Letters to the Editor: Foul play if the public has to do the job of dog wardens

Fines, not signs, needed to tackle dog fouling 

IE EE ARCHIVE 30/08/2016 ...

In response to recent letter about dog fouling (Tackle litter with real enforcement Irish Examiner , March 26), anyone who sees a dog fouling a public place and the owner fail to clean it can complain to the District Court under litter legislation.

According to the Citizens Information website they must first tell the dog owner by completing a form which can be obtained from the local authority. 

That is a ridiculous attempt to have citizens do the job of the dog warden. What if they do not know the person’s name or where they live?

What if the owner gets aggressive?

it is a nonsensical, roundabout way to enforce the Dog Control Act.

I wonder if I see someone robbing a bank should I send them a form to tell them I will bring them to court?

Tipperary Council put up “signage and stencilling to encourage the public to be more responsible. I have seen some of these “responsible” people have their dogs foul right beside the signs.

People who do that have no sense of responsibility nor any respect for others. They are selfish and ignorant. You think a sign or stencil will change them?

A fine — not a sign — is the answer.

Dog wardens should be employed on a 24-hour basis to deal with the dirty animals and their dogs, some of whom think it’s a good idea to let dogs out at night. 

Anyone caught allowing a dog to foul should lose the right to own a dog the first time, not after some namby pamby round of chances and excuses so beloved of Ireland.

A situation whereby a member of the public has to inform a fouling-dog owner that they intend to complain them to the District Court is a bit like having a dog and having to bark yourself.

John Williams

Clonmel

Co Tipperary

Sinn Féin should be point-scoring in this crisis

It is disappointing to see Sinn Féin not taking advantage of the opportunity to establish themselves as the obvious leaders of the next government by allowing the current one off the hook in terms of the shambolic vaccine roll-out in this country.

While nit-picking on the obliquities of Leo Varadkar regarding the leaking of classified information two years ago, they are missing an open goal by not pursuing the Coalition on the current disastrous state of affairs.

Instead, they are leaving the criticism of the lack of urgency and leadership to commentators like former PD minister Michael McDowell, Labour leader Alan Kelly, and Trinity professor Luke O’Neill.

We are in a dire situation, recognised by foreign politicians such as Boris Johnson, Benjamin Netanyahu — and even Joe Biden. These leaders have prioritised the vaccines as the only way out of endless lockdown, with its attendant mental and economic strangulation.

Sinn Féin have become just another cautious and timid political organisation, afraid to rock the boat, no better than the pusillanimous excuse for a taoiseach currently presiding.

At least Leo is making an attempt to sow hope and cast light amidst the gloom. Sinn Féin have become Fianna Fáil light and I am increasingly wondering what are they for?

Maurice O’Callaghan

Stillorgan

Co Dublin

FF and FG had their own murky history

While being deliberately selective in his criticism of Sinn Féin because of their selection of nominees for ministerial positions, John Cushnahan rather conveniently forgot that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have had a murky past (SF hypocrisy in selection of ministers in North Irish Examiner , Letters, March 23).

Dick Mulcahy a former leader of Fine Gael, earned notoriety because of his involvement in the execution without trial of 77 anti-treaty activists during the Civil War. This war crime came back to haunt Mulcahy in 1948, when he was expecting to become taoiseach. 

However, he was forced to stand aside as leader of Fine Gael by Sean Mcbride the then leader of Clann na Poblachta who refused to negotiate the formation of a government until Mulcahy was replaced. John A Costello eventually became taoiseach. Mulcahy was a member of the Dáil for 36 years.

Frank Aiken of Fianna Fáil became minister for defence just 10 years after the killing of six Protestants at Altnaveigh near Newry. A native of Co Armagh, Aiken who was commander of the IRA’s Fourth Northern Division in 1922, also served as tánaiste from 1965 to 1969, and was a TD for more than 50 years.

Martin Corry, a Fianna Fáil TD for more than 40 years, was described by Michael Leahy as the Cork No 1 Brigades “chief executioner”. It is reckoned that Corry was responsible for 27 killings.

Dan Breen who was the first anti-treaty TD to take his seat in 1927, took part in the Soloheadbeg ambush, when two RIC men were killed. This was considered to have been the first incident of the War of Independence.

Liam Burke

Dunmore

Co Kilkenny

Recognise teachers as frontline workers

On Michael Cullen, the CEO of the Beacon Hospital: finally someone who recognises that teachers truly are frontline staff, mingling with hundreds of pupils each day, and need to be prioritised for vaccination over other groups. 

More’s the pity he didn’t have thousands more “leftovers” to vaccinate more teachers who wish to receive it.

The description of “leftover vaccines” really is apt; reflecting where teachers are in the pecking order, and only considered for the crumbs that will be left after pretty much the rest of the adult population gets vaccinated.  This is ludicrous, considering the similarity in the age range of those picking up Covid-19, and the age range of those teaching our children.

I’m sure the health minister is only too happy to drag this scandal out as long as possible, to deflect the attention away from the truly scandalous prioritisation of HSE office staff, who are so far from any frontline. 

Most were happy to roll up their sleeves to get the jab, and stay silent. We are all equal, but some of us are more equal than others. No wonder teachers are leaving the profession in their droves.

Una Ní Chormaic

Ferbane

Co Offaly

Flash of integrity in a pan of apathy

Being a somewhat cantankerous chap I rarely have a good thing to say about any government. Accordingly I was pleasantly surprised when Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly acted reasonably promptly and decisively on the Beacon Hospital vaccine issue.

Something unethical happened and the responsible minister has acted appropriately ensuring an actual consequence.

I now look forward to other branches of the state acting with similar promptness around Leo Varadkar’s leaking and the Davy 16, or was this just a flash of integrity in a pan of apathy?

Joseph O’Beirgín

Naas

Co Kildare

End lockdown and open up the pubs

The clock is ticking. A few more weeks of mind-bending lockdown and hopefully the doors of the pubs will swing open again, to receive a thirsty, bewildered, and self-sacrificing multitude. Even if it takes longer than we’d like, the day draws nearer by the minute.

According to Christian belief, the Son of God came down to earth and, among other miracles, changed water into wine at a wedding feast. The vintner’s trade might need a miracle too, if not of that magnitude, if the closure of many pubs around the country is to be avoided.

Pubs are so intrinsically part of our culture and the fabric of our social existence that their demise would knock the stuffing out of an already bruised and battered nation.

We Irish have taken some bad knocks, including centuries of conflict, a devastating famine, rampant TB, the Northern Ireland Troubles, World War Two rationing, the icy winds of several recessions, mass emigration, and the austerity years.

Those troubles are now in the past, and Covid soon will be too.

We’ve almost done our time, and with vaccination underway, our release date from lockdown can’t be too far away.

John Fitzgerald

Callan

Co Kilkenny

Biden bashes Brits in first press briefing

It was truly gratifying to hear US president Joe Biden highlighting his Irish roots at his very first press briefing ( Biden’s ancestors left Ireland ‘because of what the Brits had been doing' Irish Examiner , March 26).

Mr Biden didn’t sugar-coat his words: “When my great grandfather got on a coffin ship in the Irish sea, [the] expectation was, was he going to live long enough to get to the United States of America? They left because of what the Brits had been doing. They were in real, real trouble. They didn’t want to leave. But they had no choice.”

I can’t imagine many of our own political leaders telling it as it was in this way.

John Glennon

Hollywood

Co Wicklow