A late surge saw turnout nationally in the local and European parliament elections approach an estimated 57%, one percentage below the 2009 figure and 9% less than the 68% recorded in the last general election.

I REFER to an recent article by Patsy McArdle in the Irish Examiner headed “Probe into claims beef ‘pirates’ are selling meat door-to-door” (Jan 9) which claims that “Department of Agriculture officials are believed to have already led a number of raids in the Donegal area in a bid to detect illegal slaughterhouses”.