The recent announcement by Ministers Deenihan and Quinn in respect of the Charter Agreement between their respective departments represents a truly visionary shift in Government policy towards the Arts and Education.

Your editorial of Saturday, Jan 26, ‘Unions better stick to Croke Park agreement’, sounds like an unquestioning press release from government spin doctors.

Unwillingness to deal directly with an accused person, an injunction to secrecy, presumption of guilt, lack of due process – does this seem like a caring church in 21st century Ireland?

On behalf of the justice and peace organisation, Afri, I am revulsed at comments by the head of the Shannon Airport Authority, Rose Hynes, to an Oireachtas committee, as reported in the Irish Examiner.

Theresa Tinggal’s letter on illegal adoptions (Jan 19), in response to Conall Ó Fátharta’s article in the Irish Examiner, (Jan 14) made sobering reading.

In recent days, we have been subjected to the extraordinary spectacle of Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton being threatened with censure by her own party hierarchy — for trying to do what the party promised during its 2011 election campaign.

A “new politics” certainly.

Kicking the can down the road sounds like an amusing solution to Ireland’s problems, but the reality is no joke.

Fr Tony Flannery informs us that he has been threatened with excommunication from the Church, an institution to which he has dedicated the greater part of his life.

According to John O’Hara (Letters, Jan 24), the thousands of people who attended the pro-life rally in Dublin last Saturday are extremists who are backed, if not manipulated by, the Catholic Church.