As a believer in democracy I welcome the new Oireachtas petitions system whereby any of us can petition the Oireachtas on issues of public concern.

The government’s finance policies are very strange, to say the least, to any sane mind.

In response to the letter of Catriona McClean (Sept 12) , she is correct on one thing.

‘Half a loaf is better then no bread’. This particular slogan has always been regarded as sound advice.

Driving under the influence of drugs has become more common over the last few years, especially among the younger male generation. Drug driving is an area of increasing concern among international road traffic agencies due to the increased presence of illegal substances in those involved in road traffic collisions.

In his ‘State of the Union’ address, Jose Manuel Barroso claims that “We will need to move toward a federation of nation states.”

Following the release of thousands of official documents relating to Britain’s deadliest sporting disaster, the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989, British prime minister David Cameron expressed a profound apology on behalf of his government to the families of those killed (‘Cameron offers apology for Hillsborough cover-up’, Irish Examiner, Sept 12th).

Fergus Finlay (Sep 11) is misleading your readers and doing them a huge disservice by causing them to focus on the “words” of any proposed changes to the Constitution. The real threat waiting in the wings is the wording of Article Two of the UN Convention of Rights of the Child which states that children will be “protected” from the “expressed opinions or beliefs of the child’s parents…”

Nurit Tinari-Modai of the Israeli embassy (Letters Sep 8) takes your correspondent Dan Buckley to task for suggesting that Israel’s 1967 attack on its Arab neighbours was a bid to grab land and resources.

To add to Victoria White’s piece (Irish Examiner, Sept 6) in addition to the 700,000 hour cuts to home help hours there was an earlier cut of 700,000, and in addition home helps are told not to talk to their patients.