In reply to a question in the Dáil last week about JobBridge internships being used to supplement teachers, Minister Ruari Quinn declared: “an awful lot of young people are going into teaching so that they can emigrate”.

It was inevitable that it would eventually dawn on our education minister how poorly educated our school leavers were, even after a spell at secondary level, and he is going to have a go at correcting it.

Has anyone else noticed that AIB branches have replaced customer service points with machines?

Barry Walsh (Letters, January 24) laments the public discussion regarding Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s salary and uses cherry-picked comparisons to present it as acceptable, even modest.

Fair play to Conor Cusack (Irish Examiner, Jan 28) for speaking out about his ongoing struggle with depression.

I was not going to contact you with reference to Anne Lovett’s 30th anniversary, but after watching Philomena on the Late late Show‘, I feel that I must comment.

I was moved to write this when I read Brian Meaney’s recent letter (Jan 17) about the case of Ann Lovett, her child and his New Year’s resolution to visit their grave on the 30th anniversary of their deaths.

The announcement of the new stem cell factory in Galway brings us closer to the reality of genetic revolution.

I urge the people of Ireland, especially country people, to resist fracking to the death, because if they frack a small island like yours there will be no water to drink.

I have to commend UCC for the World War I lectures held at the university at the weekend.