Article 6.a of the Constitution states: “all powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in the final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.”

Regarding the recent animal welfare donation, and given the times that are in it, I have to ask the following questions: how much did the Commissioners for Charitable Donations and Bequests get paid to decide how the donation of €500k should be distributed?

The Garda Representative body is objecting to a cut in the number of officers.

I’m sure every taxpayer agrees this EU-driven, probably Government-steering-committee-led, new credit card-sized driving permit is just another ‘licence’ to print money, so to speak.

Please allow me to respond to Janet Maxwell, Church of Ireland Head of Communications (Letters, Jan 10). She wrote to you on the Protestant evangelical Bethany Home (that closed in 1972), in response to a column by Victoria White and a subsequent Examiner editorial.

It was with embarrassment for our education standards that I read the article by Victoria White. ‘My flag is Green, White and Orange, not Gold’.

Anything to do with life or death in this country is moralised and controlled by fundamentalists, who have one view and expect the rest of us to agree with it.

Nobody voted in the last election for a reduction in the Garda budget and the huge cutbacks in alarms for the elderly apart, maybe, from the criminal fraternity.

Basically, if I loan you money, it is my decision, my risk.

I was the main speaker at the Sinn Féin Commemoration for Seán South in Limerick City on Jan 6.