Perhaps now that a documentary has been made pertaining to the cruel procedure carried out on thousands of unknowing women since the mid-1940s, Government reticence to deal with the massive physical and emotional damage caused by symphysiotomy will embarrass them into looking after these amazing women.

Concerning the unfortunate death of Savita Halappanavar, I fear that the main problem is being missed.

Why is that every time it’s suggested a wealth tax should be introduced to help our dire economic situation and help alleviate the pressure on the less well off, we are told it can’t be done?

As time goes by, new medicines replace old ones.

Jeremy Williams in his masterful Companion Guide to Architecture in Ireland refers to the ‘Lhasa-like’ tiered effect created by Robert Ashlin’s Good Shepherd Convent and other institutions located on the prominent Cork City hillside.

There has been a lot of talk and fuss about The Gathering or, as I call it, the ‘Spend thousands to come home, go on the piss for a few weeks, and then feck off back to wherever you came from’ event.

Further to Dónal Hickey’s article re threats to drinking water (Nov 12), I wish to point out that the National Federation of Group Water Schemes met the HSE and the EPA in October to discuss growing concerns about the dangerous VTEC strain of E.coli in water supplies.

I’m delighted that moves are taking place to start up the sugar industry in Ireland again.

In 2010 the average payment to Cork county councillors was €28,750.

Eighty-four-year-old pensioner and widow, Anne Spearman (Letters, Nov 14) makes an impassioned plea to Finance Minister Michael Noonan “to look elsewhere to make his cuts” rather than do away with pensioners’ bus passes.