Letters to the editor: State can’t let women down over maternity hospital
Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Britain is the last country on Earth that has the right to ask any one country not to invade another says one reader. Ireland could act as a peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine suggests another.
I find the new proposals aimed to resolve the impasse over the new National Maternity Hospital more objectionable than ever.
The central question as to why the Sisters of Charity through their holding company St Vincent’s Holdings still refuse to cede ownership of the site to the people of Ireland remains unanswered.
Their insistence on offering the site on which the State-funded €800m hospital will be located only as leasehold creates a well-founded suspicion that there is hidden motivation in such a stance.
Whether the leasehold is increased ad nauseam makes little difference to the overall situation. Under these new proposals, St Vincent’s Holdings will still retain constitutional ownership rights and ultimate control over the Elm Park site while the Irish State will end up in a subservient role as a dutiful lessee.
To make matters even worse the proposed text of the licence to be granted to this new private company “will not set down a list of specific procedures permitted under Irish law”.
While the urgent necessity for a new modern National Maternity Hospital is paramount, such an argument cannot be used to steamroll through unsatisfactory proposals that are aimed to resolve this impasse.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has a duty to the women of Ireland to ensure that they and future generations will have a National Maternity Hospital that will serve their best interests.
Irish women have been let down by the Irish State in the past; It would be unconscionable and unforgiveable for it to repeat its failure once again.
Brendan Butler
Malahide
Co Dublin
Church and order have nothing to hide
It was quite amazing to read the article about a religious congregation of Catholic Nuns setting up a rehab centre in the diocese of Lismore.
While the core of the story was uplifting and a credit to the Catholic Church it was concluded with a totally unnecessary reference to the effect that there was “no hidden religious agenda” to the set-up.
Why should there be a hidden agenda?
The Church and religious sisters running the centre have nothing to hide. A religious dimension would be central to their mission and is something to be proud of. Just like secular organisations in this country don’t hide their ‘agendas’.
Eric Conway
Navan
Co Meath
Ireland should not be facilitating US
On February 14, five Omni Air aircraft on contract to the US military were refuelled at Shannon Airport while transporting up to 1,000 armed US soldiers to an airport called Rzeszow-Jasionka in south-east Poland, which is just 90km from the western borders of Ukraine.
These five aircraft were refuelled again at Shannon Airport on their return journeys to the US.
This is happening with the approval of the Irish Government.
Ireland should not be facilitating preparations for war by belligerent states.
Edward Horgan
Castletroy,
Limerick
Empirical evidence
I thought it was ironic that Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, went to Moscow recently in an attempt to persuade Russia not to invade Ukraine.
Such impertinence! Britain is the last country on Earth that has the right to ask any one country not to invade another.
Michael Rice
Patrick’s Hill
Cork
Ireland should act as peacemaker
Could Ireland not act as a peacemaker and independently initiate talks between Russia and Ukraine?
And on the same lines, could we divert some of the money being spent on military equipment into the establishment of a centre for the non-violent resolution of conflict? Let’s put our neutrality into action or forget it.
Elizabeth Cullen
Kilcullen
Co Kildare
Accusations of apartheid
In the light of Amnesty’s accusing Israel of ‘apartheid’, it’s interesting to note that neighbouring Lebanon has just reimposed draconian employment restrictions on people of Palestinian extraction, banning them from over 70 occupations such as being doctors, engineers, or lawyers.
Have Amnesty or the international media referred to these restrictions as ‘apartheid’? No, they haven’t referred to them at all.
Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh.
Co Cavan
Hysteria of war
So, Wednesday came and went, and Russia did not invade Ukraine.
The hysteria brings back memories of the “weapons of mass destruction” hysteria that launched the Iraq war that turned out to be a lie, that killed hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, and turned Ireland into a US Aircraft Carrier.
Roger Cole
Dalkey,
Co Dublin
Trumping Reich
Robert Reich is a diehard liberal. In the course of his career he has become himself a multi-millionaire. Sadly the Irish Examiner decided to disseminate his mantra . His mantra is to harangue Donald Trump and his supporters as racist, nationalist, anti-democratic, oligarchic and the party of the rich.
We need facts, not any of poor Reich’s rhetoric. Reich likes to say that the rich supported Trump. In 2016 when Trump headed the ticket, billionaire contributions to Democrats were only 20% less than that to Republicans and by 2018 the Democrats were receiving more from the billionaires than the Republicans. This is according to the Project of Americans for Tax Fairness.
Reich while twisting the above facts, says under Trump the middle classes suffered poverty inequality and unbridled profit-taking. One fact is that Trump lifted median black household incomes to their highest levels on record and pushed black unemployment rates and poverty rates down to their lowest levels, according to USA Today.
Does the Examiner really need to publish Reich’s highly inaccurate, anti-Trump hysteria?
Joyce Anderson
Belgooly
Co Cork
A present for the Seanad on birthday
So the Seanad is 100 years old. Oh goody! Now how to mark the occasion? Why not deliver on the long-promised reform of the Seanad! How? Simple: Pass a law to the effect that Dáil and Seanad elections must be held on the same day and that one cannot stand as a candidate in both elections. This would render the Upper House independent of the Dáil as it should be.
Brendan Casserly
Bishopstown
Cork
