Your letters, your views...

Your letters, your view.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar’s proposal to relax the rules on the giving of blood donations shows how far the Fine Gael/Labour Government is prepared to go.

Eddie Hobbs (Irish Examiner, November 19) says he wants Article 10 of the Constitution changed. We could never understand the State, through the EU, giving “equal access to a common resource” and so we sought legal advice.

A billion euro was taken in fish from Irish waters last year, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, with 88% of catches taken by foreign vessels. 

We can easily sympathise with the frustration of livestock farmers at the “stand back” attitude of Minister Coveney to the beef industry crisis. (Irish Examiner, August 28). 

How sad to hear the last sea fisherman (Conor O’Drisceoil) on Cape Clear is giving up.

Jose Emmanuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, in a recent reference to Ukraine, has spoken enthusiastically of “European values” for that country. But what exactly are these values?

As far as I am aware, most appointments to top public-service positions are without advertisement or competition.

We believe the Irish government will get € 1.4bn as a once-off payment for the sale of an Bord Gáis.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of perhaps the most significant event in Irish Labour Relations history.

There is great debate and talk of a national crisis in Brendan Howlin’s efforts to extract €300m from public sector pay.

A new fishing lobby body has made a direct plea to EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki for a greater share of the EU white fish quota for Ireland.

It’s easy to get lost in the details of the current amendment.

There seems little point in giving priority to closing down the Vatican embassy at the Villa Spada, re-designating these premises as the Embassy to Italy, spending €1m on “refurbishment”, and then handing the whole thing over to the EU.

I SERVED for 12 years in a voluntary capacity as secretary of the Mallow Hospital Retention Committee under the chairmanship of the late Joe Sherlock TD who was at that time a socially committed member of Mallow Urban District Council.

IT seems to me the Civil Partnership Bill is a carbon copy of the strategy on divorce.

FORMER senator Deirdre de Búrca accused the Green party, led by Environment Minister John Gormley, of having “lost its way”.

THERE is something of an irony in the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) bringing a case against Ireland at the European Court of Human Rights.

IT is unfair to blame the majority for the sins of the few in institutions run by religious orders.

The trial of three men accused of INLA membership continued at the Special Criminal Court today.

I WISH to respond to the letter from Donal O’Driscoll headlined ‘MEP’s contradictory stance on rights’ (March 16).

ON rereading my letter (January 5), I can see how Colm Burke MEP misunderstood what I said (Letters, January 23).

DESPITE Donal O’Driscoll’s assertion (Letters, January 5), the Irish Supreme Court never adjudicated on protocol 35 to the Lisbon Treaty.

THERE are several inaccurate points in the letter from Colm Burke MEP (‘Legal assurances not enough to reverse Lisbon vote,’ December 22).

A motorist who is accused of dragging a senior member of An Garda Siochana along the side of his moving car creating a risk of death or serious injury over four years ago, was arrested in London today and extradited to Cork.

IRELAND is the only EU state where the people will vote on the Lisbon treaty?

YOUR front page graphic (‘Ireland’s debt toll,’ February 1) had an eye-catching stack of coins representing our growing mortgage and credit card debt.

IT was recently revealed that Tony Blair quashed an inquiry into British sales of arms to Saudi Arabia.

I FIND it difficult to put into words my outrage at Bertie Ahern’s remark that he did not understand why the cribbers and moaners did not commit suicide (Irish Examiner, July 5).

WHILE the established parties were knocking on doors and kissing babies, our newest political party was formed on May 12.

ON March 25, 1807 — just a month over 200 years ago — the royal assent was given to an act of parliament sought by William Wilberforce to end the slave trade.

YOU can tell as much about a sport by watching its fans as the games.

This property near Ballycotton has two separate residences.

I WISH to express my agreement with Donal O’Driscoll (Irish Examiner letters, November 27) concerning Dr Ian Paisley.

I WISH to respond to the letter from Dr JE Hazlett-Lynch (Irish Examiner, November 20) concerning the DUP’s stance on the St Andrews Agreement.

THE suggestion by Patrick L O’Brien (Irish Examiner letters, November 11) that “any right minded Irish person” would be frightened by the prospect of Sinn Féin in government is ridiculous.

Nemo Rangers 2-11 Valley Rovers 2-6

THE Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, said recently that successive governments have ignored the needs of children with mental health problems.