Letters to the Editor: Don’t forget Lebanon as Coveney heads to Iran

Fri, 12 Mar, 2021 - 08:42

Minister Simon Coveney’s visit to Tehran should be welcomed during what is a pivotal time not just for the revival of the Iran nuclear deal but also the wider issues affecting the Middle East.

Without a functioning government, Lebanon’s social and economic decline continues at a rapid rate.

The recent scenes in shops and supermarkets highlight just how desperate people have become.

Lebanon — by definition — is a failed state.

The poverty statistics are horrifying, as is the pace of the country’s decline. Resilience is an oversubscribed term in this context.

Increased targeted humanitarian aid is needed immediately while significant diplomatic pressure must continue to be exerted by the international community.

Emphasis and support should
not just be focused on refugee populations but also on that of host communities.

Plan International continues to provide essential support and services to host communities and refugee populations, especially girls, in Lebanon and the wider region.

Whilst Ireland as a newly elected member of the UN Security Council is playing an influential role in efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, Lebanon and other failing states in the region should not be forgotten.

Cyprus and the EU lie just 260 kilometres from the Lebanese coastline. The cost of ignoring the plight of the Lebanese population will be far greater for Europe in the longer term.

Colin Lee

Regional director, Plan International

Beirut

Lebanon

Minister’s claim is a bit of a dose to take

It’s easy for Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to claim 95% of vaccines are deployed and administered within a week of arriving. The reason for this is the doses landing here are piddling amounts.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry

Co Cork

I’m none the wiser on our vaccine plan

I listened this week with attention to the News at One on RTÉ Radio 1 with three eminent and well known spokespersons for the HSE, Department of Health and a senior cabinet minister. I am none the wiser about our national vaccine plan.

Surely we could play some hard nose business skills with these major pharma companies.

People are frustrated and angry and deserve an action plan response now.

Brendan O’Brien

Waterside

Galway

NI power sharing a shotgun wedding

I am writing in response to Daniel McConnell’s column — ‘North risks a return to dark days’ (Irish Examiner, March 6).

He wrote: “The withdrawal of the loyalist group’s support, however is a clear sign the historic agreement which paved the path for brittle peace which has held since, is without question under the greatest strain since it’s [the good Friday Agreement] signing 23 years ago.”

The brittle peace is because the agreement has the shotgun wedding of power sharing between two divergent parties at the heart of Northern Ireland’s political process.

Sinn Féin ultimately wants to continuously fly the Irish tricolour over Belfast City Hall while the Democratic Unionist Party tries to keep Irish off the signposts. Northern Ireland needs regular coalition politics for a consistent direction.

Coalition partners outside the sectarian fold can temper the excess partisanship.

It is hard to imagine Stormont shut if Sinn Féin or the DUP could form a government with a combination of the other parties.

In fairness Alliance’s improving polling might someday see them finish second, surely then the mandatory nationalist and unionist coalition will be untenable, in the face of a crisis of democratic legitimacy.

Ultimately, there might not be a secure foundation for peace until Northern Ireland’s future allegiance is decided by its voters for decades to come.

If Northern Ireland ends up in a United Ireland, nationalists better learn respect or risk living with a restless community wanting to sever ties.

The important thing to do is nail down concrete action to get reconciliation and peace achieved.

Shane Burke

Monasterevin

Kildare

Escalating costs of direct provision

The news conveyed in the article — ‘Cost of direct provision rose to €183m last year’ (Irish Examiner, March 4) — adds that it has doubled since 2018, exposes once again the complete failure of government to tackle the (numbers of) asylum-seeking immigrants.

That figure does not even reflect the total costs involved — add in court hearings, medical assessments, translators, garda time and the real cost to the taxpayer is likely to be more than €250m.

The problem as suggested elsewhere by your correspondent, Elaine Loughlin, in a recent opinion column is not a broken direct provision system but the failure to implement a proper deportation policy for failed applicants.

Upward of 90% of applicants are found to have no basis for asylum, and any persons who are here for more than three or four years will have had innumerable refusals of their protracted appeals.

Ministers O’Gorman and McEntee are now going to increase Ireland’s attraction as an asylum destination by providing ‘own-door’ houses and apartments to all applicants after four months.

What chance will there be of deporting any of those people when they are found to have failed?

This new State industry will cost us ever-increasing amounts as we seek to rebuild our nation after this Covid pandemic.

Ted Neville

Douglas

Cork

African-US slavery and direct provision

What is the difference between African-American slavery and direct provision?

People in both of these situations were forced from their country of origins by threats of violence.

One was made to work while the other is excluded from the right to work.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

One helped produce the goods which made their business owners rich while the others are the goods which makes the businesses rich.

One system physically tortured while the other system mentally tortures.

Dean Lillis

Castleconnell

Co Limerick

Making voting in referenda fairer

Patrick Murray in his missive ‘Overhaul referenda for fairer outcomes’ (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 8) has some interesting proposals: Requiring a turnout of 80% of the total electorate and 75% voting in favour for an amendment to pass.

The Constitution of the Free State of Ireland, 1922, the work of General Michael Collins and others, had similar provisions for changes to it by referenda. In fact the most significant change of all was Mr Éamon de Valera’s project, the Constitution of 1937.

The turnout for that was 75.6% — the highest ever — of the voters on the register; 10% of them were spoiled, nearly twice the next highest ever. That referendum did not pass the test of the 1922 Constitution, but it was glossed over.

Typically the turnout at the 44 referenda held since 1937 has been 50%. The lowest since 1996 has been the vote to introduce new dedicated constitutional rights regarding children in 2012; then just 33.5% of the electorate turned out.

Of all the rights and obligations in the Constitution, not one obliges the State to criminalise failures to comply with them.

Unless one has deep pockets, it is hardly worth the paper it is written on in a citizen’s hands.

Only one, the utterance of blasphemy, did oblige the Oireachtas to make a crime of it. We abolished that provision in 2018.

John Colgan

Leixlip

Co Kildare

Language barrier of grammar and rules

A recent article in the Irish Examiner about the problems with Gaeilge brought to mind a rather sad but relevant memory.

Several years ago a good friend (long since in heaven) met me one day. He was a genuinely enthusiastic Irish speaker and teacher and had just come from visiting a language school of some renown.

As the steam poured from his ears he told me they taught French, German, Spanish, Chinese, and even Japanese but not Irish.

When he asked why he was told ‘but the place is for the teaching of ‘modern languages’.

My reply was not any consolation. “Look at how we teach Irish,” I said. “It’s just the same way as we teach Latin, all grammar and rules. We’d put anyone off.”

Pat Browne

Skehard Rd

Cork

Letters to the Editor: Central Bank must modify outdated regulations