I am writing about vets’ fees. We have an elderly neighbour. He brought his 10-year-old dog to the vet for a check-up that lasted five minutes and was charged €50.

Several letters appeared recently in the Irish Examiner about the Irish language. Some referred to the rights of citizens to use Irish when dealing with government offices.

Some years after his release from prison I was shocked when Nelson Mandela described the IRA as true freedom fighters for the people of Ireland.

Ajai Chopra, former IMF reviewer for Ireland, has said it was unfair for Irish taxpayers to suffer the cost of bailing out the banks when senior bondholders got their money back.

As a keen follower of Munster rugby for many years Ronan O’Gara’s article (Irish Examiner, Dec 20) was spot-on.

To find out at three-weeks old that your perfect newborn child has cystic fibrosis is devastating.

Where a language is excluded from public or official business, that language goes into decline.

Although the most celebrated recruiting posters of World War I featured the Listowel-born Herbert Kitchener, it seems they didn’t feature prominently in Kerry or Ireland generally and it seems that Kitchener did not regard the Irish as his countrymen and women.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso incorrectly claims the euro currency was a “victim” of the problems caused by Ireland.

Aren’t we so lucky to have men with the stature of José Manuel Barroso at the helm in Europe? With outstanding logic he explains that if any European bank ‘causes a problem for Europe’ in future, Irish banks will have to take their share of the losses.