At a recent sitting of a District Court, a judge, told a driver with 31 previous convictions for driving without insurance that he should contact the editor of the Guinness Book of Records to have the offences included.

Further to Michael Moriarty’s letter (Irish Examiner, January 1), re the imprisonment of Ibrahim Halawa, I was told that Ibrahim was offered release last summer and a flight home, but he refused this offer.

Victoria White wrote that “creating categories of abortable babies...does nothing to question our baby-killing social and economic values”. (Irish Examiner, January 7).

The shocking death tolls outlined in your coverage (World News, January 6) missed the vital statistic that the EU has only resettled 0.17% of the refugees to whom, in September, it committed to offering safety and hope.

At first glance, I thought things were looking up with Victoria White’s article (Irish Examiner, January 7) bearing the title ’It is wrong to deem some babies abortable and others not’.

With the prospect of the UK opting out of the EU and given its close ties to Ireland, it may be wise for the incoming Irish government to explore the possibility of an alliance with England, Scotland, Wales, the North, and perhaps northern countries, like Finland and Denmark? 

Independent TD, Michael Fitzmaurice’s criticism of President Michael D Higgins (Irish Examiner, January 7) for his work in transposing the EU Habitats Directives into Irish law, in 1997, which he claims is impeding efforts to dredge the rivers, is typical hot air as the elections near.

Floods will abate and disappear, as will the initiative of those responsible, giving way to speeches from politicians and public-sector engineers doing a “Nero”.