LEST there be any doubt, the fact the Oireachtas is not sitting for four weeks does not mean there will be any saving to the taxpayer by politicians claiming less expenses.

There seems to be a disproportionate number of national lottery tickets won in the west of Ireland as of late.

IN a way having read your brilliant article by Colette Brown (Opinion, Dec 21), I’m not surprised at the attitudes of the men in question.

THE Road Haulage Association must know that everything is taxed, so why do they think they should be exempt, when they do not have to pay to use the roads? (Letters, Dec 21).

JOHN Mulligan is mistaken to say that Irish local authorities are “bloated” (Letters, Dec 21) when local authority staffing has fallen by 20% since 2008.

WE at CELT (Centre for Environmental Living & Training) have been lobbying local TDs and councillors and calling for a ban on fracking in Clare and for the whole country.

LISTED below is a layman’s guide to the distribution of pension contributions.

I BEGIN this by just feeling so sorry and bemused at our government at this time, austerity crippling people in their day-to-day lives, it’s almost like watching an animal suffering being ever so slowly put out of its pain before dying.

AS a psychiatric survivor, board member of MindFreedom International, founder member of MindFreedom Ireland and co-author of Soul Survivor — A Personal Encounter with Psychiatry, I would like to congratulate Jennifer Hough and the Irish Examiner on the article “Man detained after GP wrote letter without ever seeing him”.

I would ask the following: