mortgages are “non-recourse”. This means that if the borrower cannot pay, and has to hand the house back to the bank, that is all the bank gets – the loan is cleared.

Bankers would share the risk of prices becoming “overheated”. They would soon develop the skills to value property correctly and not be tempted to over-lend during a “hot” market.

I urge the Central Bank to consider this measure. – Yours, etc,

LIAM O’CONNOR,

Dunmore Road

Waterford.

Sir, – Towards the end of this month the clocks are put back an hour, plunging the entire country into six long months of unnecessary darkness.

It will be dark in November at 4pm. We will endure this self-inflicted darkness until the end of March when the status quo returns. This is surely absurd.

It is as if the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, swallowed the sun and then regurgitated it at the end of March.

If the forthcoming budget cannot compensate the public with some tax breaks in monetary terms, either way, let’s leave the clocks alone and let nature take its course giving us available daylight. It’s free. It will mean less electricity bills. – Yours, etc,

MICHÉAL Ó NUALLÁIN,

Monkstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Your editorial on the subject of funding for the arts is welcome (September 30th). Ministers trotting out a line of Yeats or Heaney at cultural events as evidence of their appreciation of all things artistic is nothing but hollow tokenism, unless they show support where it really counts – fighting for funding for a sector they invariably credit as being “very popular with tourists”. – Yours, etc,

GERARD LEE,

Crumlin,

Dublin 12.

A chara, – Further to Desmond Fisher’s informative and interesting account (“First real test of Pope Francis to begin”, Rite & Reason, September 30th) of the new advisory council of cardinals set up by Pope Francis, I hope that the laity, in terms of their local and subsidiary role in the church, will also have a structured opportunity to provide their views and advice on contemporary ethical, moral and administrative issues and challenges. – Is mise,

SEÁN O’CUINN,

An Charaig Dhubh,

Co Átha Cliath.

Sir, – Printed telephone directories. Why? – Yours, etc,

DES DORIS,

Dún Laoghaire

Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

The news that the English RFU have secured the long-term services of national rugby team coach Stuart Lancaster until 2020 (Irish Independent, 2/10/14), follows the news that Welsh Rugby Union signed a long-term contract extension with Warren Gatland until at least 2019.

The determined statements, in this regard, made by the English and Welsh rugby unions offer a powerful wake-up call to the Irish Rugby Football Union. Namely, that is, they must now act to nail down the high-quality services of Ireland’s world class head coach, Joe Schmidt, for the long-term. Mr Schmidt has less than two years (which will pass by in the blink of an eye) to run on his current contract as head coach.

However, the IRFU must not wait until the last minute before taking action in regard to the long-term future of Irish rugby. In recent years we saw how damaging it has been when the IRFU procrastinated before negotiating contracts with some of our top players. A long-term contract extension for Mr Schmidt, agreed soon, would give coach, players and supporters certainty about the positive direction of Irish rugby.

Ireland is incredibly fortunate to have the dedicated services of Joe Schmidt as our national team coach. He brings a method, process and ambition to Irish Test rugby which never existed in the past. We are unlikely, over the next ten years, to find any coach of a higher calibre than Joe Schmidt. Therefore, we must not let Mr Schmidt slip through our fingers (and into the arms of a rival) by failing to secure his future in advance. The IRFU must give Mr Schmidt the security that both he and Irish rugby deserves, by preparing a long-term contract for him now.

John B Reid,

Monkstown, Dublin

The virtues of education

THIS Sunday is World Teachers’ Day. To mark the occasion we, the leaders of all the teachers’ and lecturers’ unions in Ireland and Britain would like to pose three questions to your readers:

If you had a child or a loved one in school, college or university wouldn’t you prefer them to be taught by qualified, well-motivated, well-resourced and societally-appreciated teachers and lecturers?

Would you prefer that the staff-student ratio afforded maximum personal attention to the individual needs of the learners?

Can you think of a better way to bring about progressive social change than by the provision of top-quality, publicly-funded education?

This is not the opening phase of a pay/wages campaign. Nor is it a recruitment campaign for teacher unions (the vast majority know the wisdom of acting collectively).

No, this is a simple reminder of the quality of what we already enjoy in large measure; a reminder of the dangers of taking it for granted; a celebration of possibilities and an exhortation to all of us to see a world-class education system as an entitlement, not an aspiration.

Philip Irwin

President, ASTI

Pat King General

Secretary, ASTI

Rose Malone

President, IFUT

Mike Jennings

General Secretary, IFUT

Sean McMahon

President, INTO

Sheila Nunan

General Secretary, INTO

Gerry Quinn

President, TUI

John MacGabhann

General Secretary, TUI

Strategy needed post-Ebola

Reported cases of Ebola and resulting deaths are building up slowly, spreading like a bushfire moving from remote rural areas to densely-populated urban centres and capital cities and evolving into a major humanitarian crisis.

The WHO estimates 20,000 new cases by early November. But most importantly, the Ebola outbreak is evoking a twinge of fear and mistrust that should be first overcome. It is this climate of fear where the virus festers and thrives.

Decades of civil war have left West African countries in a state of despair, crippled their local economies, destroyed health infrastructures that are vital for public health and seriously impaired their capacity to serve the communities’ healthcare needs. Education is also one of the casualties of war.

In the absence of viable post-construction strategies (we have witnessed this in Iraq with the proliferation of jihadi groups such as Isil, and Al-Nusra front), coupled with corruption and memories of past Western expeditions to exploit and extract abundant natural resources.

Those countries remain mired in gruelling poverty, unemployment, ignorance and diseases. Such issues are not bound to Africa.

We are seeing the disintegration of healthcare systems in conflict-ridden countries such as Syria, Libya and Iraq.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2

A plea to RTE

Wednesday night is movie night on RTE. A night I used to look forward too but, where may I ask, have these dreadful rubbish romantic comedies come from in the last year or so? I would not have even thought they made so many!

So, to my great surprise last Wednesday week the recently-married George Clooney – a wonderful actor – turned up in ‘The Descendants’, a gem of a movie. So RTE, please try and continue showing movies of this standard on Wednesday, and give us some value for our licence fee. Thank you.

Brian McDevitt,

Glenties, Co Donegal

McNulty furore and snobbery

I wonder if Mr McNulty’s appointment to IMMA would have caused quite as much outrage in the media if he was, say, a Dublin barrister, rather than a GAA man from Donegal who owns a petrol station?

Behind the facade of sanctimonious articles about public standards there is a good deal of old-fashioned snobbery. The Dublin intelligentsia clearly don’t want ‘people like that’ messing around with their cultural playgrounds.

Conor O’Mahony

Sandymount Avenue, Dublin 4

A paucity of voting options

It took Fianna Fail three terms in government and the biggest economic boom in history to start treating Ireland as their personal fiefdom.

Well done, Fine Gael – they have managed the exact same in under three years. I now face the prospect of having to vote for Fianna Fail again (a party that I despise) as I have no alternative. Bring back the PDs.

Peter Ciaran Murphy

Address with editor

Dinosaurs holding back FG

All that is missing from the current dinosaur leadership of FG are wing collars, three-piece suits and bowler hats; otherwise they are doing fine and good in holding back younger TDs, Senators and the nation with their total lack of vision.

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

On Darwinism and creationism

In response to Howard Hutchins’ letter (September 30), I would like to point out a flaw in the title ‘Darwinism is just a theory’, as it mixes up the definition of the word ‘theory’ in common speech (an explanation that’s speculative and/or unproven) with its definition in scientific terms (a hypothesis that is accepted due to a large amount of evidence behind it).

In this regard, while Darwinism is a theory, creationism is only a hypothesis. The huge number of ‘links’ found between fossils are evidence for Darwinism but the ‘missing links’ (absence of evidence) do not equal evidence for an opposing idea, Intelligent Design.

Fionnuala Curran

Falcarragh, Co Donegal

Irish Independent

4 October 2014 Russian Vine

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day sweep the path at the side of the house, tackle the Russian Vine

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down trout for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

Times:

Sir, Does anyone else read “Birthdays today” and have a bounce in their step when they’re younger than all the people listed? October 1 was a good day for me — bar Dizzee Rascal.
Alexandra Brown (45)
Bearsted, Kent

Sir, September was notable for its warmth and low rainfall, while August was wet and cool. Presumably this means that between August 1 and September 30 our weather was staggeringly average. Should this be a cause for concern?
Clive Humphries
Croesau Bach, Shropshire

Telegraph:

7:00AM BST 03 Oct 2014

Comments

SIR – The campaign to develop an airport in the Thames Estuary is surprising. The concept was rejected in the late Sixties when Maplin Sands was considered. The cost would have been prohibitive but the overwhelming difficulty was – and is – the problem of bird strikes.

Irish Times:

Sir, – When media outlets make a mistake, we get a small apology, usually on the inside pages. Yet when the Taoiseach lets his own high standards momentarily slip, all his previously hard work and commitment to our recovery is set at nought and the media hunt in a pack to take him down and tear him to pieces.

A pinch of perspective might be considered if we hope for decent people to enter politics in future. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN WRIGHT,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Tom McElligott (October 2nd) opines that the Taoiseach should “stick instead to what he knows best”. Based on the available evidence, surely that is precisely what we don’t want. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN FITZPATRICK,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – On the evening of his election to the current Dáil the then Taoiseach-in-waiting stated in an interview, “The incoming government is not going to leave our people in the dark . . . Paddy likes to know what the story is”.

It would appear that the current Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht did not hear Mr Kenny’s statement or, if she did, was unaware that Mr Kenny was using “Paddy” as a figure of speech for the citizens of this republic.

In answering, “I’m not at liberty to say who mentioned his name to me and because that’s a Fine Gael matter”, in response to a question regarding who had approached her about appointing John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma), Ms Humphreys shows contempt for “Paddy”. The Minister speaks as if Fine Gael was a private club appointing one of its members to an internal committee. But Fine Gael is not a private club – it is a political party in government, and Imma is not one of its committees, it is a State-funded institution.

The party’s website states that “Fine Gael believes in being truthful and courageous in what we do . . . Fine Gael stands for integrity in public life”. Nothing in the conduct of Fine Gael in this current controversy indicates that these values are adhered to at a senior level in the party. In the absence of complete, clear and coherent answers to simple questions, I – and I suspect many others – will assume that Fine Gael has something to hide. So much for openness and transparency and a new way of conducting political debate.

On the same evening as his Paddy pronouncement, Mr Kenny described the 2011 general election results as “a democratic revolution . . . they didn’t take to the streets but they’ve wreaked vengeance on those who let them down”. Mr Kenny as the leader of Fine Gael would do well to remember his own words if he wishes to avoid another democratic revolution in 2016 – or sooner. – Yours, etc,

TERRY TREANOR,

Portmarnock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I would willingly serve on the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art but I’m a contemporary artist so that disqualifies me immediately. – Yours, etc,

SAMUEL WALSH,

Member of Aosdána,

Cloonlara, Co Clare.

Sir, – John McDonnell ( October 3rd) more than adequately expresses the unfairness of the ill-conceived pension levy on private pension schemes which was introduced by this Government.

It is worth recalling the comments of Michael Noonan when the then minister for finance Ray MacSharry introduced a levy on the capital gains on pension funds in 1988. This was a levy on profits, not capital. As opposition finance spokesman he opposed the measure, which would have taken less than €20 million per annum from funds and said that it would drive funds into insolvency. Mr Noonan’s levy is now taking almost €700 million per annum from pension fund capital.

If the Minister’s promise to end the levy this year is not kept there will be a strong sense of betrayal. There may not be mass demonstrations outside Leinster House, but I can assure the Minister that we are waiting in the long grass. – Yours, etc,

CYRIL THOMAS,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – The so-called four-year pension levy is – for some of us – anything but four years. Given an existing €1.2 billion deficit, and an obligation to pay a further €80 million levy over the four years (2011 -2014 ), my pension fund trustees have decided to spread the cost of the levy over each member’s lifetime. In my case I’ll pay €600 a year for the rest of my life. While one hesitates to cite equity and ethics and such-like remote concerns, might the Government in its own self-interest seek to introduce some element of mitigation such as tax credits for those affected? – Yours, etc,

PAT HENNESSY,

Howth, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Those supporting John Bruton’s defence of John Redmond ignore the role of the Great War as the backdrop to the Rising. Europe and Ireland had already been brutalised by the carnage at the front. Tens of thousands of Irishmen had already enlisted (who knows how many already felt they had been duped into enlisting) and the threat of conscription was very real.

The rejection of conscription by the mass of the Irish people was effectively a declaration of independence, making nonsense of any possible negotiated form of home rule. This was a circle that could never be squared.

Ireland could not be real part of any union if it refused to fight for that union in a total war.

Redmond continued with his illogical and intellectually dishonest policy of support for enlistment and rejection of conscription but the people saw the matter more clearly and deserted to Sinn Féin as conscription loomed ever closer.

Conscription was avoided in the end, partly because of the unexpected early end to the war, but mostly because of the likely violent opposition that it would have encountered in an Ireland now dominated by Sinn Féin.

Readers with grandfathers and great-grandfathers born around 1900 should be especially thankful. – Yours, etc,

TIM O’HALLORAN,

Dublin 11.

Sir, – A large harumph, but a respectful one, to Dr Colum Kenny’s view that emigrants (like me) should have a vote in Irish elections (“Why the Irish abroad should be given a vote in our general elections”, Opinion & Analysis, October 3rd).

This is representation without taxation. Ireland educated me and I sell my services to Australians and pay my taxes in that country. Ireland owes me nothing.

Why should I get the chance to influence the governance of those who stayed and are committed? Absentee landlordism of a sort! – Yours, etc,

CLAYTON JONES,

Bendigo, Victoria,

Australia.

Sir, – In the small number of cases where the banks approve loans to small firms, they are not actually lending to the companies. They require personal guarantees from the company directors. This means they are actually lending to individuals and not to the companies as the final responsibility for the debt lies with the individual. – Yours, etc,

GERRY CURRAN

Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Your editorial (October 3rd) casts a dark shadow over employers and their employment practices. Your suggestion that many business could afford the living wage increase shows how out of touch you are with regard to the struggle of small business in this country.

You would be better served by demanding a review of tax bands with a view to widening them, thus giving employees more money in their pocket; and lowering employers’ PRSI to encourage further recruitment, thereby reducing the cost of unemployment to the State. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL STOREY,

Glencar,

Sir, – From a number of perspectives, I greatly enjoyed Sean Moran’s article on Brian Cody (“Cody ungracious to insist on having a final say in the aftermath of latest triumph”, October 1st).

Nobody could but admire Brian Cody’s achievements as manager of Kilkenny. The article, however, correctly pointed out an unsavoury aspect to the manner in which this man deals with criticism or fair questioning by the media.

The article was refreshing in that it showed that your correspondent is willing to criticise a key figure in Irish sport at the risk of future access to the manager. Many other journalists, sports and otherwise, might have shirked the task. They should take note of his courage. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN McDERMOTT

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – Surely Phil Mickelson and Brian Cody have something in common?

One cribs when losing, the other when winning. – Yours, etc,

RONNIE KANE,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Further to Peter Crawley’s review (“The most dangerous Hamlet ever?”, September 29th), I have to agree with Susan Knight (September 30th) and Nicholas Grene (October 2nd) on how disappointing the recent performance of Hamlet by the Berliner Schaubühne was. What really showed up the inadequacies of the production was the contrast between the power of Shakespeare’s language in the surtitles and the rather workaday and humdrum language of the translation put in the mouths of the actors. Part of the explanation for the inadequacies may lie in remarks by two of the actors in the question and answer session on the second night. One complained about how difficult it was for actors to get a response from German audiences — in contrast to non-German audiences. Presumably the production has been developed – quite legitimately – with this characteristic of German audiences in mind.

It appears also that there have been in the region of 230 performances of the production to date – so perhaps it’s inevitable that subtleties that were originally in the production have disappeared over time. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CALLAGHAN,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – Prof Grene, in his letter about the extraordinary Schaubühne production of Hamlet, protests too much. Whatever about the director’s aim to “violate” Hamlet, his production seems to me to capture the essential theme of the play.

In a sense, the graveyard scene offers us the central image of the play and the daring director reminds us constantly of this, as does the text. When Hamlet’s final words ring out, we know that they apply not only to him alone, but to all of us, together: “the rest is silence”. A daring production, yes. But it had to be done.

About one thing I would agree with Prof Grene. People, in general, give standing ovations too readily. I stood myself, but what do you do if you’re only five foot two? – Yours, etc,

GERRY MURTAGH,

Foxrock,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – Irene O’Donovan, six months pregnant, and Brian Lougheed (76) complain that nobody spontaneously offers them seats on the Luas or bus (October 3rd). Given that most of those lucky enough to get a seat on the Luas spend the journey glued to their phones, it is little surprise that their forlorn expressions go unnoticed.

I frequently offer my seat, and observe others offering their seats to those in obvious need – heavily pregnant women, the very elderly, people with crutches or walking sticks, or those trying to manage young children.

Very few people are deliberately selfish; however, I am wary of offering my seat to women not obviously in late pregnancy, or to older people who are not obviously frail for fear of causing offence, and I suspect most other commuters have similar reservations.

For those with less visually obvious but equally sincere need for a seat the answer is actually very simple. Instead of suffering in silence, if you just ask and explain your predicament, I am certain you will find no shortage of considerate strangers. When it comes to etiquette, the expressions “excuse me”, “please” and “thank you” were invented for just such a purpose. – Yours, etc,

JOHN THOMPSON,

Phibsboro,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – Des Doris, from the WiFi environs of Dún Laoghaire, writes, “Printed telephone directories. Why?” (October 3rd)

He may not be aware of the vast swathes of our “greatest little country in the world to do business” where, if you have an internet connection at all, waiting for a page to open in your browser and having a good night’s sleep could be described as “multi-tasking”. – Yours, etc,

LIAM STENSON,

Knocknacarra, Galway.

Sir, – “Printed telephone directories. Why?” Well, for one thing, people of a certain vintage who can’t be bothered with the internet. Not to mention price-gouging directory inquiry lines. Third, admittedly a long shot, Charles Atlas impersonators. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN AHERN,

Clonsilla,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – My 01 Dublin area directory from 2004 has performed admirably in holding up a truncated leg of my kitchen table. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Stamer Street,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – As a walker, there are two types of people I encounter a lot – one is the type that never cleans up after their dogs, and the other is a new breed (excuse the pun) that does clean up, probably because they are being watched, and then sneakily just throw the bag on the ground when they feel no one will spot them. Has anyone ever being fined for either disgusting behaviour? I have stopped arguing with them as it spoils my walk nearly as much as having to avoid their pets’ mess. – Yours, etc,

JOE HARVEY,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Clive Williams (September 30th) claims that he has a “simple solution” to the problem of entrances to business, banking and government offices being polluted by smokers. My problem is that he never says what this solution could be. Presumably, he means that this activity should be banned.

Smoking outside workplace doors is in fact prohibited in many workplaces and in “smoke-free” hospital campuses, but enforcing that rule is well-nigh impossible unless bouncers are in situ to ensure that it is observed. – Yours, etc,

JUNE O’REILLY,

Cork Institute

of Technology,

Cork.

Sat, Oct 4, 2014, 01:01

First published: Sat, Oct 4, 2014, 01:01

Sir, – I’m intrigued by Rev Patrick G Burke (October 3rd) when he says that his local community school, with a “Catholic ethos”, which his two children attend, is “extremely inclusive” as they invite him “as the local Church of Ireland rector, to take part in all the school services”. While I’m pleased for him that it seems to work well for his family, it can scarcely be described as “extremely inclusive”. It reminds me of a line from the film The Blues Brothers: “‘What kind of music do you normally have here?’ ‘Oh, we’ve got both kinds – country and western’”. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD MORTON,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

The word that no politician wants with his or her name has entered politics: cronyism. If we ignore the current debacle and look at cronyism as a concept then its effect on the public mood can be seen.

The first problem with cronyism is that it ensures the collapse of any given regime. The reason for this is because if cronyism exists then the question is not ‘who is the best person for the job?’ but rather ‘who do I want to get the job?’

When the latter outlook is adopted, it nullifies the wisdom of the former.

This is bad long-term strategy.

Secondly, when people see cronyism they begin to ask ‘who else is involved?’

This means people are beginning to ask ‘what if some Europeans have cronies here?’ While no evidence of such exists, there is a lot of Irish money leaving these shores.

When cronyism enters the equation, people can’t help but wonder: how deep does it really go? And when will it ultimately end?

Dermot Ryan

Attymon, Athenry,

Co. Galway

Ethics must apply to all

In the light of the latest farce at Government/political/State administration level, I presume that the two words that will now be permanently deleted from all their future pronouncements are ‘transparency’ and ‘openness’. They should learn to drop words that carry real meaning and stick with their general obfuscation.

What does this latest debacle say about the President’s call for us all to become more ethical? We have studies on unethical business practices, etc, to beat the band, often echoed by high-sounding calls from those in political and governmental power for stricter morality and behaviour. I think we’ve had enough high-level sermonising accompanied by selective-practice of their sermon messages. It seems that at the Government/political level, we need to have a very clear understanding of when they think ethics matter and who should be subject to ethics, as it seems that they exclude themselves.

Ed McDonald

Stradbrook Road, Blackrock,

Co Dublin

Women free to enter politics

Regarding actress Emma Watson’s recent much-hyped UN speech in favour of feminism, for several reasons it will take far more than a speech from Ms Watson and an equally-hyped letter from a schoolboy in support of her views, to convince this writer that feminism is a benign force that men should support.

Attempts to impose a model of ‘equality’ that seems to be based, at least in part, on a denial of the existence of naturally-occurring variations between people may well end up doing more harm than good.

While it’s true that women are in the minority in several fields, the same is true of men (with the teaching profession being a crucially-important example). However, such imbalances are not necessarily always due to “sexism,” discrimination, etc., but in many cases are simply a natural result of differences in the career preferences of individual men and women. Efforts to eliminate them, whether by means of quotas or otherwise, serve no useful purpose.

Regarding women in public life, I agree entirely with the views expressed by David Quinn in his article of September 26. It should also be stressed that since the foundation of the State, we have had universal adult suffrage with a secret ballot, and no one has been prohibited from standing for election because of their gender – crucially, one doesn’t require the nomination of a political party to stand for election. This being so, it would be more to the point for those who complain about the position of women in public life to complain less and use the rights that have been available equally to women and men alike for the past 90 years.

Hugh Gibney

Castletown, Athboy, Co Meath

We need credit lending limits

Where did all the property experts go? Will anybody get their money back from people selling books and courses telling the general public to take out large mortgages during the boom years? The Central Bank has just said that they may wish to limit the credit that banks lend out both in terms of deposit and income levels. This is welcome, but a far greater threat to bank stability is the length of loan. This should be reduced from 30 years to 20 years.

I have to disagree with David McWilliams that we are in a bubble again. The rental yield on Dublin property is 5.5pc, which has taken into account the rise in rents. In 2006 the rental yield on Irish property was between 2pc and 3pc.

But the warning signs are there to see! Like in the boom years, as property prices rise, banks lend more, and as they lend more property rises even further. This is what causes a property bubble.

The Central Bank should put limits on credit lending. Hopefully, for the sake of the nation.

Darragh Condren

Dundrum, Dublin 16

Cats are deserving champions

In response to the recent letter by Mr P Cosgrave regarding the All Ireland hurling champions, I wish to state that superb skill and tenacity are only part of an array of attributes that this team possesses.

The most ardent of Kilkenny supporters will concede that on occasions their tactics are outside of what the rules allow. However, they are not any different from the teams they are competing against and in any case this where the referee must do his job. I have no doubt that if scrutinized, their performances over the last 15 years will show that they are just as sinned against as sinned.

There seems to be a pattern to this type of criticism. Ger Loughnane suggested some years ago that they were playing on the edge, then we almost had a witch hunt against Tommy Walsh for dirty play, etc, and now they are accused of arm-pulling, body checks and so on. Both finals this year were great spectacles, the drawn game an absolute classic. Tipperary would have beaten any other team with their wonderful performance in the drawn game. Kilkenny are not any other team. Champions on 10 occasions in the last 15 years while their rivals Tipp and Cork have two each. I think it’s a little more than arm-pulling.

Frank Prendergast,

Shanbough, New Ross, Co. Wexford

We must protect mothers

With the budget looming over the horizon, I am sure important and difficult decisions are being made regarding the little bit of wiggle room the recent pick-up in the economy has giving the country’s finances.

When making these decisions, I hope the Government looks at one of the particularly mean-spirited austerity measures implemented in recent years, mainly under the radar, inflicting the women of this country at possibly one of their most vulnerable times.

I am talking about the cuts made to the maternity benefit. Not only was the top level cut by well over 10pc but the benefit was also made taxable so any cuts could not be offset by working partners taking tax credits. Depending on circumstances this could add up to a loss of over €2,000 at a time when their life has changed beyond all recognition, added responsibility, pressures and expenses.

This was a hit on the women of this country at a time when their country should have been supporting them, not adding financial worries to their burden.

I felt that the Government saw this as an easy target, the benefactors of which don’t have a voice. I want this country, my country, to be one that protects and looks after our vulnerable, not one that adds to their worries, as they see them as an easy target to save a few million euro.

J Meighan

Address with editor

Irish Independent

5 October 2014 More or less Russian Vine

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day sweep the path at the side of the house, tackle the Russian Vine again.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down gammon for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

Carrie Bale doesn’t need a “financial makeover” (“Creative thinking needed for an intern to be free of her debts”, Money, 28 September). Your panel missed the only cure she needs: an internship that pays at least a London living wage.

I have undertaken two unpaid internships over the past year, which I was only able to do knowing I have savings and a level of financial support from my mum. I am the privileged graduate who can just about “afford” to lose money for three months.

This culture of unpaid and underpaid internships needs to end: it is locking graduates out of career opportunities they cannot afford. Until Carrie and other young people have a job that pays more than food, rent and travel, she can’t save or start a pension. I doubt she needed your panel’s advice to work that out.

Joey Knock

Southend, Essex

The various conflicts which have erupted in recent times represent such a morass of territorial, political, ethnic and religious struggles that it is hard to see where we could or should intervene, with what objectives, and hope of success.

One consistent thread that might guide us is the expression of human compassion, which could offer a path to useful engagement as an alternative morality to the horrors unfolding before our eyes. What most exercises the public is the sense of helplessness as we watch the massacres and displacement of people who want nothing more than a peaceful way of life.

Now, rather than trying to pick sides and worrying about where arms might end up, while whole communities are under attack, we should be able to offer a robust source of humanitarian protection followed by sustained financial aid as suggested by David Miliband.

This would help countries flooded by refugees to be willing to accept more, and leaving them free to repel attacks on their own borders. This makes more economic sense than using expensive British air power to dispatch a few trucks.

AMS Hutton-Wilson

Evercreech, Somerset

Aside from those who just like wars – the papers of Rupert Murdoch for example – most agree that UK participation in a third Iraq war is an uncertain matter. Air strikes may impede Islamic State but a political solution is required. The strong impression is that, as in 2003, this is very much secondary to military action. The real danger is that Britain returns to the kind of imperial military state it was in the late 19th century, always at war.

Keith Flett

London N17

It is great news that the next Conservative government will save £3bn by hitting poor workers. They can use the cash to pay for the missiles they are firing at poor Iraqis.

Barry Tighe

Woodford Green, London

I suspect rights of inheritance for duchesses are not high on people’s priorities right now (Jane Merrick, 28 September). With the surge of interest in politics from Scotland’s grassroots we could capitalise on that – a written constiution, an elected second chamber and an elected head of state – real reform and change.

Jenny Bushell

London SW19

Despite being more of a Speysider, Karen Attwood’s article on Irish whiskey (“Sláinte!”, 28 September) neglected to mention the oldest licensed whiskey in Ireland and the UK. Licensed in 1608, Bushmills has been happily distilling away on the North Antrim coast for some time. I suggest a corrective trip.

Neil Hall

via email

Looking at “Back to the future, Paris style” (28 September) my eyes went straight to the model in “space age” clothes. Something different? I’d say, but I can’t think of anyone I know who would be seen dead in it! Why designers produce clothes that no one will wear is beyond me.

Emilie Lamplough

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Times:

David Cameron has pledged to continue increasing the NHS budget in real terms, but is money alone enough to keep it healthy? (Paul Vicente)

Whitehall meddlers do more harm than good to NHS

THE government fails consistently to tackle patient expectation and education (“What the NHS needs most is a break from the surgeons of Westminster”, Comment, last week). It’s not enough to put money into the health service; we must enable users and providers to make use of the NHS more efficiently.

I believe we have a system that would work if there were no meddling from Whitehall every time there was an election.
Dr Naresh Kanumilli, Lead for Performance and Quality, Clinical Long Term Conditions, South Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group

Shopping and changing

Camilla Cavendish has accurately diagnosed some of the ailments facing the NHS: the politicisation of the service and the philosophy of “izzy, wizzy, let’s get busy”, change, change, change. Imagine a supermarket where every few weeks the layout changed, where staff were shuffled into unfamiliar roles and where pay and performance were constantly the subject of public scrutiny. Would it be attractive to potential employees and would it run efficiently?
Dr Robin Berry, Consultant in anaesthetics and intensive care Derriford Hospital, Plymouth

Onthe attack

I suspect Cavendish’s article could easily be applied to education as well. It is a pity that the NHS and the school system have become weapons that the parties wield against each other and that these services suffer as a result.
James Wheeldon, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

Paying their way

It never ceases to amaze me that pensioners are exempt from paying into the NHS. I am a German citizen, married to a Briton, and have lived in the UK since the 1970s. The German healthcare system has compulsory membership and is funded by (income-related) contributions. My mother paid several hundred euros a month until her death at the age of 88.

The young are worse off than their parents or grandparents were because of higher housing prices and university fees, so it surely is unjust to ask them to shoulder the health costs of their elders, a group that also enjoys a heating allowance and free transport.

Crista Lyon, Chislehurst, southeast London

A stitch in time

If Mark Drakeford, the Welsh health minister, is so proud of health standards in his country, would he explain why it is unable or unwilling to abide by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on “two-week wait” appointment times for cases of suspected cancer (“No NHS cover-up in Wales”, Letters, last week)? Welsh consultants have a six-week timeline. However, tumours grow just as rapidly there as in England.
Dr David Skidmore, Consultant surgeon, London SE3

A ground war is the only way to rout Isis

GIVEN the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the public understandably has no appetite for another ground war in the Middle East (“Bombing jihadis is futile, says top British general”, News, and “We won’t beat them with airstrikes”, Focus, last week).

Unfortunately it is the only form of warfare that has any chance of defeating Isis. Bombing causes civilian casualties that are then used as propaganda. Our government’s decision to join the campaign will not achieve its objectives without those boots on the ground.
Colonel Barry Clayton (retired), Cleveleys, Lancashire

No return for jihadists

The decision to deploy air power is to be welcomed. However, David Cameron should have secured a quid pro quo agreement from Iraq that would have seen all jihadists from the UK prevented from returning to this country. It would also offer a powerful disincentive for any wannabe extremists from engaging in this murderous form of tourism.
Jamie Beresford, Bristol

Better the devil you know

The Isis crisis arises because of the destabilisation of Iraq and Syria. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been demonised by our politicians, but, with all its faults, it has not been altogether bad for Syria.

The Arab spring raised hopes of greater freedom, yet the examples of Iraq, Libya and Egypt warn us that transition to democracy is often not easy.

It would be advisable now, notwithstanding the horrible things done by all sides there, for us to change tack to help restore order to the region.
Dr Rod Walters, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Enemy at the gates

I found myself agreeing with the vast majority of General Lord Richards’s military assessment. Then his judgment appeared to desert him in reference to what he feels is the need to ignore Vladimir Putin’s transgressions in Ukraine and “bring Russia back into the fold”.

Ukraine is being given a raw deal not just by the bear on its doorstep but by sheep and sheepdogs in the West. If the EU and Nato do not stand up to Russia, there may be another threat on their doorstep to match the one further east.
Paul Iwanyckyj, Doncaster Branch Chairman, Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain

Hands up for the return of grammar schools

HOW right London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, is (“Boris mourns grammars”, News, last week). Re-establishing grammars would be a boon to parents and pupils and a certain vote-winner. Like many children in the 1950s and 1960s I came from a poor working-class family yet was able to receive an elite education at a Leicestershire grammar school. Why, oh why, did the politicians bin a system that was fair and worked?
Tony Ellis, Northwood, London

Mixed messages

Most schools embrace evidence-based research to improve learning, and this is encouraged by Ofsted, among other organisations. It was rather surprising therefore to read the watchdog’s chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw, extolling the virtues of co-educational over single-sex schools (“Ofsted boss says mixed schools are better”, News, last week). The only evidence offered for this appeared to be Wilshaw’s own experience.
Stephen Nokes, Headmaster, John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Kindergarten crop

“The nursery kids are all right” (News Review, September 14) assumes that academic success and well-paid jobs are the only criteria of wellbeing. Competitive high-flyers are not always the happiest of people. I would doubt if the findings in the survey quoted are a basis for complacency on the subject of daycare for young children.
Rosemary Packard, Deddington, Oxfordshire

Women played their part in office frolics

FOR many of us of a similar age, playing with women in the office was the norm (“This is all your fault, Camilla. You kicked things off”, News Review, last week). Yes, the women loved it too, no question, despite what people may think or say. It was a very different time. Of course there are those who will now bow to the “compensation” god: the media have given them the opportunity to make a few bob.
Brian Watson, Purley, London

Antique object lessons in sexual manipulation

Last week I watched five episodes of an antiques programme in which the female “expert” used her sexuality to manipulate each man she was with — bluntly, she was all over them. In what sense is this less the abusive use of sexual power over another person than Travis’s behaviour? In what sense is it less an invasion of personal space? It is time the law recognised emotional as well as physical abuse. Perhaps then there will be a more balanced critique of the failings of both genders.
Philip Iszatt, Radstock, Somerset

London homes fair game for mansion tax

YOU reported that “a Labour party grandee has pocketed a £43m profit from the sale of his London house” (“Peer saves £144,000 by selling his house”, News, last week) and in the Money feature headlined “Revealed: the real losers under Labour’s mansion tax scheme” stated that “hard-working people will suffer”. The vast profits being made by homeowners in the southeast on principal residences are tax-free. A tough mansion tax seems well justified.
Geoff Kite, Pantymwyn, Flintshire

Cheap shot

Labour likes nothing more than to label the Conservatives “the nasty party”, but what does its demonising of the rich with its mansion tax proposal say about the party? This is just a cheap publicity stunt attacking the usual soft targets and one that will have little effect in achieving its stated aim of improving the NHS.
Gareth Tarr, Chertsey, Surrey

Tax incentive

India Knight (Comment, last week) stated that the mansion tax will result in a “mass exodus of normal people” from London. If I owned a £2m property anywhere, I would pay my taxes and stop complaining.
Fran Okona, London NW1

Electoral reform would build on engagement of referendum

SURELY the most important fact after the referendum was that everyone in Scotland knew every vote mattered, thus making it such a memorable turnout (“The result revealed a nation of brave hearts with cool heads”, Comment, September 21).

How to keep it going, then? If we are to find solutions for the whole UK, then perhaps it is time for proportional representation. This would suck the lifeblood from border alterations and ensure that only change wanted by the majority could take place.

Dominic Lawson’s article (“What’s the way out of this devo mess? We once knew the answer”, Comment, September 21), referring to Gladstone’s possible solution is, I think, best left in history. The public no longer needs wise parenting or to be patronised.
Daniel Ogilvy, Perth

Southern state

The results indicate that Britain is moving towards a federal state, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland becoming more autonomous, leaving England controlled by what is essentially the UK parliament.

My belief is that England should have its own parliament. If we greatly reduce the size of Westminster to, say, 400 MPs, the money saved can be used to do so.
AJ McGolpin, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire

Union dues

After the referendum, most people agree that reconciliation is now required. However, the reported comments by “Saint” Gordon Brown (the Saviour of the Union!), wherein he accused David Cameron of setting a trap for Scottish voters, will only foment further resentment.

Are the 45% who said “yes” unaware of the additional benefits they receive while the remainder of the UK do not?
Michael McMenemy and Mrs A McMenemy-Rudge, Seaton, Devon

Unity derailed

Now that it has been decided Scotland will remain part of the UK (“Keep the kingdom united, a superpower of city states”, News Review, last week), some thought must be given to transport links in the UK.

Unlike France, which is famously hexagonal and crisscrossed with high-speed rail links, the UK is long and thin, with London, the centre of power, located in the bottom righthand corner. It is also pretty much devoid of high-speed rail links.

If the country is to function as a “united” kingdom, then the scandalously high air passenger duty charged on domestic flights needs to be abolished, or at the very least substantially reduced.
Rob McGregor, Dunmow, Essex

Up in the air

David Cameron’s very public grovelling to Scotland was toe-curlingly embarrassing, and his promising the country the earth to remain in the Union contrasts starkly with the contempt in which he holds hard-working, tax-paying Londoners.

The prime minister’s determination to build a third (and likely more) runway(s) at Heathrow will increase noise and air pollution for ordinary people, the majority of whom have no country mansions to escape to.
Anthony and Delia Jay, London SW15

Raise a glass

I had to laugh at Alan Black (“Missing the party”, Letters, last week) conveying the relief of “no” voters by telling us how “champagne corks’” could be heard popping in the “suburbs and countryside”.

What a relief, indeed, it must have been for him and his friends to have avoided “the narrow divisive politics of the nationalists” and the certain “economic abyss” that would have followed. As opposed, of course, to the ongoing narrow divisive politics of the unionists and the economic abyss we find ourselves in currently. Chin-chin.
John McGlynn, Edinburgh

Day of honour

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the UK government commemorated the Scottish people speaking up for Britain by nominating September 18 every year as a national holiday? We can be in no doubt that the nationalists would have hailed it as “independence day” or something similar and therefore it must be equally appropriate to honour the splendidly loyal decision by the educated majority of Scots.
Robert Veitch, Edinburgh

Points

Driving a soft bargain

David Cameron’s stance on the EU (“Tory backbench assassin throws in lot with Farage”, News, last week) would be more credible if he had not announced that when his attempts at reform were over he would campaign for Britain to stay in Europe. This is rather like telling the car dealer you will buy the vehicle whether he drops the price or not. This novel approach to negotiation explains why it is not taken seriously.
David Brancher, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Reckless behaviour

I have never voted Tory in my life but I felt that the defection of the Conservative MP Mark Reckless to Ukip was both underhand and dishonourable.
Dr Per Svanberg, Ponteland, Northumberland

Nil by mouth

One disadvantage of wearing the niqab is that many of the thousands of deaf children and adults in the UK need to see to be able to hear, despite advanced hearing aids and cochlear implants (“An impossible decision on the unsmiling face of Islam”, Eleanor Mills, last week). They have to watch lip movements and facial expressions, and hand or body gestures or sign language. Most would find it difficult to communicate with someone whose face and lips were covered, whether it be by a niqab, a dentist’s mouth mask or a beard/moustache.

Elizabeth Jones, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Cause and effect

According to “Arctic ice cap in ‘death spiral’” (News, September 21 ), global warming is causing Arctic sea ice to shrink but is simultaneously causing Antarctic sea ice to expand. Is there anything global warming can’t do?
William Toland , Glasgow

Cold comfort

Your correspondent David Schofield (“Fuel subsidy is a hot topic”, Letters, last week) has lived in southwest France for too long if he thinks that the winter temperature of 0C to 14C is “much colder” than Britain. Where I live, in northeast Scotland, we were lucky last year to have a relatively mild winter, with the temperature only dropping a few degrees below freezing. In the previous two years, the mercury dropped to -15C and it was more than a week in each case before it returned to a balmy 0C
Angela Townsend, Forres, Moray

Corrections and clarifications

In the 50 Years of Business magazine last week the figures for male average annual wages in 1964 were incorrect. They should have been £915.20 for manual workers, and £1,220 for
non-manual workers. The figures for car production should have been 1.87m for 1964 and 1.5m for today, not 1.87bn and 1.5bn as we stated. We apologise for the errors.

In “Sartre accused of reaping benefits of anti-semitism” (World News, last week) references to “anti-Jewish Nazi policy” and “a death camp” should have been to “the Vichy government’s anti-Nazi policy” and “a concentration camp”. We apologise to Ingrid Galster for the implication that these historical inaccuracies were hers.

In “My secrets for teaching lost boys new tricks” (News Review, last week) we stated incorrectly that Ian Mikardo High School is in Hackney. It is in Tower Hamlets. We apologise for the error.

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, should be addressed to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our website for full details of how to lodge a complaint.

Birthdays

Peter Ackroyd, writer, 65; Clive Barker, novelist, 62; Stephanie Cole, actress, 73; Dame Laura Davies, golfer, 51; Jesse Eisenberg, actor, 31; Bob Geldof, singer, 63; Glynis Johns, actress, 91; Michael Morpurgo, author, 71; Guy Pearce, actor, 47; Nicola Roberts, singer, 29; Nick Robinson, BBC political editor, 51; Kate Winslet, actress, 39

Anniversaries

1789 Parisian women march to Versailles in protest at the price of bread; 1864 a cyclone hits Calcutta, killing 60,000; 1936 Jarrow marchers set off for London; 1962 world premiere of first Bond film, Dr No; 1969 first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs on BBC1; 1986 The Sunday Times reveals Israel’s nuclear secrets.

Telegraph:

6:55AM BST 04 Oct 2014

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6:56AM BST 04 Oct 2014

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6:57AM BST 04 Oct 2014

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The French revolutionaries went wrong trying to create a 10-day week

6:59AM BST 04 Oct 2014

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7:00AM BST 04 Oct 2014

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Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

Madam – Don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, blame it on a faceless official in party headquarters. Or so goes the less than catchy refrain from Enda Kenny.

It was everyone’s fault but his, regarding his party’s crude attempt to get a newly appointed Minister to attempt to fix a failed FG politician into a Seanad seat.

Enda, spare us the fake apology, the fake explanation; who do you think you are, Bertie Ahern? One thing we have learned from the John McNulty/Enda Kenny affair is that it apparently takes about three and a half years for a man that everyone would have said was a clean pair of hands on elevation to the Taoiseach’s office, to become a man who is only convincing himself that he is still acting in the best interests of the country.

Let’s be honest, a dead man could have implemented the externally imposed austerity programme we now have to live through.

What exactly has Enda Kenny done during his time in office? This, the latest episode in the long and miserable catalogue of betrayals of our democracy by an arrogant Taoiseach, has revealed one thing – it seemingly doesn’t matter who we vote for, the bastards always win.

Declan Doyle, Kilkenny

Effect of force on politics

Madam – Considerable ink was spilt in Mr McDowell’s article -‘We cannot unravel our history’ (Sunday Independent, 21 September).  It is true that  the past cannot be undone. It is equally true that actions have consequences which  resonate far  into the distant future.

McDowell is correct in stating that the Rising is now part of our distant history, but less so when he asserts it “must be treated as such.” Tell that to our Tweedledum and Tweedledee political parties who remain divided by Civil War differences.

It would be disingenuous to hold that the Rising and War of Independence had no inspiration for those involved in the violent events which engulfed the North for thirty wasted years, or had no effect in producing the ambivalent attitude of many in the South to these events.

The courage, patriotism, and service of all those involved, whatever their political stance, in the years preceding national independence have not been denied by John Bruton. However, in stating his preference for peaceful rather than forcible solutions to political problems, it seems that he is trying to warn us of the long-term polarisation of attitudes, and constraints on political progress, which the use of force introduces.

Contrast, for instance, the Northern Peace Process, now in its sixteenth year and compare it with, say, the debate on Scottish independence, the continuous evolution and transformation of the Commonwealth, or the establishment and continuous development of the EU and other international organizations.

To resort to force, or the threat of force, is to reject flexibility and compromise, the possibilities and opportunities for progress and for finding solutions to on-going problems, provided by political interaction and discourse. It is possible to surmise also that the use of force in establishing our independence has had a long-term degrading effect on political thought and parliamentary action, from which may well derive the current public cynicism and disregard for politicians which has now reached proportions that should cause alarm.

These are possibly among the factors influencing Mr. Bruton in formulating his views on this issue. He is to be commended for his service to the public in so doing, and for the implicit warning about the need to exercise the greatest of care in making political choices and decisions. There can be little doubt that the greatest of all Irishmen, Daniel O’Connell, would approve.

Tom Clear, Monkstown, Co Dublin

Media legitimate line of inquiry

Madam – Dan O’Brien claims that the Banking Inquiry  requiring ‘senior editors, board members and financial controllers’ of media organisations to come before it is ‘wrongheaded’ and ‘a threat to the freedom of the press.’ (Sunday Independent, 28 September). This is an absurd claim.

One role of the Joint Committee into the banking crisis is ‘to inquire into the reasons Ireland experienced a systemic banking crisis, including the economic, social, cultural, political and financial and behavioural factors and policies which impacted on, or contributed to, the crisis.’

By common consent the inflation of a massive property bubble and its inevitable crash were central to the banking crisis. The bubble involved massive increases in the prices of building land, of new homes and commercial property over a period of more than ten years.

Mass media organisations have huge power in society to shape public and official opinion. One could hardly examine the ‘social, cultural and behavioural factors’ that impacted on a major development without looking at the role the mass media played.

According to Dan O’Brien, ‘the most important function of the media is to hold those in powerful positions to account.’ Governments, banks, major bondholders and developers were indisputably in powerful economic positions during the inflation of the bubble. Did the media hold them to account?

Were there major media investigations into the dizzying inflation of building land prices; or into the fact that an ordinary home was rising in price by the equivalent of the annual industrial wage each year for many years; or into the extension of a normal home mortgage term from 20 to 35 and 40 years and often at very high repayment levels? Did the media act as a watchdog for those who would consider themselves in a vulnerable position, for example working people purchasing homes in these circumstances?

Did the media inquire into whether the huge increases in prices were justified by equivalently rising costs of construction or was there large scale profit taking at the expense of the purchaser and society?

Again it is indisputable that some major newspapers earned substantial revenue from advertising sales of homes and commercial properties. One newspaper group purchased a property advertising web site for a substantial figure. Did this commercial relationship with the property sector in any way influence the relevant organisations in how they dealt in their media outlets with the subject of price inflation or other aspects of the property market that led to the crisis?

Surely it is legitimate to explore questions like these and hear the answers as well as any other observations those being questioned might like to make.

Joe Higgins, TD, Leinster House, Dublin

Kenny is not in Haughey’s league

Madam – I am all in favour of criticising powerful politicians, but when you compare Taoiseach Kenny with former Taoiseach Haughey you are not comparing like with like (Sunday Independent, 28 September).

As you say Haughey may have aspired to be ‘a Renaissance Prince’ and a ‘political giant’ but ‘many of the consequences of his unique personality were for ill’ and ‘eventually … destroyed the country’.

In contrast Kenny is no Prince and his efforts at pulling ‘strokes’ are distinctly amateurish.

He is thus not in the same league in the Machiavellian stakes and, while the jury is still out on the efforts of his government to salvage the country, Kenny cannot be accused of bankrupting the country.

A. Leavy, Sutton, Dublin 13

An end to Fine Gael’s credibility

Madam – In life all good things come to an end – and we have just seen Enda Kenny’s credibility disintegrate over the John McNulty cronyism debacle.

Fine Gael’s promise of transparency and openness has been left in tatters and from October 1 the ice bucket water challenge can no longer be afforded here as we are now being fleeced for a natural resource that once came free flowing from Irish taps.

Time to completely flush the system out perhaps? (Not that you will read that in the Sunday Independent).

Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co Wexford

Enda and Bertie are so similar

Madam – Is Enda Kenny possibly Bertie Ahern in disguise?

They both defer to powerful interest groups. Developers in Bertie’s case and a large corporate for Enda.

They both gave public money to GAA projects – €110m for Croker, and now €30m for Cork.

They both moved difficult ministers to European positions – first McCreevy and now Hogan.

Enda too has become most adept at avoiding questions in ever rarer Dail appearances.

Both leaders seem to have a particular gift for keeping the few talented and reforming politicians around subdued and both are prepared to throw associates under the bus to preserve their position.

They also have a knack for finding farcical settings for photo ops – like a kitchen cupboard or ploughing a field in a suit.

However, it’s the man of the people portrait that Enda and Bertie paint I find most vexing. They have known only prestige and privilege since election to the Leinster House bubble in 1975 and 1981 respectively and maybe that’s what makes them carbon copy personalities and ideologically the same.

David Cotter, Castlemartyr, Co Cork

Time to fight for our quality of life

Madam – Like everybody else I’m outraged at the conniving under-handedness of our politicians and all the government giving of jobs for the boys.

It is both aggravating and disgraceful that none of those vacancies were advertised so that the “ordinary” public could have the opportunity to apply. Instead, we had the unaccountable politicians once again wilfully abusing their place of power or that of my fellow citizens.

Nor have I forgotten that during the dying days of the previous administration, appointments were handed out like snuff at a wake.

It’s time that we as people began fighting for our own quality of life, as this shower of vultures are no better than the pack of parasites they replaced.

Now Micheal Martin is barking like a pitbull. It is demoralising to hear Mr Kenny’s pitiful waffling that this type of thing was beneath his high political standards. I suppose Mr Kenny feels we should believe that his non-keeping of pre-election promises was below his standards too? Well Mr Kenny I am not convinced and I’m definitely not that gullible either. The root of your problem Mr Kenny is you were trying to do things on the quite, and now you have been caught.

Matthew J Greville, Killucan, Co Westmeath

Thanks John for story of the monks

Madam – John Waters’ article on Mount Mellary (Sunday Independent, September 28) brought a flood of memories for me.

My uncle Aengus Dunphy joined that monastery in the 1940s. My parents were married there in 1958 as he was unable to leave the monastery at the time. He got a special dispensation to speak on the day having kept a vow of silence since the day he entered. He left there and became abbot of Portglenone monastery in Antrim where he passed away this year, aged 93.

He would have loved to have had John Waters come to do a retreat as he was never happier than in a deep discussion about God and life so they would both have had a lively debate. Thanks to John today for bringing the life of those monks alive to us. Personally l never quite got it but l have admiration for their prayer life and sincerity. The life of the Cistercians has been an integral part of my life growing up and l enjoyed imaging John in the middle of that life.

Kay Murtagh, Kilkenny

Really enjoyed John Waters piece

Madam – I wish to acknowledge a really enjoyable article by John Waters in the Sunday Independent (28 September). I thought John hit the nail on the head, so well done.

M. Kealy, Slane, Co Meath

Kerrigan’s ‘dig’ was worthwhile

Madam – Gene Kerrigan furnished sterling service to a reading public last week (Sunday Independent, 28 September).

For months it has been propounded by government ministers and Irish Water, as absolute truth, that Irish Water cannot, by law, be privatised.

Thanks to the excavating of the legislation by Mr Kerrigan we learn that there exists a proviso that such transfer of ownership (alienation) cannot happen, “save with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance”.

The legislation was rammed through the Dail and Seanad, provoking an entire opposition walkout and was signed by the President on December 25, 2013.

The implications of selling and relinquishing a core strategic asset which is our water supply and its attendant infrastructure, do not bear thinking about but it may well become a reality, if for example, there is yet another banking collapse and international money lenders will be evaluating remaining national assets.

In this context Mr Kerrigan’s excavation of the legislation is a good start and it follows and proves the adage that a watchful press is central to our liberties and our welfare in its various forms.

John Sullivan, Rathmines, Dublin 6.

Mutts are less likely to be stolen

Madam-In response to the reader (Sunday Independent, 28 September, Letters Page), whose little dog was stolen like Twink’s, may I make a suggestion?

There are many abandoned dogs around the country in pounds and shelters needing a ‘forever home’, with a caring person or family. Maybe instead of spending big money on a pedigree pet, with no idea what conditions it was bred in, people might consider taking on one of these dogs who come in all shapes and sizes. Not only will you have a happy, loyal dog, but it is highly unlikely to be stolen.

My heart goes out to anyone who has been a victim of this crime.

Mairead Kelly, Co Leitrim

Take a new look at mental illness

Madam – Carol Hunt in her review of TG4’s excellent documentary series on the history of psychiatry in Ireland makes the very valid point that “little seems to have changed” in 21st century Ireland. There is much debate as to the origins of so called mental illnesses. The psychiatric profession claims most disorders are caused by chemical imbalance in the brain while psychotherapy looks for causes in a person’s background, most notably their childhood. Yet most schools of psychotherapy do not place much emphasis on the birth process.

I was diagnosed as suffering from manic depression at the age of 20. I overcame this diagnosis through years of psychotherapy and holotropic breathwork.

My own birth was traumatic, I also experienced sexual abuse in early childhood as well as in my late teens.

It was only through my journey of recovery I came to deal with my traumatic birth and childhood sexual abuse which I had completely blocked out.

If a 20 year old man or woman for that matter presents themselves to a psychiatric unit with the same symptoms I presented with 30 years ago will they be treated any differently to the way I was treated all those years ago? I doubt it.

We need to examine the causes of “mental illness.” It is only then we can look for a solution,

Name and address with editor

All this darkness is unnecessary

Madam – Towards the end of October the clocks will be put back one hour, plunging the entire country into unnecessary months of darkness.

It will be dark in November at 4pm and we will endure this self inflicted darkness till the end of March. This is surely absurd.

This is like as if the Taoiseach, Mr Kenny, swallowed the sun and then regurgitated it at the end of March.

Michael O Nuallain, Monkstown, Dublin

Sunday Independent

6 October 2014 Laptop died

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day sweep the drive my Samsung laptop died

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down gammon for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

Times:

The Conservative party’s plan to enact a British bill of rights is proving controversial

His Honour Barrington Black

London NW3

Sir, Helen Rumbelow is a little unfair in confusing the dedication of dental professionals with the zealotry of moral crusaders (Notebook, Oct 3).

Under-resourced and over-regulated, our dentists are walking a tightrope, trying to provide the best care for their patients while trying to hold back the sometimes debilitating (but nearly always preventable) disease that is tooth decay. Now we discover that one in eight three-year-olds has decayed, missing or filled teeth. The dentist chair is no pulpit, but it offers one of the precious few opportunities to emphasise the key messages that simply are not being delivered elsewhere. But yes, that script does need changing. Dentists would welcome a new relationship with a focus on prevention — something which the current dental contract does not fully allow.

Mick Armstrong
British Dental Association

Telegraph:

6:56AM BST 05 Oct 2014

Comments

The resignation of Mark Reckless has threatened the British people’s opportunity to vote to leave the EU

7:00AM BST 05 Oct 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – Your editorial “Fairness for farmers” (September 26th) recommends a “fair [price] return” and collaboration between all stakeholders to ensure we maximise the long-term potential of the agriculture sector.

Meat Industry Ireland members support your call for collaboration across the sector. The beef sector in particular, from farm through to processing and export, remains one of the most important indigenous industries in the national economy, supporting in excess of 70,000 beef farmers, 10,000 processing jobs and export earnings in excess of €2.1 billion.

You also refer to a need for a “more equitable relationship and a fair [price] return” between producers and processors. It is often implied that the processing sector enjoys an unfair return. Data published by the Central Statistics Office consistently confirms that the meat processing sector is an extremely low-margin business.

Nevertheless Irish meat processors have invested significantly in modern processing facilities to ensure high levels of efficiencies which allow them to compete on a global basis. Efficiency is a critical factor at all levels of the supply chain.

Our members collaborate directly with their farmer suppliers on a regular basis and with other sector stakeholders through initiatives such as the Better farm programme and through the provision of funding towards meat research, animal health and breeding projects. This collaborative effort needs to be further enhanced through initiatives such as the Beef Roundtable Forum recently established by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, where all stakeholders have the opportunity, at regular intervals, to discuss many items such as beef consumption, market developments, on-farm efficiencies, breeding programmes, margin support measures, etc.

While producers are understandably concerned by the 12 per cent reduction in prices in 2014, beef prices have increased by 40 per cent in the period 2009 to 2013. The weakening in prices this year is due to an increase in production and a fall in EU consumption which is forecast to recover in 2015.

An independent report (the Dowling report) into the beef sector was commissioned earlier this year and was published in June. The report contained many recommendations which warrant active consideration by all parties and all aspects of the report need to be addressed with equal prominence. Meat Industry Ireland, on behalf of the beef processing sector, has issued a comprehensive response to the Dowling report, specifically in relation to the recommendations that required processing industry input. These include a commitment to further improving communications with producers through provision of additional information and clarity on remittance documents; further flexibility with regard to the issue of heavy carcase weights; increased use of supply contracts to provide guarantees to producers who finish animals over the winter period; protocols on the notification to producers with regard to the specifications required by the marketplace; margin and profitability at farm level are critical but very clearly are not solely determined by price. High prices do not necessarily deliver high margins. This is clearly evident from the low producer profitability figures for 2013, which coincided with a record high level of prices for cattle. Therefore the other recommendations in the Dowling report on breeding, on-farm production efficiencies and animal health programmes must also be tackled. – Yours, etc,

JOE RYAN,

Meat Industry Ireland,

Ibec, Dublin 2.

Sir, – Arthur Beesley ought to be commended for tackling the thorny issue of debt dynamics facing Ireland over the medium term (“Long march to debt reduction has only begun”, Business Opinion, September 26th)

Small open economies must manage their economies prudently through the entire cycle by integrating fiscal, financial and economic policy in a holistic and tailored manner.

EU institutional frameworks need to be fit for crisis management duties by having at their disposal an extensive array of ready-made instruments to mitigate systemic risks adequately.

Both of these policy responses are indispensable in warding off future large-scale crises.

Thus, while it is welcome to see the independent fiscal council making recommendations for better policy outcomes, the final responsibility lies in the good governance of policymakers at central government level, as well as their counterparts in the EU, based on long-term strategic planning.

A final observation on the large stock of debt that Ireland owns. It is likely even still that the gross outstanding amounts of public debt may have to be rescheduled further in the near term, as it is simply implausible that the country will grow at sufficiently high growth rates to lower the debt/GDP ratio in accordance with EU edicts.

As a further note, the most important statistic is not the ratio itself, yet the total stock of debt – a point which Minister for Finance Michael Noonan et al are no doubt aware of and making appropriate scenario tests to best manage this decidedly sub-optimum economic fact. A rather inconvenient truth indeed! – Yours, etc,

KEVIN NEWMAN,

Glasnevin Avenue, Dublin 11.

Sir, – May I reply to the letter of Felix Larkin (September 30th) concerning an earlier letter of my own in regard to the “just rebellion theory” and the 1916 Rising? I agree with Felix Larkin that Prof FX Martin was a “distinguished historian” and I also agree that Prof Martin accurately summarised the principles of the “just rebellion theory”. However, he has failed to address the main point of my argument: namely, that the first principle of the theory – “the government must be a tyranny, that is without a legitimate title to rule the country” – applies to the civil order inside a sovereign state and not to a sovereign state which is ruled by another country. Ireland’s situation came into this latter category – in scholastic terminology it was ruled by “an alien usurper” – and other principles and conditions were applicable in that case. Summarising the scholastic views on “an alien usurper”, Alfred O’Rahilly wrote, in October 1920, that “the subsequent relationship of usurper and nation is essentially a state of war . . . and in these circumstances each individual is free to commit acts of war on the unjust invader of his country”. He also maintained, in September 1916, that it was justifiable to take such actions against an alien usurper, even if there was no reasonable hope of success.

He based his argument on the example of the martyrs of the early church stating that “to condemn an uprising merely on the grounds of consequent loss of life and property, would betray a singular blindness to the spiritual realities of life”. O’Rahilly remarked that “if a conflict is otherwise justified, it does not become morally wrong simply because it is likely to end in a technical defeat” and he quoted the poet Milton: ‘The greatest gift the hero leaves his race Is to have been a hero. Say we fail! We feed the high tradition of the world, And leave our spirits in our children’s breasts.”

Clearly there will be no unanimity on the “just rebellion theory” but it may be possible to agree that the examples of Redmond and Pearse, in their diverse ways, helped to reveal the true character of British rule in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

Dr BRIAN P MURPHY, OSB

Glenstal Abbey,

Murroe, Co Limerick.

Sir, – Ireland has a considerable history of water fluoridation. It is 50 years since fluoridation of the water supplies began in this country. Time for the considerable advantages in terms of improvements in oral health to be demonstrated and, in parallel, time during which there has been no documented medical side-effects of water fluoridation.

In the time since water fluoridation was introduced here in Ireland, the population has benefited from improved oral health services, greater access to fluoridated toothpastes and better nutrition.

As a consequence, a decision was made, after scientific review, to reduce the level of fluorides in the water supply as in other countries.

This is in recognition of these other sources of fluoride and to minimise the side-effect (flecking of teeth) seen when small children eat fluoridated toothpaste while living in fluoride areas.

The benefits of fluoridation are not inconsiderable in terms of all costs. While the population, both adults and children, have benefited from the consequent improvements in oral health that fluoride confers, the benefit to the health service in terms of a reduction in costs of the burden of dental disease and its management, not to say the considerable benefits to families in quality of life as a result of days free of dental pain and no loss of days at work or school in dealing with dental abscesses, are considerable.

Dental disease is one of the commonest, preventable diseases yet the country invests significant amounts of money in dealing with the consequences of that disease. Fluoridation has been proven to have significantly benefited the population thus allowing scarce health service resources to be directed towards acute life-threatening conditions.

No other health-promoting measure has been exposed to such scrutiny and been given an ongoing, clean bill of health. As a measure, water fluoridation has been recognised by the US Cancer Society, as well as the Royal College of Physicians, both here in Ireland and the UK, as being both safe and effective as well as without side effects over decades of vigilance.

We note that the most recently published expert peer-reviewed analysis by the Royal Society of New Zealand finds “there are no adverse effects of any significance arising from fluoridation at the levels used in New Zealand” (ie levels higher than in Ireland). “In particular, no effects on brain development, cancer risk or metabolic risk have been substantiated”. The American Dental Association “unreservedly endorses the fluoridation of community water supplies as safe, effective and necessary in preventing tooth decay.”

As parents as well as oral healthcare professionals, we acknowledge these endorsements and continue to advocate one of the few truly cost-effective public health measures this country has known, for the good of all, children and adults. – Yours, etc,

Prof JUNE NUNN,

Dean,

School of Dental Science,

Trinity College Dublin;

Prof MARTIN KINIRONS,

Dean,

School of Dental Science,

Cork University Dental

School and Hospital;

Dr JOHN WALSH,

Dean,

Faculty of Dentistry,

Royal College

of Surgeons in Ireland;

Dr PETER GANNON,

President,

Irish Dental Association.

Sir, – Gerard Manners (September 27th) is quite right to highlight the activities of the Dublin Pipers Club (founded in 1900), and of one of the activists involved, his relative Pat Nally. Nally seems indeed to have had a selfless devotion to Irish music and, for instance, was the one who brought to the attention of Dublin pipers to the phenomenal Martin Reilly, whose piping caused a sensation when he was brought to Dublin to play for the feis ceoil in 1900.

However Mr Manners’s letter does not give the full story. For a start the Dublin body was not the first pipers club to be established in Ireland. That honour belongs to the Cork pipers, who got together in 1899. Nor was that 1900 Dublin Pipers Club very long-lived, as it had ceased to exist before the outbreak of the first World War. A tentative restart in 1919 was cut short by the repressive measures of the Black and Tans, which singled out Irish cultural activities for special attention.

The Irish Union Pipers Club was established in Dublin’s Thomas Street in 1921, but this effort was, again, frustrated by the military realities of the Civil War. In 1940 Leo Rowsome, the mainstay of uilleann piping for most of the 20th century, decided to try again and established Cumann na bPíobairí Uilleann, which became well known through its Saturday night sessions at its Thomas Street premises. In 1951 that club took the initiative that led to the foundation of the all-Ireland traditional music body Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and subsequently functioned as a branch of that organisation.

Seventeen years later, however, pipers were still concerned that the unique Irish bagpipe seemed destined to follow the Irish harp into oblivion, and, at a general meeting of pipers in Bettystown, Co Louth, in 1968, decided to establish a new organisation for pipers – Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU). Comhaltas had had a hand in convening the 1968 gathering, but probably did not anticipate that the pipers would go on to establish their own independent association.

Leo Rowsome, the moving force behind several of the previous organisational initiatives, was at Bettystown and was an enthusiastic supporter of the establishment of the new body, and he and Seamus Ennis were acclaimed as the first patrons.

So, in defence of Frank McNally’s account (An Irishman’s Diary, September 24th) of the progress of that odd species – piperus hibernicus – it can be fairly claimed that NPU is the legitimate descendant of the previous organisations, but also, and more significantly, the most successful.

We have been established since 1979 in a Georgian house in Henrietta Street (a ruin when we occupied it but now completely restored). We have have promoted the appreciation of Irish piping to such an extent that there are now an estimated 6,000-plus players of the instrument worldwide, from Tokyo to Havana to Kuala Lumpur. A great deal of the credit for these developments must go the Arts Council, which has been supporting us since the 1980s. – Yours, etc,

TERRY MOYLAN,

Archivist,

Na Píobairí Uilleann,

Henrietta Street, Dublin 1.

Sir, – The income gap between those at the bottom of the pay scale and those at the top continues to grow, and it is apparent to all that current systems of wealth redistribution and work incentivisation are failing badly.

Increasing the minimum wage across the board in a small, open economy seems counterproductive. The argument is that if you increase the wages of those at the bottom, you will increase their spending power. Logic dictates that any improvement will be temporary and in the long term damaging to employment prospects. If employers improve the rates of the lowest-paid workers by X, then presumably they must also increase the salaries of workers up the scale by a similar amount to preserve relativity. With the wage bill thus increased, employers must seek to regain competitiveness by either raising prices or cutting costs, and perhaps staff levels. Meanwhile vendors of high-demand items, like rental properties, will be able to charge more. The resultant inflation will quickly cancel out the wages increase, but the effect of making Irish goods and services more expensive internationally will linger, at best restricting growth or at worst resulting in business failures and increased unemployment.

An economy is a complex eco-system in which apparently simple actions have subtle and non-obvious consequences. Surely there must be a cleverer way to help the working poor? – Yours, etc,

JOHN THOMPSON,

Phibsboro, Dublin 7.

Sir, – My two daughters attended their routine dental check-up at their local HSE health clinic three weeks ago without any problems highlighted and I naturally assumed all was fine. However, we have just returned from their annual check-up here in Belgium (as we spend our summers here) and were appalled (and quite frankly embarrassed) to learn they require a half dozen fillings on their permanent teeth! My Belgian dentist was equally appalled on learning that HSE policy was not to fill cavities if there is no pain. One does not need to be a specialist paediatric dentist to know a decayed tooth will soon infect a neighbouring one, and go on to infect another, and so on.

If the HSE wants to run its dental service on a shoestring budget (even as I question the utility of such a service if it is not treating children’s teeth properly) dentists have a duty of care to at least advise parents or guardians that treatment elsewhere should be sought where problems exist. I would strongly recommend to parents to get their kids’ teeth checked privately or to go abroad, as I paid the same dental fees as a Belgian citizen (€7 per filling) under the E111 health scheme which entitles all EU citizens to avail of similar medical services in that country and which is not strictly limited to medical emergencies. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN McGARRY,

Knocklyon, Dublin 16.

Sir, – I read with interest Seán Moran’s article “Cody ungracious to insist on having a final say in the aftermath of latest triumph” (October 1st).

He describes a disinclination to accept rules and their enforcement and effective contempt for objectivity.

This is a great insight into Irish society. You could take out the reference to Gaelic games, and the article could be applied to Irish society and published on your front page. – Yours, etc,

TOM McDONAGH,

Portmarnock,

Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

Following the decapitation of yet another innocent captive, how can the world rely on useless bombing to smoke out a most barbaric sect who are so blatantly getting their way?

We live in a world where corrupt capitalism is ruining the lives of millions. But weak democracies are also bowing down to the heinous crimes perpetrated by the Islamic State (Isil) terrorist group.

For much, much less than that world wars were started. In relatively recent years the military might of the USA, Britain and NATO has been deployed to settle matters in war-plagued territories, in some cases without any “real” motivation. Yet a proper effective reaction to the most inhuman actions ever witnessed seems to be non-existent. What, for example, are the UN doing about it?

One is tempted to think that Isil are getting their sweet revenge after what the Crusaders did in their Islamic countries centuries ago. If so, isn’t this a call for 21st century Crusaders for very, very good reasons?

And, if it takes boots on the ground and not futile bombing, so be it. What are the major powers and the rest of the world’s civilized countries, appalled by these revolting, primitive deeds, waiting for?

Concetto La Malfa, Dublin 4

Universities treating staff badly

The latest Times Higher Education league table finds that most Irish universities have dropped down the league table. One of the causes for this downgrading is perhaps being missed.

There are increasing levels of employee apartheid in many Irish universities. An elite group of staff and senior permanent academics enjoy remuneration and conditions much better than those of part-time, temporary, and hourly-paid staff.

What probably began as a genuine effort to use post-graduate researchers as classroom assistants and tutors – thereby giving them important experience – has been expanded over the past decade. Now, complete modules and undergraduate courses are being taught by temporary, hourly-paid employees. Many of these have PhDs, but are being denied opportunities to gain the permanent employment that their qualifications would justify.

In addition, they are expected to work many hours unpaid work for each paid lecture hour, including several hours of lecture preparation, student guidance, set and correct exams and assessments, attend meetings and other tasks.

Younger academics, in particular, are being exploited, because they feel they have to suffer in silence so as to not endanger their chances of getting permanent status.

When it comes to the treatment of junior and temporary employees, most Irish universities are engaged in a race to the bottom. They are winning that race, at the expense of unjust exploitation of their employees, and decreasing standards of third-level education for their students.

Dr Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Co Limerick

The future of feminism?

My four-year-old granddaughter told me today that she hates all men and boys, which I accepted as a sort of visceral, generic feminism which will be modified as she becomes more discerning.

Later, she told me that she only likes pink things, so I’m wondering if fifth-wave feminism will be pink.

Tom Farrell, Swords, Co Dublin

The basics of confession

Enda Kenny would be unusual nowadays if he had not lapsed from at least some details of the religious practice of his younger years, but surely he remembers the essential components of confession?

His confessor strained to hear him mutter: “Bless me, Paddy, for I have sinned” and was immediately deafened by the proclamation of his now firm purpose of amendment, but that is not enough.

The bit in the middle is indispensable. Canon law requires Paddy to sit through a full and explicit recital of what, exactly, has been done by the penitent, for whom the appropriate posture is not to “put his hand up”, but to kneel down.

Moreover, for a penitent to expect forgiveness he must himself be forgiving – he has to give up giving out about the sins of his predecessors. The man who went up to the temple to pray piously about how he did not sin like those other men was not the one who went back to his house justified.

Frank Farrell, Stillorgan, Co Dublin

Parents and education

“We the leaders of all teachers’ and lecturers’ unions in Ireland and Britain” pose three questions to your readers (Letters, Irish Independent, October 3). “If you had a child or a loved one in school, college or university wouldn’t you prefer them to be taught by qualified, well motivated, well-resourced and societally-appreciated teachers and lecturers?… Can you think of a better way to bring about progressive social change than by the provision of top-quality publicly-funded education?”

Yes, I can! Parents or guardians getting deeply involved in their children’s education and not leaving it up to classroom teachers or administrators or politicians or union leaders to shape their future.

Vincent J Lavery, Dalkey, Co Dublin

New skills can aid relationships

Your report (“Irish people now waiting even longer before they say ‘I do'”, Irish Independent, September 1) illustrates a heartening desire for commitment among couples, but separation and divorce is also a sad reality for many families.

From my experience as a counsellor, many relationships break down unnecessarily because couples do not possess the basic skills to negotiate predictable life challenges, such as the birth of a new baby, redundancy, illness, bereavement, or changes in interests and personality with age.

Our superficial cultural values promise happiness on the basis of appearance, wealth and status, offering little in terms of insight or wisdom about the real-life ups and downs that require maturity, skill and self-awareness to handle successfully.

In fairytales, the story always ends when marriage begins: after overcoming obstacles to meeting, the couple finally come together and inevitably live “happily ever after”.

This myth of a guaranteed future of uninterrupted bliss once we “find the right person” is constantly reinforced by Hollywood. This fictional world gives people no preparation for the humility, compassion, effort and ability to compromise involved in actually making relationships work in the face of all kinds of change, both positive and negative.

Luckily, the skills required are well researched and eminently learnable. I have seen many couples, on the verge of breaking up, rescue their relationship and move forward with renewed commitment and understanding.

I would encourage any couple experiencing difficulties to consider seeing a qualified counsellor before making that final, usually irrevocable, decision to separate.

Maeve Halpin, Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Defence Forces deserve better

News that members of the Defence Forces are sleeping in their cars for want of petrol money and borrowing uniforms for ceremonial occasions is disturbing . Our troops, both those currently risking their lives on the Golan Heights and those at home defending the Republic have been betrayed by government.

The day our Defence Forces carry the can for failed banks and under-pressure property investors is the day an Taoiseach must consider his position.

Cadhla Ni Frithile, Clonard, Wexford

Irish Independent

7 October 2014 Shopping

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day bank, Market, Coop, Post Office, Newsagent.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down rabbit for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Your article Disney earns £170m in UK tax breaks (2 October) fails to acknowledge the contribution the film tax credit makes to the UK economy. Every £1 invested in the tax relief generates £12 for UK GDP. More than £1bn was spent on film production in the UK in 2013; a significant proportion of this was inward investment from productions basing themselves here, attracted by the UK’s tax relief, world-class skills, locations and facilities, and the creativity of our film talent in front of and behind the camera. The tax relief is a life-blood to the UK’s independent sector, which is the engine-room of creativity in British filmmaking. The UK has a competitive edge as a global centre for filmmaking and supports an industry that employs 117,000 people and turns over £7.3bn a year. It is because of film companies like Disney and others that invest in the UK that we are able to support all of these jobs, build our skilled workforce, raise the game of independent British filmmaking and grow the UK’s economy.
Amanda Nevill
Chief executive, BFI

Independent:

Times:

Sir, These days young people tend spontaneously to offer me a seat on the bus. This is at one level encouraging: good manners are not in decline. The shadow-side is the unwelcome confirmation that skinny jeans and a modern haircut don’t allow us septuagenarians to get away with it indefinitely.
The Rev Claire Wilson
London NW3

Sir, Daniel Finkelstein may be right on the narrow point (“Ukip is doomed to be the dead parrot party”, Oct 1) but he misses the wider picture. Ukip is to policy what the catwalk is to fashion: it launches outrageous and populist policies not in expectation that they will be adopted, but in order to watch the mainstream parties manufacture high street versions that are buyable. We will never wear Ukip, but everything on offer at the election will have been influenced by it.
Jane Shaw
Dorking

We are told that “the NHS needs billions of pounds”, yet no-one will recognise that its debt is dwarfed by the amount owed for private finance initiative (PFI) contracts. If the government would take action the deficit would be eliminated overnight. Most PFI contracts have been “rolled up” and sold on and are now in the hands of private equity companies, and are held almost entirely overseas. If the government were to buy back all contracts, at no more than 100th of a penny in the pound, the only ones hurt would be the private equity companies; there is little or no involvement by UK pension funds or shareholders. It would be a major gain for the economy.
M Cohen
Godmanchester, Cambs

Telegraph:

SIR – The European Convention on Human Rights was drafted in 1949-50 by David Maxwell-Fyfe, later home secretary in Churchill’s post-war government. Its principal purpose, he said, was to provide “a beacon to the peoples behind the Iron Curtain, and a passport for their return to the midst of the free countries”.

The convention set out “the minimum standard of democratic government” which they would need to meet in order to rejoin the European family of nations. No one then envisaged major legal changes within democratic Western European countries.

On that basis Churchill expressed strong support for the convention in a speech in Strasbourg in 1949. He endorsed the establishment of a court on the strict understanding that it “would depend for the enforcement of its judgments on the individual decisions of the states now banded together”.

To this original Churchillian vision the whole of Europe now needs to return.

Lord Lexden
London SW1

SIR – You cannot address the European Convention on Human Rights without dealing with the EU. The convention is substantively incorporated in the Lisbon Treaty by virtue of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The treaty provides an opt-out from the charter for Britain and Poland, but academic opinion doubts its effectiveness, were the European Court of Justice (with whose judgments the UK is bound to comply) to test its validity.

David Cameron should add this aspect of our membership of the EU to what should be a long list of issues for reform.

Neil Voyce
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act was passed in 1998. Has speech become freer since then? Is family life more secure? Is the state less intrusive? As another prime minister once said: “No! No! No!”

Joseph B Fox
Redhill, Surrey

Nice is wasting millions on anti-alcohol pills

SIR – The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has proposed that a drug, nalmefene, should be made available to 600,000 moderate drinkers who wish to reduce their intake (report, October 3). Each pill costs £3. If all took up this offer it would increase NHS costs by £675 million a year.

The Nice recommendation is based on a misunderstanding of the available evidence so complete as to be almost comic. There have only been three clinical trials of the drug, and they all produced similar results. The trials were on heavy drinkers, with between 18 and 22 “binge days” per month, who wanted to reduce their dependence. None was from the United Kingdom.

A large minority of the entrants were given an inert pill (placebo), while the remainder took the drug.

The outcomes were unambiguous: all the patients involved reduced their drinking, and there was very little difference between the two “arms”. The drug users reduced their intake by 49.05 grams per month, and those on placebo by 45.58 grams per month.

Other indicators, such as liver function tests, the number of heavy drinking days and so on, were not significantly different. The authors of the trials were suitably cautious about the results. There were a number of cases in which the drug caused unpleasant side effects.

So the only possible conclusion is that if you take an interest in people who drink too much and are worried by it, and give them any pill telling them it might help, they will reduce their alcohol intake and maybe feel a little better, at least for some months.

Nice’s proposal is based on a “health economics” analysis, which ignores the effect of the placebo and any side effects.

It is difficult to believe that Nice could have ever made this proposal, even in draft form, but it appears that it is incapable of evaluating evidence.

Professor G B Arden
London N21

SIR – As the conference season comes to an end, one has little confidence in the political classes. Tories: privileged; Lib Dems: pretentious; Labour: pathetic; Ukip: prejudiced.

6:59AM BST 06 Oct 2014

Comments

Arab countries won’t provide ground forces in Iraq; Britain can’t

7:00AM BST 06 Oct 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole is to be commended (“It’s time the State treated our cultural institutions with respect”, Weekend, October 4th) on actively keeping the plight of the cultural institutions before your readers.

These institutions were at rock bottom in the 1950s (the line of buckets to catch raindrops on wet days along the upper floors of the National Gallery said it all). The reversal of a slow but real upturn from the 1960s is made all the more serious by the proposed replacement of real management boards , themselves instituted a decade ago under the National Cultural Institutions Act of 1997, by mere advisory bodies.

A restoration of civil service management is hardy reassuring, given the record of neglect in the past. There was never over many decades a civil service brief to Ministers on the development of these institutions or their needs. The few bold steps were wholly ministerial in origin – Liam Cosgrave in the early 1970s on archives and Michael D Higgins on the institutions at large in the mid-1990s.

As for the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, under Jimmy Deenihan policy was a mere mantra of private philanthropy coming to the rescue. The Enda Kenny-Heather Humphreys debacle of recent days hardly promises a bright future. – Yours, etc,

Prof LM CULLEN,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – While the vigilance of the Dublin media in preserving artistic standards in public office is to be admired, I have to say that on a recent visit to Donegal I came across some watercolours and some poetry books. I can only assume they were left behind by a holiday visitor from the Pale, whose occupation, be it in law, medicine, theatre, politics, business, etc, fell from the stars and in no way can be traced to family connection or influence. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Firhouse,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – Standards in public life could be given a new lease on life if the public elected members of the Seanad in the manner they elect members of the Dáil. – Yours, etc,

DAN DONOVAN,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – With regards to appointments to State boards, why not allocate say two seats on each board for political appointees? These could be appointed by the relevant minister at their absolute discretion. The remaining board members could be appointed through the public appointments system, and completely independent of the government.

With each change of government the political appointees would tender their resignations, allowing the incoming ministers to replace them if they wished. This approach would clean up the appointments process and introduce transparency, while recognising that all political parties want to retain these appointments as a form of patronage. – Yours, etc,

JOHN O’NEILL,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, –Reading a crime novel by Donna Leon, I was struck by a remark attributed to one of the lead characters: “In the presence of a trough, it is difficult not to oink”. It was mainly Italian politics that she had in mind, I suppose! – Yours, etc,

GERALD MURPHY,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – As you say in your editorial (A temporary measure?) of September 30th, “on no major issue has the Government behaved quite so dishonourably as on the pensions issue”. This is surely correct.

The Government prides itself on the “tough” but necessary decisions it is making for the good of the country – and no doubt the levy, and how tough it was not to keep the promise to terminate it, are part of that story.

Tackling the public service unions next year on their demands for more pay will be a stroll after this.

Since most employers have decided to pass on the full cost of the levy (as prompted by the 2011 Government legislation), the upshot of each extension of the levy is a further cut in pension – for life. What then, should the levy be made permanent? Pensioners and pension scheme members, be very afraid.

The €2.3 billion bite taken from pension funds, far from being a source of Government embarrassment, or reason for ceasing such plunder, is now becoming the very reason for continuing with it.

The reputation of the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, riding high at the moment, might yet be his role in wrecking the private pensions system. Is there no way to stop him?

Has any thought been given to the legality, or constitutionality, of what is going on here? – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL FEENEY,

Churchtown, Dublin 14.

Sir, –Several contributors to your newspaper have remarked on the apparent lack of outrage at the pension levy. Might I suggest the following reasons: private pension holders were already punch-drunk from the far larger “hit” they suffered at the hands of a pensions industry that awards itself some of the fattest fees for some of the worst investment performance on the planet.

Second, I suspect the victims of this heist are from a demographic that prefers its vengeance, well chilled, at election time.

May heaven help any government that attempts to force us into the high-cost, risky, and opaque products that are the stock in trade of this industry under the guise of a compulsory national pension scheme.

If this Government wishes to do something for private pensioners in recompense for this unjust levy, might I suggest the following two reforms in the upcoming budget (in addition to announcing the abolition of the levy): follow the example of the British chancellor and free Irish pension-holders completely from the shackles of increasingly bad-value annuities; and give each taxpayer the option of nominating a single deposit account in a bank or credit union where deposits would enjoy the tax treatment enjoyed by pension investments – on condition the capital could not be accessed until retirement without first returning the avoided tax. – Yours, etc,

PETER MURRAY,

Carrigaline,

Co Cork.

Sir, – Irish Water give as its excuse for demanding our PPS numbers (the kind of confidential information that we are discouraged from giving to anyone) that it needs it to verify how many free allowances to give to each household.

Perhaps logic has deserted me, but I can’t see why a single-person household, claiming only one allowance, needs to supply a PPS number at all. – Yours, etc,

ANNE CLUNE,

Miltown Malbay, Co Clare.

Sir, – Linda McNulty (October 2nd) argues that single occupant households are being discriminated against, in the case of estimated billing. This ignores the fact that there are shared aspects of water consumption where two or more people share a household. As a crude example, a garden will require the same amount of water irrespective of the number of occupants in the household. So an estimated water bill for two should be less than simply twice that for a single person. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CHAPMAN,

Booterstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I see Irish Water will allow its domestic customers to pay for their water by installments. Water on the drip? – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Dalkey,

Sir, – The Housing Agency’s contention that the current minimum apartment sizes set out by Dublin City Council are inhibiting the construction sector should be strongly supported (“Build smaller apartments to tackle shortage, says Housing Agency chief”, Front Page, October 4th).

I would also suggest a reduction in building standards, a ban on costly thermal and sound insulation, an abolition of any building inspections and a rowback on fire safety standards, as these will surely encourage a building boom and create many jobs. Feeding our children less might also mean future generations will fit into even smaller apartments.

If we do not bail out developers who paid too much for land by allowing them to build cheaply, we risk construction profits, the jobs they create and the lobbying power they finance. Are people really going to place having a decent home above jobs? Do they really value their dignity that much?

If the city council refuses to back down, the the developers should sit tight and hold the city to ransom.

I can only be thankful that, regardless of whether Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael hold sway in the Dáil, we are governed by the benevolence of the construction industry – an industry that has so generously added to the architectural riches of the city over the last 25 years. – Yours, etc,

PETER ENNIS,

Rathgar, Dublin 14.

Sir, – Further to your editorial (October 4th) on Minister for Finance Michael Noonan’s options, you should be mindful of the comment by William Cobbett (1763 –1835), the pamphleteer, farmer and journalist: “Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt”.

Messrs Noonan and Howlin could bear this in mind when framing the 2015 budget. – Yours, etc,

BERNARD BROWNE,

Old Ross,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – Regarding Dublin city councillor and former lord mayor Mary Freehill’s recent call for a new and more “inclusive” motto for the city, this prompts the question: who is excluded from the present motto (“Obedientia civium urbis felicitas” – “The obedience of the citizens produces a happy city”)? With its reference to “the citizens” which, presumably, means all the city’s residents, the present motto is as inclusive, in the proper sense of the term, as any conceivable alternative could be. According to herself, even Ms Freehill hasn’t devised a more “inclusive” alternative. The present motto has served Dublin well for over 400 years and is sufficiently fit for purpose to serve it well for another 400. – Yours, etc,

HUGH GIBNEY,

Athboy, Co Meath.

Sir, – I can remember a time when we had no need for a telephone directory. It was not the lack of fast broadband or slow dial-up, it was the lack of a dial – with a telephone attached to it! – Yours, etc,

JOHN K ROGERS,

Rathowen,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – The best possible solution to the glut of new unused telephone directories is to offer a new edition on production of an older edition. The principle of the “money-back bottle” should be alive and well in 2014. – Yours, etc,

SHANE MAWE,

Skerries,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The latest Times Higher Education league table finds that most Irish universities have dropped down the league table. One of the causes for this downgrading is perhaps being missed. There are increasing levels of employee apartheid in many Irish universities. An elite group of staff and senior permanent academics enjoy remuneration and conditions that are in stark contrast with those of part-time, temporary and hourly paid staff.

What probably began as a genuine effort to use postgraduate researchers as classroom assistants and tutors, thereby giving them important experience, has been expanded over the past decade.

Now complete modules and undergraduate courses are being taught by temporary hourly paid employees, many of whom have PhDs, but who are being denied opportunities to gain the permanent employment that their qualifications would justify.

Some of our best researchers and potential university lecturers are being lost to emigration and non-academic employment.

The working conditions of many of these hourly paid teachers include problems such as no access to university office and computer facilities. In addition, they are expected to work many hours unpaid for each paid lecture hour, including several hours of lecture preparation, student guidance, setting and correcting exams and assessments, attending meetings and other administrative tasks.

Younger academics, in particular, are being exploited, because they feel they have to suffer in silence so as not to endanger their chances of getting permanent status.

When it comes to the treatment of junior and temporary employees, most Irish universities are engaged in a race to the bottom. Universities are winning that race, at the expense of unjust exploitation of their employees, and decreasing standards of third-level education for their students. – Yours, etc,

Dr EDWARD HORGAN,

Castletroy,

Limerick.

Sir, – The Helmut Kohl revelations regarding Angela Merkel support my view that our predominately male political leaders are simply not up to the task of dealing with this canny female political operator (“Kohl gives unflattering verdict on Merkel”, World News, October 6th).

Can I suggest that we employ the services of an equally astute Irishwoman to send to EU summits to represent our interests? Perhaps we will then have a chance of getting a real “game changer” debt deal. To date, the men simply haven’t cut it! – Yours, etc,

GILES FOX,

Kilmacud,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – As ever, people died in Ireland last week. I would have thought that among them there were individuals whose lives were interesting enough or important enough (in whatever sense) to have merited being written up in what holds itself to be Ireland’s premier newspaper.

However, your latest page of Obituaries (October 4th) is completely devoted to four people who died in the UK – an army officer, a literary editor, a member of their aristocracy and a music scholar. They would seem to have been chosen not because of international repute, but simply because of some perceived status in British society. I am left wondering about the weighting of your selection criteria. – Yours, etc,

AODH Ó DOMHNAILL,

Greystones,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – At the heart of the European project is the concept of free movement of capital and people. All European governments, bar Ireland and Malta, recognise this by permitting (and in most cases encouraging) their emigrants to vote in general elections.

A friend, born and educated in Rome, tells me his voter registration papers arrive every year from Italy and only his signature is needed to renew his entitlement to vote in elections there. He has been here more than 35 years. – Yours, etc,

JOHN McGURK,

Newmarket,

England.

Sir, – I see we are going to have a referendum on whether to remove a phrase from the Constitution. Can anyone else think of 10 more important issues that should be put to the people before the blasphemy referendum? – Yours, etc,

MP NORRIS,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Irish Independent:

Maeve Halpin’s precise phrasing of the debilitative and disappointing real-politik of modern-day living and struggling relationships, hits a nail on the head. (Letters, October 6).

The shallow and shoddy vacuity of ‘venereal’ wannabeeism, celebritism and hyper-materialistic value systems offer little towards longevity or maturity for close relationships of the satisfyingly lasting kind. Chasing fame, fortune or fallow frippery may initially contrive a gloss of smug achievement, but will merely dissipate into a perennial cycle of emptiness, dashed dreams and so very little in the way of deep contentment.

The pervasive troika-pandemic of ‘virtuality syndrome, cyberism & have-to-have-ism’ coalesce to undermine steadfastness, practical imagination and authentic interpersonal dynamics. Such dynamics have both vagary and vicissitude as life-long bedfellows. Dwelling and struggling in the mire of friction, frisson and ‘fraughtability’ is grist to the mill of an enduring intimacy.

The natural strains, tensions and differentiated aspirations of individual partners within a dyad of shared living are challenging. Eventually, however, such challenges are (mostly) enriching, enlightening and transformative when addressed, processed and resolved.

Whether this needs a professional to process is a moot point. The patient, personal discipline to prevail through the dark (hopefully occasional) labyrinthes of conflict, is a part of real-life living together. No ‘happy-ever-after’ in sight.

“This fictional world gives people no preparation for the humility, compassion, effort and ability to compromise involved in making relationships work in the face of all kinds of change, both positive and negative.” Such sentiments should be roundly and regularly flagged throughout our early developing lives, to prepare for the fray of ‘day-to-day’.

Ms Halpin is right on the money to give the ‘negative’ equal status as the ‘positive’. Such is simply a real-life appraisal, but we needn’t, of course, aspire to wallow in the negative. Living through it with sentient aforethought is a valid recipe for success, where we can also revel in all the positive ‘ups’ which can regularly abound.

Let’s not allow ourselves to be suckered into the fallacies of unrealistic positivity, which will always disappoint and fail. A warm, practical ‘meso-melancholy’ of balanced acceptance, peppered with highs, as well as (some) lows, might be an optimum realism, affording a truly successful, authentic togetherness.

There is no handy ‘app’ to substitute for same!

Patrick J Cosgrove

Lismore, Co Waterford

Law needed on cyberbullying

The increasing occurrence of cyberbullying – not just in schools – cries out for legislation that will be effective in stemming the advance of this sickening trend, rescuing the victims from the bullies and the bullies from themselves. Reports have recommended that legislation under the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act should be amended to provide for an offence of cyberbullying. However, this is slow in coming.

Bullying springs from low self-esteem that festers away behind a facade of bluster and bravado. The achievements of others are seen as a threat, so are confronted by instigating a programme of humiliation and the orchestration of a hate campaign.

A crucial task for the bully is to silence the victim, doing so by threat or by the intensification of the abuse.

The relentless attempt to destroy the chosen target has even led to the victim’s suicide in some tragic cases.

Those who bullied at school tend to continue the practice into their adult lives as a result of a persistent low estimate of their capabilities, failing to see that the real enemy is the enemy within that eats away at their confidence in themselves.

The greatest gift to the cyberbully is anonymity. The experience of freedom from detection creates a vicious world where bullying becomes almost recreational, on the assumption that the victims have no real redress, though there is redress – albeit inadequate – through the legislation relating to defamation and harassment. It is in the interest of all of us to identify the abusers and confront them with the seriousness of their behaviour. The excuse of “I was only joking” is a disingenuous attempt to suggest that the dramatic impact of bullying has its source in the victim’s over-sensitivity.

Appropriate legislation cannot come soon enough so that the perpetrators, not the victims, pay the price of this pernicious practice.

Philip O’Neill

Edith Road, Oxford

Taoiseach should meet soldiers

The 44th Infantry Group return to Ireland from their tour of duty on the Golan Heights in Syria this week. These Irish troops have had a stressful deployment and have engaged in a number of fire-fights with armed anti-regime groups – including groups associated with al-Nusra and al-Qaeda.

The 44th Infantry Group also rescued – under fire – a contingent of Filipino Peacekeepers from their besieged UN positions. The Irish people ought to be proud of their service and as examples of positive Irish citizenship in a troubled world.

I would ask that Taoiseach Enda Kenny meet these soldiers on return from their overseas service.

At a time when we organise civic receptions for returning football and rugby teams, an official reception for our peacekeeping troops is the least our government could do for them and their families.

This is especially so at a time – against a backdrop of crony-ism and toxic politics – when we as a nation are seeking to focus on genuine public service and true citizenship.

Dr Tom Clonan,Captain (Retired)

Booterstown, Co Dublin

Water charges inevitable

There are conflicting views on the introduction of water charges.

On various radio programmes presenters fail to explain that supply of water should never have been free to users. It is the public perception that because rain or river water is free that it should arrive in your home miraculously.

They fail to recognise that water must be captured, cleaned, distributed and the waste must be piped, distributed, cleansed and disposed.

The user is happy to pay for bottled water. Why? Simplistic solutions to national supply are immature and unworthy of their promoters.

Sean McCool

Address with editor

Boarding school blues

“Terror mixed with homesickness meant I cried myself to sleep, night after night” (Irish Independent, Weekend Review, October 4).

As a very young boy, Ivan Yates was sent to a boarding school in Bray.

As a very young boy I was sent to a boarding school in Dublin.

Every detail of Ivan’s boarding school misery I can relate to.

I congratulate Ivan Yates. His very courageous book – ‘Full On’ – deserves to be read.

Brian McDevitt,

Glenties, Co Donegal

Ireland’s waist problem

I find it strange that Liam Fay (October 5) should have a problem with the “corpulent poor”, as I think of he were just to make a little effort and look around in this country alone he should have no problem seeing lots of politicians, bankers, rich business men and women with rather expanded waistlines and double chins!

Gemma Hensey

The Quay, Westport, Co Mayo

Irish Independent

8 October 2014 Rain

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day Coop, Post Office, Newsagent.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down gammon for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

‘We urge Hong Kong residents to express their views in a peaceful manner,’ says Chih-Kung Liu of the Taipei representative office in the UK. Photograph: unclesiu/GuardianWitness

Your report (30 September) is correct in its analysis of how we in Taiwan perceive the situation in Hong Kong. While it is true the people of Taiwan empathise with the people of Hong Kong in their struggle for democracy, it must be stressed that Taiwan is not Hong Kong and the “one country, two systems” formula has no bearing on Taiwan – a country ruled by its own sovereign government. As the report notes, Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, has clearly stated that we in Taiwan do not accept the concept.

Taiwan has had universal suffrage for quite some time and each time we hold an election many of our Hong Kong friends come to observe the proceedings. We understand and support the Hong Kong people’s demand for universal suffrage. As Hong Kong is an extremely important global financial centre, any political turmoil there will impact not only Asia but the entire world. So we urge the mainland Chinese authorities to listen carefully to the demands of the Hong Kong people and adopt a peaceful and cautious approach. At the same time, we urge Hong Kong residents to express their views in a peaceful manner. We do not wish to see any conflict. Observers outside Hong Kong hope that it will gradually move towards democracy. We believe that, if a system of universal suffrage can be realised there, both Hong Kong and mainland China would benefit.
Chih-Kung Liu
Taipei representative office in the UK 

• Our hearts must go out to the people of Hong Kong. It’s a travesty of democracy when voters are required to choose between, in the words of pro-democracy campaigner Martin Lee, “a rotten orange, a rotten apple and a rotten banana” (Report, 1 October). We must do all we can to ensure the people of Hong Kong can have the kind of genuine political choices we enjoy in the – er, UK.
Andy Croft
Ripon, North Yorkshire

Independent:

Times:

Sir, Proposals for restructuring the EU executive by Jean-Claude Juncker, president-elect of the European Commission, would weaken EU nature protection measures, a matter that I have raised with environment minister George Eustice. Under the flag of reform, Mr Juncker is focusing on deregulation and has asked for a review of all major EU environmental measures. His request does not mention the need to achieve full implementation of existing EU environmental objectives, let alone any new initiatives. The government would be well advised to exert all its efforts to defeat Mr Juncker’s retrograde proposals.
Stanley Johnson
London NW1

Sir, Now that former Ikea boss Mikael Ohlsson is joining Tesco (Business, Oct 7), does this mean I will have to assemble my ready meals myself, using wordless diagrams, only to find out that two potatoes are missing?
Mike Parfitt
London SW20

Telegraph:

6:57AM BST 07 Oct 2014

Comments

6:58AM BST 07 Oct 2014

Comments

6:59AM BST 07 Oct 2014

Comments

7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – Hospital referrals are in the news again with the accusation that the HSE is manipulating the waiting list data (“Varadkar denies waiting lists are being manipulated to meet targets”, October 7th).

So-called “waiting list validation” is important when managing limited health resources, however the real issue is how this is achieved when you are dealing with vulnerable groups of patients.

Is the HSE aware that approximately one tenth of the population is functionally illiterate and an indeterminate proportion rely on advocates, eg family, neighbours, home helps, etc, when accessing even the most basic of healthcare?

The strategies used by hospital management to manipulate the figures are well rehearsed but one of the many problems encountered by GPs in the southeast is a volume of referrals that are marked “deflect”, a term used by one Dublin teaching hospital to return referrals to the GP on the pretext that they are “out of area”. How many of these referrals are in this “no man’s land” on the way back to GPs is unknown. These patients are usually re-referred to a hospital in another part of the country, usually more distant than the original hospital and usually involving significant inconvenience to all concerned.

GPs use a number of strategies to access care for their patients and commonly refer patients to a number of hospitals for the same health problem in the hope rather than the expectation that they will be seen in a timely fashion. We also send “expedite letters” in their thousands every year at the request of patients and relatives, even if the clinical situation remains unchanged.

Chronic under-resourcing and cutbacks at the gatekeeper stage of the referral are at the heart of this issue. GPs get a derisory 2 per cent of the health budget as opposed to 10 per cent in the UK.

The voracious appetite of the hospital sector ensured that general practice sustained a disproportionate cut in funding to feed the “monster” that is the hospital sector over the past six years. This is compounded by a medical staffing crisis across the board which is steadily getting worse.

There has never been a supplementary budget for general practice, unlike the hospital sector where this annual tradition is part of the credo. It is now time to resource GPs and allow them to commission care for their patients by giving them control of a defined budget.

It takes vision and courage to effect change for our patients but why not start with a little honesty and transparency when it comes to activity levels, or indeed inactivity levels, in health? – Yours, etc,

Dr WILLIAM LYNCH,

Enniscorthy Medical Centre,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – It is with utter disbelief I learned that the national broadcaster will be ceasing to broadcast RTÉ Radio 1 on longwave from the end of October 2014.

Having lived in Scotland for the past 16 years, I have grown very fond of listening to RTÉ Radio 1 on my commute to and from work every morning. On a Saturday it is Saturday Sport with Des Cahill, a fantastic show followed by Sunday Sport throughout the summer. Listening to fantastic commentary from around the island of Ireland and beyond is wonderful. I know that I am not alone in using longwave to listen to RTÉ radio; several of my friends also tune into longwave regularly, keeping in touch with the news and sport from home.

I don’t have digital radio in my car in Dundee, nor do I imagine does half the population of west Kerry, the Dingle Peninsula, Inishmore or Glencolmcille.

Of course 96 per cent of the population of the island of Ireland can receive RTÉ Radio 1 on FM or digital radio, but do they have the technology to do so?

I believe this to be a short-sighted decision by RTÉ. – Yours, etc,

FINBARR McCARTHY,

Dundee,

Scotland.

Sir, – For a large number Irish emigrants in Britain, RTÉ radio is their primary source of news and cultural contact with Ireland. Longwave radio broadcasts provide a cheap, reliable and, yes, mobile means of access via a portable radio. Hard as it might be to believe for those in the media, most older people feel excluded by the rush towards a hi-tech digital future. A couple of years ago the UK government and the BBC were forced to abandon a plan to cease all analogue radio broadcasts by a huge public outcry. RTÉ seems to have pushed through a cut to this service (transmitting to Britain since 1926) as a false economy. The service is actually a cheap way to project Ireland’s authentic voice into Britain and helps to foster regular visits to Ireland through cultural outreach.

I don’t know what consultation with the Irish in Britain was carried out before making this short-sighted decision but I’m asking for common sense to prevail and for it to be rescinded, or at least delayed until further research is done. Almost no-one I’ve spoken to here about the ending of LW 252 approves of it. Surely digital can go hand in hand with analogue to provide an important service for a small but significant part of the Irish diaspora here. – Yours, etc,

CHRIS CLEGG,

Lancashire.

Sir, – When I spoke with RTÉ regarding the longwave shutdown, I was told that their priority was to shut down the longwave service first and think about the replacement later. There is a precedent that shows that RTÉ may take their time on this. Tara TV, the overseas television service, was unilaterally shut down by RTÉ in 2002. Some 12 years have passed and as yet no replacement has been announced. Like much of Official Ireland, RTÉ appear to regard the diaspora as a cash cow waiting to be milked rather than an integral part of the Irish nation. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD LOGUE,

Mill Hill, London.

Sir, – John Thompson (October 6th) seeks a cleverer way to help the working poor and points out the problems of seeking wealth redistribution simply by increasing minimum wages. It seems to me that if we accept that the current and growing income gap between top and bottom earners is unhealthy and dangerous to society, we should look at reducing maximum wages.

There have been suggestions that employers be precluded from paying top earners anything from 10 to 40 times more than the lowest-paid earners in their organisation.

These suggestions take no account of the varying sizes of organisations or of the possibilities of contracting out functions such as cleaning to low-pay firms and high-grade functions to self-employed consultants.

I would like to suggest the introduction of a social cohesion tax. It could contribute to improving the situation and would apply to the public, private and voluntary sectors. It would not preclude other taxation measures, such as taking more low earners out of the income tax net, increasing the level at which middle-income earners pay the present higher rate of income tax, introduction of a financial transaction tax or introduction of a more sophisticated form of wealth tax than the present property and inheritance taxes.

The social cohesion tax would be a very high rate of tax on very high incomes, to commence at a multiple of the minimum wage. Very high earners would be encouraged to support increases in the minimum wage as any improvement would enable them to keep more income out of the social cohesion tax bracket. With a minimum wage of €15,000 a year and a multiple of 40, the very high rate (say 70 to 80 per cent) would start at €600,000 a year. With a multiple of 30, the start would be at €450,000 a year. The multiple could be reduced over time.

All taxes pay for community services. Some taxes also have social engineering features; high taxes on tobacco encourage a healthier lifestyle.

The social cohesion tax is meant to encourage social cohesion. I would not expect it to succeed overnight and I recommend that a first call on funds raised would be to close loopholes in the system. – Yours, etc,

IRENE ALLEN,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – The recent inquest in Sligo on the tragic death of Dhara Kivlehan has focused attention again on shortfalls in the provision of intensive care beds in Ireland. In a 2012 survey, Ireland had 6.5 beds per 100,000 population, while the average in Europe was 11.5. Inevitably, our intensive care units (ICUs) run at 100 per cent bed occupancy and delays like that experienced by Mrs Kivlehan are routine.

There have been calls for a review of intensive care provision and needs. A comprehensive review has already been commissioned by the HSE and it reported in 2009. This was undertaken by Prospectus and entitled “Towards Excellence in Critical Care: Review of Adult Critical Care Services in the Republic of Ireland”. It recommended 418 critical care beds for existing requirements; we currently have only 233.

Delays in accessing intensive care are immediately life-threatening. These delays and treatment in sub-optimal settings are an everyday occurrence for the critically ill patients we treat. An increase in intensive care bed numbers to the level recommended by Prospectus is required to be able to provide immediate care for all those who need it. – Yours, etc,

R DWYER,

President,

I HAYES,

Vice President,

Intensive Care

Society of Ireland,

Merrion Square North,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Further proof, if any was needed, that Fine Gael and Labour have no intention of stopping the country sliding even further back into the practices of the last government is the revelation that, in the midst of a scandal about cronyism at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan didn’t even blush at reappointing Michael Soden and Des Geraghty as members to the Central Bank Commission quango (“Soden and Geraghty reappointed to Central Bank Commission for five-year terms”, October 6th).

Is it not remarkable that the Minister for Finance doesn’t seem to have thought for a moment that it was time to get fresh faces around the Central Bank Commission table?

Did no one in the department think it would be worthwhile to advertise the positions to see who might apply?

It’s long past the point where a light was shone on the day to day management of the Department of Finance and the areas under its remit. – Yours, etc,

DESMOND FitzGERALD,

Canary Wharf,

London.

Sir, – Does Roy Keane’s autobiography really warrant front-page treatment in your newspaper (October 7th)? Do we need to know the details of who said what, to whom, and using what language? Is there nothing more important to discuss until Mr Keane is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature? – Yours, etc,

JB de VILLENEUVE,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Yet another book on Roy Keane, and there I was just recovering from the nationwide news of Twink’s dog going missing.

I don’t know if my heart can take much more excitement. – Yours, etc,

OLIVER DUFFY,

Bishopstown,

Cork.

Sir, – Instead of talking to the Electrical Power Research Institute in the US about the problems of connecting solar electricity to the grid, why doesn’t ESB Networks talk to its counterparts in the UK about how easy it is (“Smart power to revolutionise future use of electricity”, Innovation. October 4th)?

There, over the past 15 years, over 250,000 solar energy systems have been installed, mainly in domestic or farm settings, for a total of 3,400 MW. In addition the solar electricity suppliers are paid over £0.13 for each unit of electricity generated as well as £0.05 for each unit exported to the power grid. In Belgium, with a smaller solar yield than Dublin, over 3,000 MW are installed whereas in all of Ireland we have less than 1 MW! – Yours, etc,

GERARD WRIXON,

Kinsale,

Co Cork.

Sir , – Laura Kennedy writes (“The Yes Woman: Vegan for a week and hungry the entire time”, October 3rd) that she tried a vegan diet for a week, was hungry all the time, experienced intense cravings for meat, had intensely negative emotions towards vegetarians and vegans and ended the week by going for a steak.

As a vegetarian for the past 34 years I feel qualified to comment on this article. A vegetarian and indeed a vegan diet is infinitely varied; for a person who eats in this way there is a vast choice of healthy foodstuffs. Ancient and advanced civilisations lived long and healthy lives, free from animal slaughter, respecting and honouring the lives of their fellow creatures.

A meat-centred diet for society has many far-reaching consequences. In Diet for a Small Planet, written in 1971, Frances Moore Lappe pointed out that an acre of cereals can produce five times more protein than an acre devoted to meat production; legumes 10 times more; and leafy vegetables (spinach) 15 to 20 times more. The sustainability of feeding grain to livestock to produce meat for human food, when much of the world is starving, is not sustainable. Much less so when vast tracts of rainforest are felled to produce soya farms to feed livestock.

Loss of this carbon-sink is irreplacable and, coupled with the fact that methane produced from the vast numbers of animals reared for human consumption contribute more to global warming than motor vehicles, it is now time to consider what it is that we put on our plate.

As for animal welfare, many creatures are reared and slaughtered in cruel conditions, with many such animals never seeing the natural light of day. Many health professionals now recognise that a meat-centred diet contributes to many of the serious diseases afflicting modern society. George Bernard Shaw, a lifelong vegetarian, described this as mankind digging their own graves with their knives and forks.

If Ms Kennedy has been bred and sustained on a diet of meat all her life, it is understandable that when she abstains for a week that she will have cravings, much as the abstainer from alcohol, cigarettes or sugar does. And so it is that she goes for a steak. If she tried for a little longer she might acquire a higher taste.

As a thinking journalist she might also consider some of the issues touched upon above, which underpin the substance on the end of her fork (the flesh of a dead bullock), before she puts it in her mouth. This will take courage. – Yours, etc,

GABRIEL TOOLAN,

Ballinamore,

Co Leitrim.

Sir, – I have just read the article by Arminta Wallace inside the back cover of the Magazine accompanying the photograph of George Patrick Leitch (September 27th). She quotes Jack McManus as saying that George called his wife “Bates”, which may have been her maiden name. That is not so. He called her “Bets”, and I don’t know where that came from. Her maiden name was Sicily R Allen. At one time she acted with the Father Matthew Players, who were happy to welcome protestant actors. Her father was Maj George L Allen, who for some 30 years was registrar of the School of Physic in Trinity College Dublin.

In the 1930s, George Leitch used the small son of one of his wife’s sisters as a subject for amusing photographs at certain times of year. They illustrated putting back the clock in the autumn, bringing home the Christmas presents, and cleaning the chimney for Santa. That small boy still has prints of the original photographs.

How do I know all this? The small boy’s name was Dudley Levistone Cooney. – Yours, etc,

DUDLEY

LEVISTONE COONEY ,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin

Sir, – I don’t agree with Hugh Gibney (October 7th) that there is no good reason why we should change our motto , “The obedience of the citizens produces a happy city ”. Who are the citizens obeying? Shelley was more accurate, “The man of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys”. – Yours, etc,

MATTIE LENNON,

Blessington, Co Wicklow.

A chara, – I agree with Hugh Gibney. Some disinclination to accept rules and their enforcement – probably due to historical reasons in this country – displays effective contempt for good citizenship. It is damaging, antisocial and results in an unhappy city. – Is mise,

S O’CUINN,

An Charraig Dhubh,

Átha Cliath.

Sir, – Pensioners are the big winners of the past eight years, airily proclaims Fiona Reddan (“Your Money”, October 7th).

To which I can only reach for the words of Pyrrhus to his generals after the battle of Asculum in 279 BC: “Another victory like that gentlemen, and we are done for.” – Yours, etc,

KIERAN FAGAN,

Killiney, Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

The report from the expert group on discretionary medical cards (Irish Independent, October 3, 2014) states that such cards should continue to be means tested, and that it is not practical to issue them on the basis of defined medical conditions.

Rubbish! And Professor John Crown agrees with me – the experts “should try harder”, he said, commenting on the report in on RTE’s ‘Six One’ on October 3.

Currently, there is one application form which everyone completes. This requests income details. The vast majority of medical cards are issued because the applicant’s income is below the limit. Those who are over the limit but have health issues have to argue their case for a “discretionary” card on the form and may enclose relevant documentation with their application.

This year, the removal of discretionary cards from sick people to save money became a national issue and affected local election results – hence the ‘expert’ group.

Why not have a second application form that does not ask about income? Call it the medical need medical card. The form would be drawn up by medical professionals with input from, say, a carer for a long-term sick person who would understand the costs of being ill. The medical team dealing with the applicant would complete the form and have to state in their professional opinion (1) that the card was needed in view of the health of the applicant and (2) after how many years a medical review should be made.

A sick person would have the security of knowing that he/she had the card at least for the period specified by their doctor. In my own case, my very sick husband was issued with a discretionary medical card after a long battle but it was then reviewed 11 months later, when it was known he had a late cancer diagnosis. Another fight ensued to save his card, during which I became ill with the stress of dealing with the HSE.

I made a submission to the expert group on the above lines. It obviously didn’t impress them, that’s assuming they even read it?

Enid O’Dowd

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Give Bono the Finance post

There’s a Budget coming up shortly and there will, of course, be the usual grinding of teeth, the who is right, and the who is wrong.

Why may I ask has no one bothered yet or considered to ask Bono to become our Finance Minister? Just take a look at his CV – not an ounce of cronyism anywhere.

Did Bono not single-handedly get the banks to write debts off for the underprivileged countries of the world?

If he could do that for them, what would he do for us, besides singing?

If we wait any longer, you know it’s going to be too late. The next thing you’ll hear is he’s living in Rome. Yes you’ve guessed it: Pope Bono, it even sounds right.

He’ll bring the teenagers of the world back to religion, so much so that you’ll have to pay to get into Mass on a Sunday.

Go out to Killiney, in Dublin, and ask him if he’ll take the job as Finance Minister. You know how well he manages his own finances.

Ask him, while you’re at it, if he’ll take over Irish Water as well. The people of the world will beg us to sell them some of Bono’s own water.

Fred Molloy

Clonsilla, Dublin 15

No incentive left to save

Far more important than the cronyism scandal at the ‘top’, is the shocking treatment dished out by banks and the Government on ordinary people putting a few bob away for the rainy day.

It’s hard to imagine some banks are paying as little as 0.01pc interest – a before tax return of just 10 cent for lodging €1,000 for one year. Think of the massive Deposit Interest Retention Tax (DIRT) of 41pc on top of that and you quickly realise the hypocrisy.

Where is the balancing act when the same banks charge 4.5pc upwards on money borrowed for mortgages or other uses?

Is this how these vampires should treat ordinary savers or taxpayers who indirectly bailed them out for billions less than six years ago, when their bad housekeeping caused the collapse of the banks?

The Government can also bow its head in shame. Interest on six of the State’s savings products, sold through An Post, has had a fourth cut in less than two years. This reduction means that €10,000 invested in State Saving Bonds will now return just €83 a year, down from €132.

Surely the Exchequer has the power to bolster these rates, or at least maintain them – since the ECB has slashed its lending rate to almost zero (0.01pc)! This is another kick in the rear to ordinary people who have been burdened with more than their share in taxes over the past year.

James Gleeson

Thurles, Co Tipperary

Getting teeth into flouride row

I am incensed at Sarah Carey’s implication that working class people are incapable of brushing their teeth properly with a flouride toothpaste, available from grocery retailers for about 50-90 cent (‘Removing flouride from our water just indulges middle class liberals, Irish Independent, October 6, 2014). I also am enraged by her patronising assumption that all working class people eat dreadful, sugar-filled diets resulting in dental cavities.

I am a working class person and have drunk spring water all my life. At 50, I still enjoy chewing a balanced diet with my own teeth.

Eileen O’Sullivan

Bray, Co Wicklow

The real birth of Christ

Christmas seems to be assaulting the senses even earlier each year, as media outlets vie to promote the season as soon as the summer months begin to wane.

‘Christmas’ or ‘Christ’s Mass’ is the celebration of Christ’s birth in the western hemisphere, whereas the eastern and orthodox churches mark it on January 7. So who is correct?

By the fourth century, as Jews played a lesser part in the church’s affairs, the celebration by non-Jewish (or Gentile) Christians of the “Mass of Christ” to mark the birth of Jesus now became the norm as the congregations became increasingly Gentile.

This distanced the church from Jewish teaching and the significance of the Biblical feasts that Jesus celebrated. One such feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, known as ‘Sukkot’ in Hebrew, meaning ‘booths’ or ‘tents.’

This recalls the Exodus of the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt into the Promised Land and lived for 40 years in makeshift dwellings. When this celebration falls in September/October, Jewish homes around the world are decorated much in the way Christians decorate their homes for Christmas.

One factor that is overlooked by both Jew and Gentile is that this feast may well be the true birth date of Jesus Christ. From my own studies, I believe Yeshua (Jesus) was born on the first day of Tabernacles, or ‘Sukkot’. Tabernacles this year begins on ’15th Tishrei’. This means Yeshua’s birthday falls on Thursday, October 9.

Colin Nevin

Bangor, Co Down

Price we pay for our politics

It seems the Fine Gael “toe-the-line-dancers” are completely out of step. As Enda attempts to choreograph the ‘FG Hokey Cokey’ – ‘You put your right pal in . . .’ – political parties wonder why they fail to attract young people into their ranks.

More than 2,300 years ago, Plato proclaimed: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”. Just goes to prove, nothing changes.

Sean Kelly

Tramore, Co Waterford

Irish Independent

9 October 2014 Jill

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day Coop, Post Office, Newsagent. Jill comes to call

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down duck for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

In his conference speech David Cameron complained about the criticism of his NHS policy by the Labour Party. These crocodile tears do not bear scrutiny.

The commercialisation of the NHS, although started by Labour, has been taken to extremes under the Coalition. The public have made clear that the NHS should be free at the point of delivery and provided by organisations working for the public good, not private profit. The profit motive does not best serve the sick, as several failed eye operations, the collapse of out-of-hours care contracts and the employment of poorly qualified doctors with little grasp of English demonstrate.

The devolution of control to largely autonomous trusts and commissioning groups has led to priorities being set by the market and the media, which is not the same as the public good.

Pete Rowberry

Saxmundham, Suffolk

A very sick child required frequent attendances at the local hospital. His parents were well educated and well-to-do. The father was sufficiently articulate and assertive to attain high political office. The family was well known, so it was in everyone’s interest to move them out of the waiting area as soon as possible.

The parlous state of NHS finances exacerbates the fact that its defining competition is between patients for resources. Each of the characteristics listed above enhances competitiveness to the point that such a family will trounce anyone else in the emergency department, which is why the Prime Minister’s experience, emotively described at his party conference, cannot be seen as epitomising access to the service.

As well as individuals competing, policy decisions simply adjust the competitiveness of different groups; waiting list targets made patients scheduled for elective operations more competitive than before. Patients with mental illness consequently moved down the pecking order. Patients with cancer were not competitive until the late 1990s. Those whose cancers present with ambiguous symptoms remain relatively uncompetitive in access to diagnostic tests.

As the financial state worsens, social and economic inequalities increase as the less competitive in society lose out.

Dr S Michael Crawford

Consultant Medical Oncologist, Airedale General Hospital, West Yorkshire

Senior health service managers have warned that unless NHS funding is increased, charging for bed and board may become necessary (report, 7 October). Before this should even be considered, perhaps NHS managers should start making decisions about which services they are going to fund in the first place.

The NHS spends between £4m and £12m a year on homeopathy. This is despite the fact that the principles on which it is based are scientifically implausible (that illnesses can be treated by substances that produce similar symptoms, if that substance is massively diluted until little or none of it remains), and that comprehensive reviews of all the available evidence have repeatedly shown that homeopathy simply does not work.

The Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee, after a comprehensive review of the evidence in 2010, recommended that the Government stop funding homeopathy. The current Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has also expressed surprise that the NHS continues to fund homeopathy. Yet the Government seems happy to continue funding a “therapy” which is no more than a placebo.

A saving of between £4m and £12m a year might seem a drop in the ocean compared to the size of the overall NHS funding gap, but every little helps.

Jo Selwood

Oxford

What is the point of all these pledges? Before the election in 2010 David Cameron gave a solemn promise not to allow any major changes in the NHS while he was Prime Minister. A few days after the election his Minister of Health told us he had been planning for seven years “the biggest upheaval in the health service since its inception”.

Cameron had talked of his dead son and spoken with sincerity and passion. I believed him. Never again.

Margaret Tuckwell

Highworth, Wiltshire

A peace deal for the Falklands

Grace Dent (7 October) believes that for the sake of peace we should hand the Falklands over to Argentina, putting the Falkland Islanders under the thumb of their enemies; would they also consider it a peaceful resolution?

The Scottish referendum has just demonstrated to the world the UK’s adherence to the right to self-determination, a fundamental principle under international law.

Michael Gilbert

Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Grace Dent is correct in condemning Jeremy Clarkson for his war jibe and deserves praise for her goodwill gesture towards Argentina.

Detailed history of events between about 1770 and 1833 demonstrates that the islands did belong to Argentina until usurped by Britain in 1833.

As it was not the time to transfer ownership in 1982 to a military government, it is certainly not the time to do so now to the most corrupt government ever, but the islands should be handed over at the first opportunity.

Robert Laver

London SE21

Why export the Premier League?

I believe your football editor, Glenn Moore, does the game a disservice by supporting the idea of playing Premier League games abroad.

He feels football should follow the example of the American sports that have staged games in London, like the recent NFL game at Wembley, but these sports are not “global” ones, just seeking to become so. Football, on the other hand, is already the most “global” of all sports and has no need of an impetus from the Premier League to expand.

As a general principle, I see no reason why a domestic league in a global sport needs to go “global”. When does “just one game” become two, or four, or more? And how long before “franchising” is mooted as per the American model?

Paul Dawson

Harpenden, Hertfordshire

Prisoners won’t get the vote

Like Andrew Bruckland (letter, 7 October), I can’t get hot under the collar about the prospect of certain prisoners having the right to vote. His parting shot that this might “even increase turnouts” is unfortunately the reason why it will never happen.

The prison service is in crisis, and those who are at the sharp end, the prisoners, have little or no say about it – they do not have the vote and they can safely be ignored.

If even a handful of the inmates of prisons were entitled to vote then sitting and prospective MPs would have to listen to their new constituents. In marginal seats containing one of the new super-prisons, the “prisoner vote” might even be worth courting.

John Orton

Bristol

‘British values’ laid down by the UN

This year the Government is requiring schools to actively promote “British values”, defined as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”.

Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that education must be directed to, inter alia, “the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin”, to respect for human rights and the principles of the UN Charter, as well as to the national values of the country in which the child is living.

It is surely therefore essential that the values are presented as standards expected across the international community.

John Eekelaar

Emeritus Fellow,  Pembroke College,  Oxford

Rachel Taylor

Fellow in Law, Exeter College, Oxford

Remember Isis, goddess of affection

Why do we keep allowing Isis to change the way we name it? Every time it has a change of ambition, it changes its name. It is yanking our chain. Isis was a female god of affection, and fruitfulness. Surely this is a good name to have?

JPC Bannerman

Bristol

Seasonal disorder

My local branch of Marks & Spencer is, in the first week of October, selling not only hot cross buns, but also rotating musical Christmas trees. Which is the more inappropriate?

Mark Wilkinson

London SW18

Passport to happiness

The Passport Office has come in for a lot of flak recently, so let me record that I have today received my passport just five working days after applying. A great service!

Beverley Southgate

London NW

Times:

Sir, Confronting Isis, preparing for ebola, keeping the lights on. We face complex threats. Then in Weather Eye (Oct 7) I read that, “all the high arctic is experiencing some of the highest rates of climate warming on Earth” and I hear a fuse burning quietly a long way off.
James Shillady
London SW15

Sir, A Dutch report says that cars produce harmful emissions at six times those claimed (“Speed limit cut to reduce pollution”, Oct 8). This is irrelevant in the case of the proposed 60mph limit on the new A556 road in Cheshire; a car can be efficient at 60mph or 70mph. Many well-driven cars will be more efficient at 70mph.
John Ratcliffe
Cavendish, Suffolk

Sir, I wonder whether a driver of a battery-electric vehicle with zero tailpipe emissions would escape prosecution for driving at 70mph on this stretch of new road?
Dan Wild
Malvern Hills Electric Automobile Association

Sir, I read Mike Atherton’s article with interest (“Kevin Pietersen’s latest version of truth tries to deadhead Andy Flower again”, Oct 6). Mr Atherton was, as always, balanced, but to me KP is one of those people who believe they are always a victim. Such self-pity makes megabucks nowadays — but I won’t be adding to that.
Colin Brown
Wells, Somerset

Sir, What an unexpected pleasure it was, while attempting the crossword (Oct 8), to be able to doodle all over Kevin Pietersen.
Patricia Heath
Warwick

Sir, I was interested to read that the world wide web is celebrating 25 years since its invention (Law, Oct 7). In the short film Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham (vimeo.com/67995288, password: Baim88), Mr Savalas says: “The library, which houses Europe’s largest collection of Shakespeare, has online computer searching service with access to 100 databanks from Italy all the way to California.” Is this the first description on film of the web? The film was shot in 1979.
Richard Jeffs
The Baim Collection

Telegraph:

6:56AM BST 08 Oct 2014

Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – First of all let me declare my interest – none. I bought my home at the top of the market, I am very happy with it and plan to exit advised by an undertaker, not an estate agent!

Despite my purchase history, I regard myself as reasonably intelligent, but am baffled as to the quality of thinking behind the recent Central Bank proposals. As I understand it, if I wanted to buy a €300,000 house I would need a €60,000 deposit, ignoring practicalities such as furniture. My mortgage payment would be €1,300 per month over 25 years. Assuming my rent is €650 a month – and I can save the difference versus my €1,300 mortgage – it would take me eight years to save the deposit.

The only option to buy would seem to be gifts from relatives. Is this a plot to ensure affordable housing for the existing elite, keeping down those with just hard work on their side? We need to have practical, imaginative solutions that work in the long term.

I appreciate it is easier to criticise than propose, but really, is this the best we can come up with? – Yours, etc,

AIDAN WALDRON,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – “Wanted” – buy to let landlords. “Not wanted” – first-time buyers, young people, non-middle class, non-upper class, non-single people. Who are the new rules going to serve? – Yours, etc,

ANNE O’SHEA,

Ballycullen,

Dublin.

Sir, – The Central Bank of Ireland’s new proposed 20 per cent deposit requirement for all new mortgage lending will disproportionately penalise young first-time buyers. Many seasoned economic commentators have described this tightening of the rules as a return to “prudence”. Their memories are longer than mine; when I was looking for my first house more than 20 years ago, many first-time buyers availed of 90 per cent mortgages – mortgages that are now in most cases paid off. It seems the return these commentators are looking to is back to the 1970s or earlier. I, for one, don’t want to go back to that Ireland.

Most Irish people aspire to home ownership, indeed home ownership is almost essential in our society as long-term decent rental alternatives are practically unavailable for most families. A young family starting off and hoping to buy a modest home worth €150,000 will now require a deposit of €30,000. That is €30,000 without a chair to sit on, or any other furnishings. Saving €100 weekly, a young family or couple would require almost six years to save that sum. These same young couples and families have to contend with high unemployment and low incomes. Modest comfort and security for young couples and families are becoming unattainable goals.

Older generations can’t just pull the ladder of opportunity and social mobility up after us. We need to extend opportunity and the chance of home ownership to the new generation, austerity or not. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD TRAYER,

Mallow,

Co Cork.

Sir, – There is only one driver of residential property prices and that is how much someone will pay for the property. There are only two purchasers of residential properties – owner-occupiers and investors. Owner-occupiers will only ever pay what they are confident they can afford and crucially they will normally buy something they expect to stay in for years. The current proposed controls are aimed towards them. The huge growth in property prices over the last 12 months is driven by investors. Property is an asset which should attract a lower risk than something like a new business or shares because you are left with “bricks and mortar” and an income stream. Yields or your return/interest rate should be about 3-4 per cent above prevailing interest rates – a little above the bank rate to compensate for you potentially losing your capital (the price dropping compared to not losing your deposit in a bank) and lower than your return in a company (where you might make 10 per cent above the prevailing rate as you could lose everything). These principles are completely absent in the Irish property market because of our obsession with property and greed.

If you want to temper the property market, you need the Central Bank to make a rule that a bank must be happy that a mortgage is affordable at 3 per cent above current rates and allow for a 10 per cent drop in borrowers’ income for owner occupiers; apply a 90 per cent capital gains tax on residential property sales where the property is sold within four years of purchase if it is not your principal home, ie you are an investor; and ban interest-only mortgages for residential property. – Yours, etc,

EDWARD O’BOYLE,

Dublin 1.

Sir, – Following the reaction to the Central Bank’s proposed limits on mortgage lending, I despair for our nation.

Having spent six years howling about the irresponsibility of banks and the regulator, and vilifying the individuals concerned, we are now howling about the injustice of the proposed prudential regulations, demanding that banks should be allowed lend more, and claiming the governor of the Central Bank is disconnected from the plight of the people.

Roll on the next crisis. – Yours, etc,

PETER GRAY,

Carrickmines,

Dublin.

Sir, – The indications are that the priority of the Government in the upcoming budget is to reduce the amount of tax being paid by people on higher incomes. And this is despite the fact that one must earn more than 2½ times the maximum state pension before one starts to pay 41 per cent tax on the remainder of one’s income. I’m sure that the majority of our citizens would gladly pay that higher rate of tax, if only they earned enough to do so.

Some highly paid influential people, tax experts, business advocates, politicians and media personalities have been openly criticising the tax system to the extent that it has nearly become a mantra; one regularly hears things like, “you must earn €200 to pay a €100 bill”. Because of their high incomes, all of these people are subject to the higher rate of tax, and thus have a vested interest in reducing it.

If the Government does reduce taxes as indicated, it will be seen that the regressive taxes, ie the water and property charges on the poorest in our society, are being used to subsidise the wealthier by reducing their income tax bill. It appears that groupthink has again affected our leaders in relation to the direction the country is taking. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN O’DONOGHUE,

Killerig,

Carlow.

Sir, – Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of inviting readers to speculate on how to spend an extra €160 million (“What would you do with €160 million if you were the Minister?”, October 7th), you asked them to think of ideas that would spend an existing €160 million better? You are feeding a false assumption that there is no problem that cannot be solved without some extra money. Money has come to be equated with concern. Our representatives’ only way of expressing that they care about an issue then becomes a commitment to spend extra resources on it.

We should know by now that pushing money into systems that are so poorly designed that they don’t work isn’t money that is going to deliver anything for the people the money is supposed to help or the problems it is intended to solve. There are many things the State is doing that others could do better, and there are many things the State does badly that it could do better. Let’s have that debate instead. – Yours, etc,

Dr EOIN O’MALLEY,

School of Law

and Government,

Dublin City University.

Sir, – I wonder will this Government deliver a budget that will be positively remembered in six months or will it have the courage to deliver a budget that will be positively remembered in 10 years? I don’t believe it can do both and alas I expect the former. – Yours, etc,

GARRET PEARSE,

Rosehill,

Wicklow.

Sir, – For those on the contributory invalidity pension who have been forced to retire early due to ill health, the payment of PRSI is a tax. There is no benefit, immediate or later, from paying as their invalidity pension becomes the old age pension when they reach retirement age.

PRSI is charged on any income invalidity pensioners have in addition to their contributory pension. Most invalidity pensioners would not have any other income but a minority do, often interest on money inherited from a family member. The additional income is badly needed to top up the invalidity pension (€193.50 per week) to make their life bearable. My wheelchair-using friend uses her non-pension income to pay for carers which the HSE cannot supply due to budget cuts. She is now subject to a minimum “PRSI” contribution of €500 a year on her other income. This amount would pay for 50 hours of care.

This is not PRSI but a tax on the sick. It should end.

The bizarre thing is that if she was healthy and had two part-time jobs paying €350 per week in both, she would pay no PRSI, despite having a gross income of €700 a week. This relates to a concession whereby those earning less than €352 per week pay no PRSI but get credited with Class A0 contributions. This exemption does not reflect the fact that many people have more than one part-time job. – Yours, etc,

ENID O’DOWD,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – The news that a nurse in Madrid has contracted Ebola is very disturbing. Despite an isolation unit, full protective equipment and all the facilities of a modern hospital, the virus still managed to spread from patient to nurse.

This appalling event demonstrates once again the dangerous approach being adopted by the HSE for suspected Ebola cases. Patients who may have contracted this deadly infection are essentially being urged to attend their general practitioner, despite the fact that no practice can provide the type of strict isolation and decontamination equipment that was used unsuccessfully in Madrid.

Those responsible for this policy should consider that, if a suspected Ebola case does attend a GP surgery, the risk to practice staff and other patients is far from insignificant. Furthermore, besides dialling 999, there is nothing useful whatsoever that a GP can do if the diagnosis is confirmed.

While I recognise that HSE administrators instinctively love nothing more than to dump inappropriate, unnecessary, unresourced and futile work on to general practice, in this instance such a mindset may well put lives in danger.

A far better, safer approach would be for the authorities to set up a dedicated telephone hotline which could be advertised on national radio and television. Patients who fear they may have contracted Ebola could contact this number whereupon a properly equipped team could attend them directly in their homes, and arrange transfer, thus minimising the risk of spread.

In Ireland we traditionally wait until disaster strikes before belatedly doing the right thing. Let us hope this does not happen with the Ebola virus. – Yours, etc,

Dr RUAIRI HANLEY,

Navan,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Can we expect some irreverence in the upcoming soccer match against Gibraltar since it appears from your picture in Wednesday’s edition that Tommy Tiernan is in charge? – Yours, etc,

JOHN WALSHE,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – Roy Keane has often spoken of the need for professionalism, focus on the job in hand, absolute dedication and attention to detail. How precisely does the decision to launch his book this week, while the national team is preparing for two qualifiers, square with this uber-professionalism?

I gather that Mr Keane receives some modest remuneration from the FAI for his work with the team so I take it that, as a man of absolute and impeccable integrity, he will reimburse the FAI for the time spent on personal media business which necessitates him being away from his job with the team?

A further possible explanation is that, given Mr Keane’s managerial and coaching career to date, he has decided that staying away from the team would best serve their interests. If that turns out to bear fruit over the next week, he has my undying gratitude and admiration. – Yours, etc,

DICK O’RAFFERTY,

Mount Merrion,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – When Roy and Mick had their difference of opinion all those years ago, your letters page had many offerings defending the Corkman. Needless to say they mostly emanated from his own part of the country. As we read of his similar difficulties with Alex Ferguson, I am wondering if those same people will jump to his defence again. I doubt it very much. Those “red-tinted glasses” have become clear over the intervening years. – Yours, etc,

PAT BURKE WALSH,

Ballymoney,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – It is reassuring to read that planners will resist calls to reduce the size of new apartments in Dublin (“Council sees no reason to change standards”, October 4th).

When similar pressure was being exerted in London in recent years, the Royal Institute of British Architects argued that in a rush to build quickly and cheaply, we risk storing up unnecessary problems for the future. They highlight the impact of a lack of space for basic lifestyle needs, like not being able to fit standard furniture, inadequate storage space or not having enough space to have quiet time in private.

Any assumption that couples will be able to “trade up” as their family grows is not supportable in the Irish context, where, unlike in other EU countries, managing housing inflation has never been a public policy objective. – Yours, etc,

ANNE COLGAN,

Dublin 16

Sir, – There is little point in a group of dentists commending the involuntary mass-medication of citizens as if their teeth were the only things that matter (October 6th). There is a superior interest, that of human rights – the right not to be involuntarily medicated. The benefits of fluoridated water on human teeth are disputed, as shown by decisions of other countries not to mass-medicate their population. Your dental experts assert that there have been no documented medical side-effects of water fluoridation. I am sure others better versed than I will disagree.

There is unanimity, however, that the purpose of fluoridation is medicinal and that our Medicines Board has never put the stuff to trials to confirm or otherwise that there are benefits or side-effects. Clearly, for the toothless, there appear to be no benefits. One would have thought that if this topic had not been overlain with powerful promotional propaganda for more than 60 years, the stuff would have been tested like any other proposed medicine? – Yours, etc,

JOHN COLGAN,

Leixlip, Co Kildare.

Sir, – We must congratulate the person responsible for “corporate communications” at Irish Water, who on Morning Ireland surprised us all by stating that no individual at Irish Water will ever receive a bonus. However, she confirmed that they will be entitled to receive a “performance-related payment”. We were told that the parameters for the performance-related payments had not yet been worked out. Normally performance parameters are agreed in advance rather than after the event. Anything is possible at Irish Water! – Yours, etc,

PETER CAHILL,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Gina Menzies is quoted as praising Pope Francis for relinquishing “monarchical trappings and pomp” (Patsy McGarry, “The world has fallen in love with Pope Francis, but we should be cautious”, October 6th). The Vatican gave up its last claims to the papal states with the Lateran treaty in 1929; the Noble Guard and the sedia gestatoria disappeared in the 1960s; the last pontifical coronation was Paul VI’s and that pope sold the papal crown; and Benedict XVI removed the crown from the papal coat of arms.

Benedict XVI, she assures us, closed down all theological dialogue. What does she think his meeting with Hans Küng in 2006 was about? – Yours, etc,

CDC ARMSTRONG,

Belfast.

Sir, – In support of his claim that the “just rebellion” theory is not applicable to Ireland in 1916, Dr Brian P Murphy (October 6th) takes me to task for ignoring his argument that the theory does not apply where a sovereign state is ruled by another. But in 1916 Ireland was not an internationally recognised sovereign state whose sovereignty had been violated – unlike, for example, Belgium in 1914. – Yours, etc,

FELIX M LARKIN ,

Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Irish Independent:

Enda Kenny appears to completely misunderstand the growing resistance to the water charges which his Government is attempting to impose.

He stated yet again that water is a “precious resource that must be paid for” while at the same time emphasising that the State spends €1.2bn a year on water.

Who, I wonder, does Mr Kenny think is paying that €1.2bn? It is the citizens of this State who pay for water services through our taxes, as is right and proper.

Yet this Government has established a mechanism whereby people will pay for their water a second time.

Mr Kenny is right when he says that water is a “precious resource” but it is so much more than that.

Water is an absolute essential for life. It is not like electricity or gas, despite the weak arguments to the contrary by those in favour of water charges.

Drinking less water, or using less water for personal or domestic hygiene, have far greater health implications than simply switching off the TV to save electricity or throwing on a jumper to save on gas.

Water is not the same as other utilities and should not be treated the same.

The other line often trotted out in favour of water charges is conservation.

However, as far as I know, if the Irish people do start ‘conserving’ water, Irish Water is allowed to up the unit rate to compensate for the lower usage. This flies in the face of any suggestion that conservation of a “precious resource” is a factor. This is simply a thinly veiled revenue-raising exercise. It is also the first step in the potential privatisation of our water supply, which is an appalling vista.

The Irish people understand what is happening in regard to our water, perhaps it’s time we had a Government that understands the people.

Simon O’Connor

Crumlin, Dublin 12

Don’t stigmatise Africa over Ebola

The media has a solemn obligation to inform the public, explore uncharted territory and cover challenging topics in a global context.

In its coverage of the Ebola outbreak, the media should tread carefully by not stigmatising and stereotyping the African continent.

The stigmatisation of West Africa as the epicentre of the contagion is bound to have devastating consequences on health, education, economy, environment and social cohesion. No region has ever managed to prevent such outbreaks.

The Black Death, the Spanish influenza, the avian flu, BSE, foot and mouth disease, SARS are just some in a long list of transmissible viruses that wreaked havoc and paralysed societies and economies across the five continents.

Stereotyping and fear limits the chances of nipping the disease in the bud. People are afraid to travel to West Africa; visits, conferences and business trips have been cancelled.

As Dr Margaret Chan admitted, WHO is facing major challenges in recruiting sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff. Because a facility treating 70 patients requires 250 healthcare workers, in countries where basic infection control facilities are virtually non-existent, the gravity of the situation is clear. And as we live in multicultural societies, this will have an impact on the social fabric in the West.

We have been here before with the ostracising of ethnic communities, tarnishing them with the accusation of terrorism and portraying them as aggressive and backward.

Economic growth is an essential ingredient for a healthy society, and vice versa. Our humanity will not allow us to sink into the abyss of danger and uncertainty.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2, UK

It’s all about Roy

The Republic of Ireland soccer team are just about to play two very important matches that could very well determine the future of the FAI for the next 10 years or so. And, guess what, interest in these two matches is running a very poor second to the national obsession with Roy Keane – and that is what it is.

Keane, for some reason, was appointed as assistant manager and since that moment life in Irish international football has been all about Roy and very little else.

He was the captain of the biggest football club on the planet, the world was at his feet – and he was destined for immortality.

But he still wasn’t happy, so he set about his next project, which was to prepare an exit from Manchester United – and once again he was successful, but this time he realised that he had made a terrible mistake.

My view is that his exit from Man Utd is the reason that he is going around like a headless chicken!

RJ Hanly

Screen, Co Wexford

Stop the water fiasco

Former minister Fergus O ‘Dowd suggests that Irish Water is a disaster . . . a stopcock-up?

Tom Gilsenan

Beaumont, Dublin 9

Pension levy versus people power

Hundreds of thousands of people are affected by the pension levy. The funds confiscated from their pension are gone and will not be reimbursed. It is time to ensure (1) that this disgraceful government action is ended and (2) that the people who promulgated it are punished so that they, or any future government, will never again attempt theft of this nature.

The number of people affected make an immensely powerful voting lobby. I have recently written to the two Fine Gael TDs in my constituency informing them that myself, my wife and two affected family members have made an irrevocable decision not to vote for any Fine Gael candidate in the next election over this measure.

The arrogance and ignorance of the protected political and civil service cabal will, I believe, have massive consequences for the government parties and, in particular, for Fine Gael, whose Finance Minister is the chief promulgator of this falsely labelled “temporary” levy.

I would urge all those people affected by the levy to do two things. Firstly, contact your pension adviser or provider and ask them to quantify the extent of the reduction in your pension. This is a simple actuarial exercise which they can quickly provide.

Secondly, without delay, write or email your local government TD and inform them that they will be held directly accountable and punished in the next general election on this red-line issue.

This is the only weapon you have – it is a powerful one, use it!

Brian O’Connor

Blackrock, Co Dublin

It has been said recently that on no major issue has the Government behaved quite so dishonourably as on the pensions issue. This is surely correct.

The Government prides itself on the “tough” but necessary decisions it is making for the good of the country. No doubt the levy is part of that story – and how tough it was not to keep the promise to terminate it. Tackling the public service unions next year on their demands for more pay will be a stroll after this.

Since most employers have decided to pass on the full cost of the levy (as prompted by the 2011 government legislation), the upshot of each extension of the levy is a further cut in pensions – for life. Pensioners and pension scheme members, be very afraid.

The €2.3bn bite taken from pension funds, far from being a source of government embarrassment, or a reason for ceasing such plunder, is now becoming the very reason for continuing with it.

The legacy of Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who is riding high at the moment, might yet be his role in wrecking the private pensions system. Is there no way to stop him?

Has any thought been given to the legality or constitutionality of what is going on here?

Michael Feeney

Churchtown, Dublin 14

Irish Independent

10 October 2014 Flu jab

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day Coop, Post Office, Newsagent. I go to the garage but alas no corn I book our flu jabs

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down gammon for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

On 13 October the House of Commons will debate a motion stating: “This House believes that the Government should recognise the state of Palestine alongside the State of Israel.” This is a rare opportunity for MPs to assist the Government to take a historic decision by conveying the feeling of the country on a non-party issue which is both open and important. We hope that they will seize it.

The debate will take place when the prospects for the peace process are bleak, in the aftermath of some of the worst violence in years in Gaza, and after Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Obama on 1 October that Israel was to build 2,600 new housing units, all of them illegal, between southern Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Significantly, however, the next day the new Swedish government announced that it intended soon to recognise a Palestinian state.

The British government’s position, stated by William Hague on 9 November 2011, is that “We reserve the right to recognise a Palestinian state bilaterally at a moment of our choosing and when it can best help bring about peace.”

Our government recognised the state of Israel (without agreed borders or capital) in 1950. Today there is a common EU policy on the framework for final status agreement, including borders based on the 1967 line, subject to any negotiated modifications, Jerusalem as a shared capital, and a just solution for the Palestinian refugees.

Given our own historical role, UK bilateral recognition would symbolically reaffirm and strengthen this position. Practically it would not sidestep negotiations but help them forward. Specifically it would give the parties rather less unequal status; it would give a very public political warning to the Israeli government and public to dissuade them from taking yet more unilateral steps which could soon leave nothing to negotiate; and it would strengthen the hand of those in the US administration who would like the US to show “tougher” love to Israel and play a more even-handed role, but who are frustrated by the powerful Israeli lobby. It would also, as the Swedish foreign minister said, give Palestinians more hope in the path of negotiation.

Our historical role, national values and self-interest all point to early recognition – a significant decision which would encourage many of our European partners to join the 134 other countries that have already recognised a Palestinian state. We hope that Monday’s vote will bring that decision nearer.

Robin Kealy
HM Consul-General, Jerusalem, 1997-2001

Sir Richard Dalton
HM Consul-General, Jerusalem  1993-1997

Oliver Miles
British Ambassador to Greece, 1993-96

Basil Eastwood
British Ambassador to Syria, 1996-2000

Sir Harold Walker
British Ambassador to Iraq, 1990-1991

Boorish British hatred of Europe

I grew up in a Britain of manners, grace and reasoned debate, and this was recognised around the world. How times change.

Now our Prime Minister wants to renegotiate a special deal for the UK in relation to the world’s most successful trading bloc, and if the 27 other European Union members don’t agree, he threatens to leave. We apparently also want a special deal in relation to a human rights accord that everyone else in Europe has signed up to apart from Belarus. And if we don’t get that, we’ll leave that too.

This petulance flows from the same well of prejudice that cheered on Nigel Farage when he insulted Herman Van Rompuy, telling him that he had “all the charisma of a damp rag”.

The hatred of all things European by a sizeable part of the population is worrying, and yet is cheered on in sections of the press and pandered to by our politicians, looking for a scapegoat for all our ills. And as a result of this hatred, a boorish unpleasantness has crept into our national discourse. We are the worse for it, and I don’t like it.

Derek Hammersley
Chairman, European Movement in Scotland, Edinburgh

The Tory proposal to withdraw from the European Human Rights Convention is merely a restatement of Tory policy since the time before the party was known as Tory, Conservative or any other name,

The Tories have a deep-rooted objection to being told what to do by any foreigners. If there are orders to be given they should be given by Brits.

The Tories also know that any orders that they give to people in this country will be obeyed by a great majority, thanks to the culture of subservience which has flourished over the centuries.

The human rights which have existed in this country are such that most people can’t afford to pay for them to be put into operation. I remember as a child seeing a performance of 1066 And All That. When Magna Carta  was introduced, every clause was followed by “Except the working man”. This summed it up perfectly and nothing has changed.

Bill Fletcher
Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Austerity is bad for mental health

If you broke your leg, would you think it was a good deal to wait two weeks to be treated? If your mind breaks with a psychotic episode, why is a two-week wait for treatment a good deal, when the need for treatment should be just as urgent as physical health challenges? (“Clegg pledges to end the shortfall in mental health treatment”, 8 October.)

There are insufficient beds, insufficient staff, inadequate training, inadequate care in the mental health sector.  Mental health needs increase with austerity, as life becomes harder. The odd hundred million pounds won’t address the problem. A radical change in priorities will.

Investment in health rather than warfare, and taxing the rich, and corporations who avoid their taxes, rather than removing beds and benefits from the mentally ill, will ultimately save far more lives.

Shirley Franklin
Mental health carer and Chair of Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition, London N19

French buses in West London

Many thanks to Jim Armitage for his article on foreign state-controlled firms running much of the UK’s infrastructure (9 October). I thought it was just me not getting the finer points of government.

EDF also, of course, owns London Electricity. And if you get a United Buses bus, you may notice a small sign above the door: “Part of the RATP Group”. The Paris underground company, of course, owned by guess who? Thankfully, our excellent local fishmonger and greengrocer are both owned by the people who serve you, but I do worry.

David Halley
Hampton Hill, Middlesex

Marginalised voters in safe seats

I, too, will not vote again (letters, 7 October) because in 46 years my vote has never made any difference. I have lived in nine different constituencies, including the political extremes of Tunbridge Wells and Islington. All have had safe majorities; none has been marginal.

I have turned out to vote every time. My vote has always been wasted. I have an overwhelming feeling of guilt, because I have been brought up to believe in democracy.

Frances Gaskell
Kilham, East Yorkshire

Victims of school rugby

Allyson Pollock’s article on the dangers of rugby (7 October) does not mention another, extremely rare, hazard for rugby players in schools: a broken neck.

For many years I dealt  with inquiries about university facilities from prospective students with disabilities. In that time I met three students who were using wheelchairs because they had broken their necks playing rugby, and I corresponded with a fourth.

Mary Foley

What killed the coal mines?

In her three-page article (8 October) on the miners’ strike Anne McElvoy finds room to quote, at length, numerous pre-Christian historians. The economics were dealt with in four words: “Coal was becoming uneconomical”.

Clearly there wasn’t space left to mention that the mining industry was expected to compete, by the Thatcher government, against a massively subsidised nuclear industry and Columbian coal imports mined by pre-teens for a pittance.

Mark Robertson
East Boldon, Tyne and Wear

Rooney chases Greaves record

If Wayne Rooney wants to match Jimmy Greaves’s goal-scoring total for England then he has a job on (“Rooney closes in on Greaves milestone”, 9 October). Jimmy scored 44 goals in 57 appearances. Rooney has 41 in 97 appearances. To match Jimmy’s scoring rate per match he will have to score 34 goals against San Marino.

Peter Evans
Billericay, Essex

Times:

Sir, In view of the forthcoming BBC charter renewal, not to mention questions about the licence fee, the insistent refrain of the BBC Children in Need song, “God Only Knows What I’d Be Without You . . . ”, may appear somewhat portentous.
Sue Balsom
Llanfarian, Aberystwyth

Sir, The closure of Richard Branson’s Little Red airline (News, Oct 7) comes at a time when people in their millions are rediscovering trains, raising a question over the attraction and viability of short-haul air services. Together with the introduction of aircraft that can carry up to a third more passengers, this leads me to wonder whether we need new runway capacity.
James Miller
London N1

Sir, Apropos “To um or to er?” (Oct 6). My teacher in the Fiftiesused “Um” and less frequently “Like”. In our version of classroom cricket, the “Ums” were runs and the “Likes” were wickets. It required a lot of concentration to keep the score.
Dr James Visick
Norwich

Little Red airline (News, Oct 7) comes at a time when people in their millions are rediscovering trains, raising a question over the attraction and viability of short-haul air services. Together with the introduction of aircraft that can carry up to a third more passengers, this leads me to wonder whether we need new runway capacity.
James Miller
London N1

Telegraph:

Excursions: the Natural History Museum in London offers enjoyment and education in equal measure Photo: GETTY IMAGES

6:56AM BST 09 Oct 2014

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6:57AM BST 09 Oct 2014

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6:58AM BST 09 Oct 2014

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7:00AM BST 09 Oct 2014

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SIR – The Kurds are the lone ray of hope in this miserable mess with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

4:52PM BST 09 Oct 2014

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Irish Times:

A chara, – It was news to me to hear from Derek Byrne (“Marriage not a good fit for gay people’s lifestyles”, Opinion & Analysis, October 9th) that we have counter-cultural responsibilities as gay people. I can only presume he imagines that as a member of Fine Gael, I’m failing in mine.

In a modern, liberal republic, each of us should be free to make our own decisions about our personal and family lives, with neither a duty to conform nor to rebel. That gay people should have this same opportunity is not a response to an Irish village mentality, as Mr Byrne argues, but something we are realising the world over.

If we vote in the spring to allow gay couples to marry, we will join countries as diverse as Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, France, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, and more than half the US states.

Let us embrace this opportunity to join these countries in a vote that will respect and value the dignity of gay people’s lives and relationships. – Is mise,

WILLIAM QUILL,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I disagree with Derek Byrne in defining the LGBT community as a subculture, or classing its members as people who are different, and I think to do so misses the point of the marriage equality referendum.

If you choose to wear a pair of skinny jeans and you choose to drink exotic coffee while riding your fixed-gear bike and stroking your beard, it is probable that I would classify you as part of the hipster subculture. But that is a subculture you choose to be a part of. Being a member of the LGBT community is not a choice, so I refuse to consider its members different purely by the circumstances of their birth.

Marriage equality is about freedom of choice and the right to self-determination. It is not about whether or not it would suit all members of the LGBT community; it is not about whether or not any, or all, LGBT marriages would be monogamous or open relationships.

Marriage does not suit all heterosexual couples, nor are all heterosexuals marriages monogamous, but they are still entitled to marry. Marriage equality is about giving the right to choose to all who wish to marry.

It doesn’t matter a jot to me if a massive majority or a tiny minority of the LGBT community avail of that right; that is their choice. How they exercise that choice, much like their right to vote, is entirely a personal matter for each and every one of them. But denying the entire LGBT community that right because some may not want it, or exercise it, is wrong. – Yours, etc,

EOGHAN KENNY,

Irishtown,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – Derek Byrne writes that gay people are different from the norm and that “what we need are laws that celebrate our differences and provide for them, not laws that make everyone the same”. I disagree.

As a heterosexual individual I find it abhorrent that the choices open to me for living my life can be denied to others simply because their sexual orientation is different. The laws of society should be designed to enable individuals to choose the best life for themselves. If there are gay people who desire to celebrate their love through marriage, then so they should and the law must not prevent that. If some don’t wish to marry, then that’s their choice.

When you offer people these choices you are not making them the same but instead allowing them the opportunity to express their individuality. You permit them do what they personally want to do and to live their life as they see fit. That is the best way to provide for differences. If some gay couples decide to marry, that does not mean there is a pressure placed on all other members of the gay community to follow suit and tie the knot; the reduced pressure on heterosexual couples to marry in modern times is worth bearing in mind.

Mr Byrne says he cannot comprehend why some gay individuals would enter into a “heterosexual construct” and argues that the gay lifestyle conflicts with it. However, there is no single or best way to live a married life. While marriage may have its roots in a paternalistic society, it is capable of evolving into a more equal, inclusive and personal institution. We have already seen that with the removal of restrictions on interracial and interfaith marriages.

To deny people access to marriage on the grounds of their innate differences to other members of society is not a celebration of their differences. It’s discrimination. – Yours, etc,

JAMES FAGAN,

Hackney,

London.

A chara, – The new mortgage lending rules are a gift to first-time buyers. While some complain about how difficult it will be to save up a deposit, they ignore the fact that these measures are a hammer blow to high property valuations. Prices will fall, therefore deposits and mortgages will ultimately be substantially lower. While vested interests will kick and scream, the subsequent smaller mortgages will be a boon for the small business sector as more disposable income will be spent in the real economy instead of servicing debt. – Is mise,

ALAN W LALLY,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – The recent announcement of proposed changes to residential mortgage lending is necessary and welcome, even if it is a little late. The lack of action from the Central Bank during the last crisis was a major contributory factor to the disaster that ensured and it would be inexcusable for the authorities to just sit on the sidelines again, watching the predictable chaos coming down the tracks in the absence of any meaningful policy initiatives.

However, the combination of a 20 per cent deposit, together with a 3.5 times earnings limit, is very onerous and this will place a huge burden on first-time buyers. The imposition of these restrictive measures on what to date has been little more than a “wild west” housing market will cause almost as many problems as it solves unless careful thought is given to the challenging position in which these first-time buyers will find themselves.

The private rental sector is insufficiently regulated to absorb the large numbers of 20 and 30 year olds who cannot afford to buy, and the last thing we need is to create conditions which attract the type of amateur landlords who are chasing a fast buck. The best type of landlord invests for the long term and is much more focused on sustainable rental income rather than short-term capital gain. Unfortunately, we still have too many of the former and not nearly enough of the latter. This is a problem if the policies we adopt force tens of thousands more into the rental market.

There is still time to reduce the impact of these necessary measures with a little simple but creative thinking. These aspiring first-time buyers do not deserve to be frozen out of home ownership and the Government has a responsibility to help them. The vast majority of them are in the relatively early stages of their careers and did not participate in the obscene financial feeding frenzy that preceded the economic and housing market crash. They should not be made victims for the past mistakes of others.

One simple suggestion I would make is the introduction of a first-time house buyer’s savings plan. These plans could be modelled on the popular and long-standing ISA accounts in the UK and could very easily be used to allow prospective first-time buyers to invest a capped amount of their gross income each year. Deposit interest or investment growth within these accounts should also be tax exempt but with a “clawback” condition which would reclaim any tax relief and tax-free growth if the proceeds were not used as all or part of the deposit for a home.

This creative measure would give some certainty to vulnerable young taxpayers as it would allow them to plan for their future. Of course, it would still take some years for them to accumulate their deposit but they would at least feel that home ownership was achievable. The alternative “do nothing” approach would be disastrous and would amount to a betrayal of this generation. Any Government that took this brave step would also reap the rewards as every one of these individuals has a vote and knows how to use it. – Yours, etc,

MAURICE McCANN,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The response of would-be buyers to the Central Bank’s mortgage proposals is truly baffling and short-sighted. It seems that would-be buyers are still trapped in the mentality of “If I can just have more credit I can get my dream home” – ignoring that a general increase in credit only serves to push up prices for all. During the boom, every change to stamp duty thresholds served to disadvantage those whom it was intended to help.

The straw man of cash-rich buy-to-let landlords buying everything has also been trotted out without any data to support the assertions made. Sceptics also gloss over the fact that new mortgage rules are even tighter for this investor cohort – many of whom are unlikely to qualify for mortgages anyway given their current investments – not to mention the changes in tax treatment for rental income (increased PRSI and reduced interest deductions).

Former US Federal Reserve chairman William McChesney Martin famously described his job as “taking away the punch bowl just as the party gets going”. It seems some people just want to keep drinking and forget about the hangover. – Yours, etc,

PAUL KEAN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – The Government is considering cutting the top rate of income tax, which is 52 per cent for most workers. Top marginal tax rates of around 50 per cent are common across Europe. Where Ireland is unusual is the particularly low point at which workers begin to pay the top rate, currently €32,800 for single people. This is below average earnings. Most people agree that this is both unfair and it discourages work effort. It leads to the perception that Ireland is a high-tax country, even though overall taxes are below the European average.

Ireland has a very progressive income tax system, and the top 5 per cent of earners pay about 40 per cent of income tax.

This is unsurprising, as income inequality is wide, and high earners receive a disproportionate share of the income. Faced with continued budget deficits, now is not the time to deliver scarce resources to this group. Rather than cut the top rate, an alternative is to introduce a third, or fourth tax rate. A possible rate schedule might be 20 per cent, 30 per cent, 40 per cent and 50 per cent. This would make the income tax system smoother, and ensure that workers don’t pay 50 per cent marginal tax rates until they earn, say, €100,000.

By adjusting tax bands and tax credits, marginal tax rates for many workers could be reduced, while maintaining income tax revenues. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN McNENA,

Lough Gill, Sligo.

Sir, – With a recent Dóchas (Ipsos/MRBI) poll again showing that a large majority of our citizens support overseas aid and international development, I would encourage the Government to respect that support. Another cut in this year’s budget would be a further blow after six years of cuts. In an increasingly globalised world, our future also depends on the stability of the wider world. Increasing our overseas aid budget is not just the right thing to do, but in the most selfish way it is the smart thing to do. The Ebola crisis shows exactly what can happen if problems are neglected by the wider world. In short, a safer, healthier and more prosperous world is better for all of us. With this in mind I hope the Government increases our overseas aid budget this year, for our good and for the good of others. – Yours, etc,

ROSS McCARTHY,

Freetown,

Sierra Leone.

Sir, – Ireland has a great record in contributing to those in need , and we should endeavour to do our best in this regard. However, will the Department of Foreign Affairs reconsider its allocation of aid to India (€2.8 million in 2013) in light of India’s recent entry to the space race with its Mars orbital mission, its being a member of the G20, its economy being ranked 10th in the world by way of GDP, and its status as a nuclear power? – Yours, etc,

D O’SHEA,

Grange,

Cork.

Sir, – I am pleased to see Michael Creed TD drawing attention to the exchequer loss resulting from the sale of alcohol below cost price (“Reilly says says time to act on below-cost alcohol sales”, October 6th).

From both a public health and financial health perspective, the sale of alcohol below cost should never have been allowed. Below-cost sales fuel the consumption of excessive quantities of the cheapest alcohol. This has a serious negative health impact, particularly for younger people and harmful drinkers, who we know from studies are more likely to drink cheap alcohol.

The State loses twice on below-cost sales. Alcohol-related harm costs the State approximately €3.7 billion annually in healthcare, crime, absenteeism and costs of accidents. The sale of alcohol below cost further reduces the revenue available to the exchequer to the benefit of retailers who can claim a VAT refund on the difference between the sale price and the cost price.

However, a ban on below-cost selling should not be seen as an alternative to introduction of minimum unit pricing; rather it may be a complementary or interim action. We know from modelling conducted in the UK (by the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group) that the impact of a ban on below-cost selling would be 40-50 times less than the impact of minimum unit pricing. Therefore, even with introduction of a ban on below-cost selling, minimum unit pricing should continue to be the highest priority.

My colleagues and I have highlighted this in pre-budget submissions to the Government, calling for introduction of minimum unit pricing at a level which would see alcoholic products sold above cost. Government action to turn off the tap on cheap alcohol, as promised within the public health alcohol Bill, has our full support. It will reduce health impacts and doubly benefit the exchequer and the State. – Yours, etc,

Prof FRANK MURRAY,

President-designate,

Royal College

of Physicians of Ireland,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Unsurprisingly, the Drummartin Link Road in Sandyford, Dublin, has been revealed as one of the top 10 speeding locations in the country (“Gardaí identify Dublin’s top 10 speeding blackspots”, October 3rd). The road in question is a straight one, approximately a mile in length, with no houses fronting on to the road on either side, and one set of traffic lights half way down which can be seen clearly from either direction. The road is wide, with cycle lanes on either side. Perhaps a review of the 50 km/h limit to a more practical level would see it in a more realistic position in these league tables. – Yours, etc,

JOE CONNOR,

Sandyford, Dublin 18.

Sir, – John Colgan (October 9th) recycles the myth that fluoride added to our water is a “medicine”. Fluoride has never been classed as a medicine, and is of no concern to the Irish Medicines Board unless it forms part of a pharmaceutical formulation. It is quite simply a nutrient, not a drug. Just like chloride, iodide, selenium, zinc, manganese, copper, vitamin C and many more micronutrients that are essential to our health.

Dietary fluoride is important in the prevention of tooth decay and related disease. That does not make it a medicine – any more than potassium is a medicine (it is essential for nerve function), or vitamin C (essential for healthy gums), or calcium (essential for healthy bones) or iron (essential for transport of oxygen in our blood).

Those who wail about “enforced medication” and loss of human rights from fluoridation have swallowed illogical conspiracy theories based on pseudoscience and fear-mongering. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD CORMICAN,

Claregalway,

Co Galway.

Appointing deacons Sir, – I note with interest the recent appointment of permanent deacons in the Catholic Church here. This is a welcome development in times when priests are becoming thin on the ground and is long overdue. I hope it will not take as long to begin appointing female deacons. Or would that be a move too far? – Yours, etc,

T McELLIGOTT,

Raheen, Limerick.

Vegetarianism and veganism

Sir, – In response to the letters from vegetarians and vegans in recent days, may I suggest that vegetarian and vegan foods carry a health warning: “May cause smugness and self-righteousness”. – Yours, etc,

PETER CONNAUGHTON,

Wexford.

Sinn Féin’s poll performance

Sir, – Sinn Féin is neck and neck with Fine Gael in popular support and your excellent political editor Stephen Collins writes an analysis under the headline “Sinn Féin performance not guaranteed to translate into votes at election” (October 9th). May I point out that Fine Gael support may not translate into votes either. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,

Phibsborough, Dublin 7.

Irish Independent:

Because of new Central Bank restrictions on mortgage lending property prices should fall or stop rising further. Bank will be allowed lend less against property thus stalling price rises.

The average person or household that can’t afford the new level of mortgage probably would have been granted a higher value higher mortgage under previous lax lending rules.

Banks weren’t doing due diligence and were simply lending money – not on ability to pay – on rising property prices.

Property prices were rising simply because they lent more money against the same property. This is what caused the property crash in 2007.

Then, when people stopped buying property because they couldn’t afford to pay higher prices, property prices simply went into reverse. As property prices fell fewer people took out mortgages for fear of losing money and also because banks lend much less in a falling property market. This caused property prices to fall heavily very quickly.

This is why it is important that the Central Bank sticks to its guns and restricts credit lending rules, despite upsetting a couple of people. They should think of the average person or household on average incomes. This isn’t something new, it simply existed in pre-boom times.

Darragh Condren

Dundrum, Dublin 16

Mortgage guidelines a disaster

An Open Letter to the Minister for Finance.

It is my belief that buying a new or second-hand home will now be beyond reach of the vast majority of people, due to the new Central Bank guidelines for new mortgages from next January, which require an applicant to have a minimum of 20pc of the price of the home they wish to purchase.

The Central Bank has played into the hands of the large number of ruthless property speculators

Under the proposed conditions, these speculators will be able to command whatever rent they like from their unfortunate tenants.

I don’t have to state the social consequences that will occur if this uncontrolled action by the speculators is allowed.

What needs to be done in my opinion is to declare war on these speculators by the following action:

◊ 1. All homes that are not the permanent residence of the property owner must be deemed commercial investments and would therefore be liable for at least the equivalent of domestic rates. The home I live in has a poor law valuation of €25. It is a standard house and would yield a rate of €1,895 if this rule was applied. My home has approximately 1,100 square feet and would represent the vast majority of ordinary homes in the country.

◊ 2. Bring in a national maximum rent control. I would suggest an annual rate of €7 P/A per square foot.

◊3. All rental income to be liable for DIRT at the same rate that is currently payable on savings with financial institutions (42pc). This tax should be deducted from the rent payable by the tenant and the government could collect it in the following way. By deduction of tax credits from the tenant if that person is employed or by deduction from the tenant from social welfare benefits if the tenant is unemployed.

If this proposed rule was to be applied, it would force speculators to look elsewhere and would drive down property prices to a more realistic level and make home purchase a little more achievable and would help young people starting off in their lives.

David Whyte

Douglas, Cork

The meandering flow of Waters

Mr John Waters in his piece in your paper (“Enda the unlikeliest leader turned prototype puppet for a new way of governing” Irish Independent, October 8) seems to be very muddled as only John can. He says that if anyone was to be leader to run a full term it ought to have been Michael Noonan, Ivan Yates or one of the Brutons.

Perhaps it has escaped his attention that Mr Noonan got a shot at leadership, but failed badly in the general election in 2002, John Bruton became Taoiseach without an election but failed to win one in 1997, while Richard Bruton failed in a leadership heave against Mr Kenny in 2010. Ivan Yates gave up politics for business and being a sort of a hurler on the ditch – somewhat like Mr Waters!

Mr Waters then goes on to say that perhaps with passage of time history will convict Kenny, like his mentor by proxy, Charles Haughey, on the lesser charge of common-or-garden chancer. I seems to recall John writing in praise of Haughey in 2006 that he was truly great.

Brendan Cafferty

Ballina, Mayo

Water charges crucial for Earth

I am writing this letter in relation to the onslaught of articles surrounding the introduction of water charges. The public outcry to this new charge by Irish Water has been rather impressive, but I will also admit that it has been nothing short of mind boggling. This new sense of fight within the Irish public, against a government that has bled the working class poor dry over the years is most definitely a welcome sight, but the focus of the public’s ire is, in my opinion, entirely misplaced.

The fight against water charges is born out of principal. Water is a god-given human right that literally falls from the sky. Well this seems to be the general consensus amongst the public anyway.

In one sense, I can understand the harsh response to further charges on water, because the public do pay over €1 billion in taxes towards the upkeep and maintenance of the public water supply.

However, the charges introduced by Irish Water are not about bleeding further funds from an already financially-anorexic public piggy bank. They are about hammering home the need for change in the management of – not only this country’s natural resources – the resources of this planet on a global scale.

The fact is that the management of global water systems and supplies is simply not sustainable at the current level, and continuing down this path will have substantial socio-economic consequences in the future.

Consequences that may come too late to address. The public backlash may hold the appearance of a people pushed too far. In my view, the public reaction to the Irish Water debacle does nothing more than highlight the ignorance of the Irish people in regards to their planet and the sustainability of its natural resources.

Daniel Lynch

Address with editor

Jumping for Roy

I have been in poor health for the past 12 years. I can be relatively specific about the years, as I know it began around the World Cup in Japan/Korea

My illness peaks and wanes, but became particularly acute again these last few days.

This morning my doctor finally recommended that I visit one of the Keanesiotherapy clinics which apparently proliferate in the Netherlands and Flanders.

I thought that I should share this with your readers. many of whom must suffer from the same disease.

Indeed, could I suggest, sir, that as the Irish media may itself contribute significantly to outbreaks of the disease, you yourself should consider undertaking the therapy in question.

John F Jordan

Killiney, Co Dublin

Irish Independent

11 October 2014 Secom

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day Coop, Post Office, Newsagent. I ring Secom perhaps we may get a reduction.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down trout for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Independent:

Times:

Sir, Events in Kobani and Iraq demonstrate that Isis may be degraded by attacks from the air, but not destroyed. Already there is the inevitable evidence of collateral damage to civilians, who recognise with frustration the limited nature of the support given to them.

If Isis is to be destroyed, the military must be provided with the sources and material to disable its command-and-control sources, as well as its visible assets. This will require ground troops including special forces, and also high quality intelligence and other logistical support. Parliament should be asked without delay to provide fresh objectives and to remove the inhibitions currently preventing a successful military campaign.

The military effort must be seen to support all the people of Iraq, and their new, brave and conciliatory government. They want our help, and we should provide what is necessary rather than the merely politically expedient.

Iraq sits in a crucial place geographically. At the conclusion of the current and regrettably necessary hostilities, she should be able to take a comfortable place alongside her neighbours. This should be supported by the twin pillars of mutual and balanced benefits shared with those neighbours, including Iran and Turkey, and the recognition by her neighbours of Iraq’s sovereignty, free from outside interference.
Lord Carlile of Berriew
House of Lords

Sir, Your leading article “Saving Kobani” (Oct 9) claimed that “so far Turkey has sent only a lorry load of medical supplies to the besieged Kurds of Kobani and has otherwise confined itself to the role of spectator”. This claim disregards Turkey’s £2.5 billion of humanitarian aid and ignores the threat posed by terrorist groups.

Legal and humanitarian reasons mean that our borders must stay open. We already host more than 1.5 million refugees (a number larger than the population of some EU countries) and help many more in Iraq. In the space of a week, we received 200,000 people from Kobani.

Despite the risks, we continue to maintain an open door, regardless of refugees’ ethnicity. Aid is also being sent into Kobani and we have retaliated to Isis attacks on our territory.

Turkey has handled the issue of Ayn Al Arab/Kobani with sensitivity but the greater conflict cannot be viewed purely through developments in Kobani. A few months ago, we highlighted Isis’s advance towards the Turkoman villages of Tel Abyad and Çobanbey on our border, but this was ignored by the wider world.

Isis has been able to dig in because of air support provided by the Damascus regime, and so it is vital that a no-fly zone is put in place to enforce a safe haven. This strategy should also guard against regime elements or various terrorist structures replacing Isis in areas from which it is eliminated.

We should not be selective while reflecting upon and managing public opinion. It is important to give the complete picture. Above all, however, Turkey is not “confining itself to the role of spectator”.
Abdurrahman Bilgiç
Ambassador, Turkish Embassy, London

Sir, Turkey’s reluctance to help the Kurds fighting Isis is disappointing but predictable. There is sympathy for Isis in some sections of its population and government, and Turkey has a long record of oppressing its own minorities. This matter does, however, call into question Turkey’s suitability as a Nato ally and may mean an end to its hope of joining the EU.
Andrew Brown
Allestree, Derby

Sir, Given that the US and UK have ruled out sending in ground troops, it is odd that western commentators demand that Turkey becomes the first and only country to do just that. Given the tragic history of relations between Turks and Kurds, it is all the more important that the world acts collectively to protect them and others. If the West was serious about its objective of “degrading and defeating” Isis, it would devise a suitable military strategy. At present, it appears to wish to outsource to others what it is unwilling to do itself. Meanwhile, civilians pay the price.
John Slinger
Rugby, Warks

Sir, May I express my disquiet at the piece in Times2 (Oct 9) which mentioned “#feelingnuts” — about young men holding their crotches for charity — and hereby apply for the post as the replacement to the late lamented Mary Whitehouse? That youth indulges in vulgarity does not make it acceptable to civilised society.
Helena Fielder
Southsea, Hants

Sir, Your report (“Delay retirement if you want to avoid disaster in old age”, Oct 8) suggests that we all need to work for longer to avoid poverty, while also stating that many people stop working in their late 50s or early 60s because of poor health or redundancy. How are these people to live if not by using savings, and where are the jobs for the over-60s? The population in general may be living longer but there is no evidence that it is healthier, and many have to rely on benefits at an age when, had they been born five years earlier, they would have been enjoying a pension. For every Mary Berry, David Dimbleby and Nicholas Parsons who is able to continue working, there will be many builders, nurses, dustmen and others less able to continue to work — but they will have to do so because low wages have meant little opportunity to save.

No politician seems prepared to admit that age benefits have been too generous, and not means-tested, for much too long, meaning that those born after 1955 will have to make up the shortfall as well as trying to save enough for themselves to afford to eventually retire. It seems unfair that those who made it to pension age by 2010 are enjoying a state-subsidised retirement, the like of which will never be experienced by future generations.
Rosalind Taylor
Ashbourne, Derbyshire

6:58AM BST 10 Oct 2014

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6:59AM BST 10 Oct 2014

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7:00AM BST 10 Oct 2014

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11:29AM BST 10 Oct 2014

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Telegraph:

Irish Times:

Sir, – Further to Derek Byrne’s “Marriage is not a good fit for gay people’s lifestyles” (October 9th, Opinion & Analysis), I celebrate difference as what makes Irish life and culture so rich and interesting, but to assume that all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are part of, or want to be part of, a subculture, denies the reality of many people’s actual lives, hopes and dreams. LGBT people are not a homogenous group. We are all different – different classes, different income brackets, different levels of ability; some are religious; some are members of political parties and from across the political spectrum. We are part of every community in Ireland.

We are many things – sisters, fathers, girlfriends, lovers, doctors, singers, carers, sports fans, farmers – any numbers of combinations of identities. Of course our sexuality marks us out as different in one way to the majority of people, but so can many things about people.

However, for many of us, our lives are just the same as everyone else’s, just as ordinary (with its ups and its downs) and just as wonderful. Many of us are part of communities based on geography, family ties or common interests, where our sexuality is just one important part of who we are. It’s important because it’s about the people we love and our own families (as defined by us).

The movement for marriage equality has given visibility to many LGBT people who just want to be able to live our lives and grow old with our loved ones equally protected and respected in the country we choose to live in. It’s not about forcing people to get married. It’s about choice. – Yours, etc,

CLODAGH ROBINSON,

Dalkey, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Derek Byrne ought to be commended for his article questioning the rush towards the introduction of same-sex marriage. No doubt he will be subjected to vilification for doing so, in line with the regrettable pattern that has characterised the debate on this issue to date.

He raises a valid question as to why organisations which campaign for same-sex marriage, which pride themselves on celebrating diversity and difference, are advocating a situation whereby same-sex couples would abandon this diversity and conform to a set of legal norms which currently apply only to heterosexual relationships.

There is a clear parallel between this debate and an argument which has raged within the feminist movement since the 1960s. Radical feminists such as the American lawyer Catherine MacKinnon have criticised much of that movement for having a vision of equality which encouraged the incremental acceptance by women of male norms, effectively leading to a “metamorphosis” of women into men and disregarding the distinctive characteristics of women in the process. She famously denounced the feminist movement as offering women “a piece of the pie as currently and poisonously baked”.

The parallel between this point of view and the debate on same-sex marriage is clear. The introduction of same-sex marriage would graft the legal treatment of heterosexual relationships onto same-sex relationships, and would bring about a similar “metamorphosis”. The rights to marry, adopt, and have beneficial taxation status would all be replicated directly from one type of relationship, and imposed on another type of relationship. How can this be in any way in accordance with the notion of the diversity of same-sex relationships? If anything it amounts to the subjugation of this diversity.

Since its inception, the foundation stone of marriage has been the difference between the genders. It is an inherently gender-based institution, because relationships and unions between couples of the same sex and couples of the opposite sex are inherently different.

So why the rush to amend our Constitution to bring about a legal fantasy which pretends that they are not? – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

A chara, – As burnt-out 1970s gay rights activists, my spouse and I have never abandoned our commitment to sexual liberation.

Unlike Derek Byrne, we see our marriage as a demonstration that institutions can evolve to reflect societal changes.

Many straight and gay Irish couples see marriage as an equal partnership where the two people who love each other decide together the values and behaviours that will sustain themselves.

“Vive la différence!” is indeed what Irish people endorse regardless of sexual orientation. That is why the referendum on marriage equality will succeed. – Is mise,

MARTIN G PADGETT,

Toronto, Canada.

Sir, – While many try to justify the notion of same-sex marriage on the basis of equality, we should bear in mind that the state of California last July passed a Bill removing all mention of husband and wife from its marriage laws. To make everyone feel more equal, everyone will be called “spouse”. Is that what we want? – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS O’CALLAGHAN,

Carlow.

Sir, – Derek Byrne writes, “I know of many same-sex couples who have been joined in civil partnership and I can say with certainty only one of these is grounded in monogamy”.

Mr Byrne sees this as a reason not to vote for marriage equality in the upcoming referendum. He implies same-sex couples are simply not capable of sexual fidelity.

I don’t know what circles Mr Byrne moves in, but my experience has been the opposite. I know numerous gay couples, both male and female, living in monogamous relationships. Many met in pubs, nightclubs or online, even in gay saunas, but when they decided to commit to each other they stopped doing “the scene”, just like most heterosexual couples do. To continue on the “scene” after entering a relationship is asking for trouble – for any relationship, gay or straight.

Mr Byrne acknowledges that he knows of only one same-sex relationship that is grounded in monogamy. My guess is that this couple are not to be found cruising bars and nightclubs.

Mr Byrne might consider voting Yes to marriage equality for the sake of this couple alone. They deserve it. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN KELLY,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.

Sir, – Noise pollution is destroying so many of our places of entertainment. It is part of the myth of this country that we are supposed to be wonderful talkers, and many people come to Ireland expecting to find pubs full of lively conversation. Instead they find most of our pubs are now full of people staring blankly ahead because they are not able to make themselves heard by their companions sitting a few feet from them.

I recently spent a Saturday night in Cashel where a large part of the evening was devoted to an unsuccessful search for a pub where music was not being pumped out at a level which might make one’s ears bleed; it certainly would not be permitted on a factory floor.

Cashel is not unique in this but rather absolutely typical of our towns.

This pollution reached new heights for me in September when I attended the All-Ireland football and hurling finals. While waiting for the games to begin we were subjected at intervals to very loud and very irritating R&B music, which was repeated during half time. At the end of the games, within seconds of the final whistle blowing, the county songs of the winners were played through the public address system at a very high volume.

It would seem that the people now running the GAA have no grasp of the power of tradition, think that everyone in Croke Park on those days is terrified of silence, and that the supporters of the winning teams in each game are so emotionally illiterate as to be incapable of celebrating their team’s victory without external assistance.

It would seem that the entertainment and hospitality industry throughout this country believes that people are incapable of entertaining themselves or of creating an enjoyable atmosphere in a pub or restaurant elsewhere without having their elbows very forcibly nudged.

It is long past time that we started to fight against this condescension and started insisting upon our right to have a drink or a meal without having to bellow at the person we are trying to speak to.

From now on we should make a practice of demanding from staff that they turn down music that is offensively loud. – Yours, etc,

FRANK McCARTAN,

Banbridge,

Co Down.

Sir, – In considering the reasonableness or otherwise of RTÉ’s decision to cease broadcasting RTÉ Radio 1 on longwave, consideration must be given to the foundation legislation for our so-called national broadcaster. Section 114 of the 2009 Broadcasting Act establishes the first object of RTÉ as being “to establish, maintain and operate a national . . . service which shall have the character of a public service, be a free-to-air service and be made available . . . to the whole community on the island of Ireland”.

The same legislation obligates RTÉ to publish a public service statement, the second principle of which states “RTÉ will provide for and be responsive to the interests, needs and concerns of the whole community on the island of Ireland”. It is absolutely clear that RTÉ’s responsibilities are not limited to the boundaries of the State. As a citizen of a northern county, I have had to deal with the reduction in service in 2008 when medium-wave services were terminated.

At the time, much was made of the continued availability of longwave services as a mitigating factor. Now many northern citizens face a further removal of service provision. RTÉ’s advice on how to stay tuned claims “98 per cent of Radio 1 listeners are not affected”. Is that 98 per cent of listeners within the State or 98 per cent of the listeners which RTÉ has a legal obligation to? Of course, potential solutions exist. There is an entire FM , DAB and MW broadcasting infrastructure in Northern Ireland. RTÉ Radio 1 could be provided on MW in the North to ensure full service provision for all citizens. These options should be considered before the removal of the longwave service. – Yours, etc,

CONOR QUINN,

Lisburn, Co Antrim.

Sir, – Further to recent correspondence (October 8th) and Frank McNally’s “Irishman’s Diary” (October 9th), the problem with Dublin’s present motto “Obedientia civium urbis felicitatis” (The obedience of the citizens produces a happy city) is not that it lacks inclusiveness but that many citizens choose to ignore its message. As I saw during a recent visit, pedestrians don’t wait for the little green man or they cross where there is no zebra marking; cyclists use footpaths; motorcyclists dispense with silencers; car drivers exceed speed limits and/or blast whole neighbourhoods with amplified “music”, etc, etc.

We deserve something like: “Negligentia civium urbis ignominia” ( The uncaring attitude of citizens is a disgrace to a city). – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DRURY,

Brussels,

Belgium.

Sir, – How about “Amor /Odio”? – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Dalkey,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – “What are you looking at?” – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Joan Burton has expressed wonderment that those protesting against the installation of water meters have access to “extremely expensive mobile phones” (Home News, October 10th). Her amazement probably stems from the fact that they wouldn’t have an allowance of €750 every 18 months to provide them, as she and her colleagues do. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN MacDONAGH,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The Tánaiste’s outburst proves beyond doubt that Labour under Joan Burton will be absolutely no different to Labour under Eamon Gilmore. The Coalition thinks that the great mass of Irish people are simply not poor enough.

Whatever their other cosmetic differences in policy, Labour and Fine Gael are united in one thing. They both clearly believe money does not suit the Irish psyche and we (but not they) would do well to have less of it. They been doing their best to rectify this disgraceful situation over the last few years. Paddy must still have a few bob stuffed away under the mattress that surely could be winkled out. Water charges might be just the ticket. – Yours etc,

NICK FOLLEY,

Carrigaline,

Co Cork.

Sir, – The story about a leaking water pipe being left for eight months while public bodies squabble over the ownership and responsibility for repair of the pipe beggars belief (“Broken water pipe left unfixed as ownership questioned”, October 10th).

Irish Water, we are told on its website, is responsible for providing and developing water services in Ireland. The website goes on to say that water is one of our most valuable resources.

This vignette is a stark example of much that is wrong with public service in Ireland. The reluctance of individuals and bodies corporately to take responsibility for putting things right creates the sort of mess that has been left in Dún Laoghaire for the past eight months.

Is it beyond the wit of someone in Irish Water to ramble down the pier with a stopcock tap under his or her arm to turn off the water? –Yours, etc,

DFM DUFFY,

Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Sir, – Gerard Wrixon (October 8th) quite rightly brings attention to the scarcity of solar energy collectors in Ireland.

Many people seem to think Ireland is too far north to gain from solar power. Not true! A year ago, I installed a 4kw panel on my roof, expecting to generate 3,000 kwh electricity a year.

It has outperformed that forecast by 22 per cent. In the process, it saved the country almost two tonnes of carbon emissions.

It also powers an electric car, so less petrol pollution.

If it was supposed to do nothing but heat water, I could have received a grant towards the cost. It does heat the water, but also does so much more, therefore by some strange perverse logic, no grant is available! I have not used any gas for inefficient water heating from May to October, making another saving of carbon.

Much of the surplus energy goes into the grid for other consumers, yet I am still required to pay the public service obligation (PSO) levy to subsidise the ESB.

To add to the insult, my supplier now increases the standing charge in summer months because I am not buying any electricity from them.

Congratulations are due to Tipperary. County Council for the foresight to install on its premises the largest solar array yet in Ireland. I’m sure it will find, as I do, this is the best investment it could make. Other counties and government offices, please take note.

Ireland is struggling to meet our target reduction of carbon emissions and will face heavy EU fines for failure. Surely it would pay well to support many thousands of small productive installations like mine rather than forfeit the money to pay these fines.

So, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly, you know what to do. – Yours, etc,

DENIS LEONARD

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – Miriam Lord (“Enda’s galley slaves send him in well armed on the Sinn Féin budget”, October 9th) has revealed the “curious questions” that go through her head when the Taoiseach answers questions from me in the Dáil on the Government’s austerity policies – whether I have a well, whether I rent in Louth, and why I remain in good form. Still waters do indeed run deep. – Is mise,

GERRY ADAMS, TD,

Teach Laighean,

Baile Átha Cliath 2.

Irish Independent:

Are we not in the position that supply and demand economics are starting to effect property prices? Have we now learnt from the recent boom/bust era and the aftermath for the Irish economy and its citizens? Good practice after the crash in the 1980s in UK and in Canada (a country that was not touched by the latest global crash) is still not being recommended by the Irish Central Bank.

Regardless of what techniques underwriters use, a good rule of thumb was 2.5 times the principle earner’s income plus one time the secondary applicant to a maximum of 75pc loan to value of property.

This loan-to-value rate was only increased where an indemnity bond insured the extra risk to the financial institution.

I was a mortgage underwriter in the late 1990s, when the ‘Three Cs’ (Collateral, Capacity to repay and Character) of credit scoring were thrown away, along with good common sense, as lending criteria was put into the hands of the marketing department personnel rather than hands of the underwriters .

Should the financial service industry be allowed to refuel the property market or should sensible lending criteria reflecting best practice derived from previous boom/bust scenarios be implemented by the regulator/Government?

Remember, we all bought houses in the 1970s and 1980s as first-time buyers and struggled with deposits and repayments.

Helen McMahon

Portrane, Co Dublin

Irish Water set to run and run

Irish Water has issued some helpful suggestions to its customers on how to reduce domestic water usage. However, here are a number of useful tips it somehow appears to have missed:

Always try your best to take your showers or baths with at least one other person, such as a partner or a friend (a very, very trusted friend) but never with complete strangers, no matter what assurances they may give you. Also, any neighbour calling to the door and offering, out of the blue, to share a bath with you should be very carefully vetted before you agree to take the plunge and sponge with them.

Washing up the dishes after meals is a major water waster. From now on serve and eat your meals only on biodegradable bin liner bags – opened up and spread out on the floor – and voila, mes amis – when the meal is finished les scraps can be very easily gathered and binned.

And, whatever you do, never use cutlery. If it was good enough for our prehistoric caveman ancestors to eat with their fingers it should be good enough for us too. Just be sure that you wear thin disposable latex gloves, thus obviating the use of any water for cleaning the hands after eating.

Toileting (a): Your number one priority is actually your number two. The days of the free-wheeling loose use of the toilet bowl have to be put behind us. From now on we need to start “thinking outside of the bowl” – or what looologists these days prefer to call “thinking outside of the bowel”. By far the best way to avoid flushing in your residence is to schedule most number twos for loos located outside of the home, at say, for example, your place of work, local library, pub, shopping centre, or in the Garda or Fire Station should a real emergency arise.

Toileting (b): Number One. There is no good reason why in decent weather most people could not just as easily “go” in their back gardens.

Finally, regarding children who continually fail to turn off the taps: Parents should seriously consider putting these thoughtless creatures up for auction on eBay. For parents who may bizarrely have some qualms about going the eBay route, a useful alternative for them would be to train a few Rottweilers or Pit Bulls to stand guard over the taps.

Ivor Shorts

Rathfarnham, Dublin

So Our Lord did a one-off and turned water into wine at a wedding! But sure haven’t we got our very own quango which has just miraculously turned water into a never-ending stream of bonus-buttressed super salaries and gold-plated pensions!

And so, another plush carriage, complete with bonus buffet and packed with all the usual mod cons, has been added to the non-stop State gravy train. I sometimes wonder what particular form the inevitable and unavoidable final showdown will take in our own case.

George MacDonald

Gorey, Co Wexford

What could be worse than FG?

John Waters’ article on Enda Kenny (October 8) may just be the best description of our Dear Leader I have read.

I guess the thing is Enda sees himself as “one of us” – and given the reception he gets at events such as the National Ploughing Championships it is a pretence that the masses are happy to go along with.

This means he has nothing at all to do with “that crowd up in Dublin” who are responsible for all those nasty extra taxes to keep bailing out our busted property speculators and their banks.

Perhaps the Irish subconsciously fear that if we were to openly rebel against “our” leaders then the dastardly Brits might return to rule over us.

And Heaven help us, but absolutely nothing could possibly be worse than that.

Gerry Kelly

Rathgar, Dublin 6

Crusades of the Middle Ages

In relation to Concetto La Malfa’s comment that we may be tempted to think “Isil are getting their sweet revenge after what the Crusaders did in their Islamic countries” (Irish Independent Letters, October 6) an important point must be made. Whatever we may think of them now, the Crusades from 1095 AD were a response to centuries of militaristic Islamic expansion.

An oft-forgotten fact is the Syrian church in the 5th century AD was by far the largest of the Christian regions in the world at the time – larger than both the Latin western or more Greek-leaning Orthodox churches.

It stretched all the way from what is now Syria across to Persia (modern day Iran) and even reached as far as China.

All of it was swept away under Islamic invasions from the late 7th century onwards. With Islamic armies pouring into Asia Minor (Turkey) and Constantinople next in sights, the Christian Emperor of Byzantium appealed to the western Church and world for help to repel the invaders.

With all due respect to our brothers in monotheism, Islam did not arrive in the Holy Land peacefully all those centuries ago. As they saw it, the Crusaders were not invading ‘Islamic countries’ but formerly Christian and Jewish ones that had been subdued by the sword.

Despite their flaws and ultimate failure, they were hardly an unexpected or unreasonable response for Christendom at the time, whatever their place in today’s world.

Nick Folley

Carrigaline, Co Cork

Keane still in play

Rather than reading Roy Keane’s book – The Second Half – this Christmas I think that I will wait until he publishes extra time or replay in order to get the full story.

John Finegan

Bailieborough, Co Cavan

Irish Independent

12 October 2014 Sandy

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. A busy day Sandy comes to visit, fixes dead laptop.

Mary’s back much better today, breakfast weight down gammon for tea and her back pain is still there but decreasing.

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