Last Saturday I went to my local retail park. Thinking it being January, the Christmas crowds would be gone, this male would be able to shop in peace.

The incorrect impression is regularly given in the Irish Examiner that women in this country are denied ‘control of their own bodies’ while neighbouring jurisdictions have such rights. One example is a letter by Jason Fitzharris (December 5).

Ireland is truly an island of two separate countries.

In the debate on school patronage, much has been said about rights, but have you heard anyone mention the rights of the most important people in education, children.

A couple of weeks ago, I received my water bill for the first quarter.

There have been moves of late to loosen the party whip to allowing politicians vote freely on matters of conscience.

So the diva, Garth Brooks, doesn’t get his way, throws a tantrum and storms off the stage before it’s even built. Perhaps he should eat a Snickers when he is hungry.

The local and European elections are a fortnight away and there will be wall-to-wall coverage on the candidates. What won’t be covered is the electoral system, because the body politic assumes that voters know how to vote.

There is a misconception about the Seanad referendum that those in favour of reform should vote no. In fact reform can happen even if you vote yes.

A constant whinge from senators is that the Seanad has wonderful and insightful debates that are never reported by the media, and thus the public never get to learn how brilliant and necessary the Seanad is for democracy.

Opponents of abolition say the Seanad is necessary and should be reformed. But where is the guarantee that promised reform will materialise after a ‘no’ vote?

Opponents of the €100 million annual subsidy to fee-paying schools claim that it subsidies a privileged education for an exclusive elite.

One of the arguments against a value-based property tax is that it punishes a house owner who improves the value of their house by installing insulation, building an extension etc.

If the rumours are true, the property tax will be assessed on both the house and the site.

Compare the following: Priest A writes a few articles about women’s ordination and celibacy.

DURING the course of the election campaign I received 13 Litir um Thoghchán from various presidential and by-election candidates.

IRISH bishops have hidden behind data protection laws and sacerdotal privilege to excuse why they couldn’t disclose documentation about child molesters.

AS Jason Fitzharris (May 17) and myself are in agreement that targeting the pension savings of workers (public or private) is unjust, I am sure that he won’t mind if I correct some of his small omissions.

I AM disappointed at the very poor quality of the arguments used by the Cabinet in favour of the tax on private sector pension funds.

IT is offensive to hear senators, out of touch with popular opinion, desperately cling to their jobs with vacuous arguments for retaining the Seanad.

OVER the past few weeks and continuing until budget day, various taxes and cuts will be suggested to address the deficit.

WHY is Fine Gael being criticised for removing the Dáil pairing arrangement?

THE scandal of current and former politicians collecting lavish pensions while also taking a substantial salary is yet more proof of just how out of touch with real people the political class has become.

YOUR editorial (April 15) on ghost estates continues the “build it and they will come” mentality of the housing boom.

IN his letter (March 20), Jason FitzHarris seems to conflate what the Catholic Church “thinks” with what particular members of the clergy or hierarchy think or do.

IN reply to James McGrath (Letters, March 15), if the Catholic Church doesn’t think worshippers are to blame for priests raping children, why did the Bishop of Ferns ask worshippers to pay a “rape tax”?

I DON’T see how Jason FitzHarris (Letters, March 1) can argue with the Pope’s view that “a lack of respect for the human person” is at the heart of child abuse.

THE statement from Pope Benedict that a lack of respect for the human person and a weakening of faith contributed to the abuse of children is an interesting explanation for the greatest act of evil ever inflicted on the Irish people.

TREVOR Sargent’s representations to the gardaí to drop a prosecution begs the question that if a squeaky clean TD can do that, what are less honourable TDs getting up to? Some applaud Sargent for going quickly and with dignity, unlike Willie O’Dea.

LAST year the Dáil did better than in previous years by sitting for 100 days, while the House of Commons sat for 142 days.

AFTER the reports on residential institutional abuse in the diocese of Ferns and now Dublin, one can only conclude that 80 years of church rule was a nightmare compared with the 800 years of British rule which preceded it.

LAST week two party leaders, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore, were branded as populists for proposing to get rid of the Seanad and “Junket” John O’Donoghue, respectively.

IN his letter (May 26), Jason Fitzharris assures us that “Metro North has the support of all mainstream political parties.”

INFORMED readers will readily accept most of Ivan Yates’s arguments and solutions in relation to the dire state of the public finances (May 21).

THE local and European elections are now just over a fortnight away and there will be wall-to-wall coverage on the state of the parties, the likely winners and losers and the implications of the results for party leaders.

MARTIN CULLEN’S recent use of an army helicopter to attend a private function raises the appropriateness of the taxpayer paying the costs of politicians attending private functions.

THE new year is just a fortnight old and many more Irish workers find themselves out of a job.

DURING his budget speech, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan mentioned protecting the most vulnerable six times and then proceeded to screw the elderly, sick, disabled and the young.

IN his letter (September 15), Jason Fitzharris quite rightly encourages Fianna Fáil to make Ireland a member of CERN — the European organisation for nuclear research.

IN all the excitement of the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider nobody mentioned that Ireland is one of the few European countries which isn’t a member of CERN — the European organisation for nuclear research.

CLLR Bronwen Maher of the Green party (Letters, July 17) says that “one of the key findings of the recent European Commission survey among those who voted no to the Lisbon Treaty was a concern to safeguard Irish neutrality”.

IT is unlikely the Lisbon Treaty was rejected because of the arguments and ideologies of no campaigners.

THE controversy over Deputy Kathleen Lynch’s representation on behalf of a convicted paedophile rapist again raises the issue of the value of political representations.