If anyone still needs convincing that the so-called political representatives haven’t betrayed the people of Gaza, then the report by Steen Lau Jorgensen, the World Bank’s director for the region should once and for all highlight the criminal behaviour of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

As the banking inquiry winds its weary way on interrogating those it deems to be responsible for the financial chaos that developed during the dying days of the last Fianna Fail Government, it is managing to elicit from those concerned how lax the controls were on lending large sums of money to individuals whether it was for mortgages or other ventures.

I read the article “Coroner notes rise in heroin deaths in Cork” earlier this month and stories about two teenagers who died having taken ecstasy in Dublin recently.

The criticisms levelled by Senator Averil Power against Fianna Fáil in her resignation speech could equally be applied to the other political parties.

When Dr Brendan O’Brien cites a 2013 UN report that indicates a less than equitable share of financial resources were being received by Israel’s Palestinian citizens who “were allocated less than 6.25% of the state budget even though they make up 20% of the population”, he used this statistic to justify his support of the Boycott, Diversify and Sanction campaign (Letters, May 27).

Now the marriage equality referendum is over, would it be too much to ask that politicians and the media get back to real life and real issues?

Letter writer, Maeve Halpin from Ranelagh recently ended a letter with the following paragraph:

I wish to predicate my contention by stating that I did not vote against the proposal in the marriage referendum: therefore the following matter is not intended to be prejudicial to the advancement of its cause.

All loving relationships are life-enhancing and although they may lead us on unfamiliar paths, they are paths of beauty that always lead us home. I believe, however they voted in this marriage referendum, all fair-minded people would be in favour of acknowledging and respecting gay and lesbian unions.

Rubbish is being dumped recklessly all over Ireland. In Co Cork, between Belgooly and Riverstick and between Riverstick and the Rising Sun, household rubbish has been discarded on the side of the road.