Letters to the Editor: Government must help people out with budget

'People can’t afford to pay bills — some of them are turning to charities because they can’t afford to buy food.'

With the budget coming up, what is the Government going to do?

The situation is absolutely horrendous with the cost of fuel and household essentials going up.

Children will suffer the most.

I hope to God that the Government does something because people can’t afford to pay bills — some of them are turning to charities because they can’t afford to buy food.

Donnacha Ó Súilleabháin

Carrigadrohid

Macroom

Co Cork

Failure of outdated economic system

One of the objectives of the upcoming budget will be to ease the burden and hardship that shortage, sanctions, inflation, and an inevitable economic slowdown about to engulf the economic world will bring. Billions will trickle down to the ordinary voters in a desperate attempt to save the skins of helpless political masters who really do not understand what is going on.

Government handouts will not be enough and will only delay the inevitable collapse of an inadequate and outdated economic system which has failed utterly.

Padraic Neary

Tubbercurry

Co Sligo

Universal social charge must go

How on earth can we survive all the hikes in fuel and food bills?

If they don’t want to cut our taxes then get rid of the universal social charge which was meant to be a short term measure initially.

l have to work more hours than ever before. We will all be burnt.

The Government must help the working people

Mary Moloney

Princes St

Tralee

Co Kerry

Forced retirement is age discrimination

The pension reform plans signed off by Cabinet are, in general, quite welcome. It sees the pensionable age staying at 66 for those who want it and affords an opportunity to people who want to work longer to do so and to benefit from so doing.

'No worker should be forced out of a job that they want or need to continue.'

However, it really must be accompanied by legislation to ban mandatory retirement. Otherwise, this is of no use to the very many employees who are forced to quit their jobs just because they reach the age of 65.

Forcing people to retire against their will is age discrimination in reality. No worker should be forced out of a job that they want or need to continue in and are capable of doing so, just because they have reached 65. This is outdated and unfair but yet is still practiced by very many employers.

This must stop and people might then have the choices they need.

Michael Dineen

Douglas

Cork

UN membership for Palestine state

There has been some discussion recently about support for full UN membership for Palestine.

This frequently occurs along with suggestions that Ireland should do as Sweden did eight years ago and officially recognise the state of Palestine.

As things stand, Palestinian territory is divided between two factions who despise each other.

One faction (Fatah) governs one part of Palestinian territory as the Palestinian Authority (PA) while the other main faction (Hamas) controls the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud Abbas — the head of the PA — could not safely enter Gaza for fear of arrest and possible execution at the hands of his bitter rivals.

So if the state of Palestine does become a full member of the UN, will its delegation consist solely of representatives from one of the two factions? Meanwhile, why should Ireland recognise Palestine when the two main factions won’t even
recognise each other?

Ciaran Ó Raghallaigh

College St

Co Cavan

Garda drivers for Cabinet ministers

Soon all minsters will be getting luxury cars with garda protection drivers.

Does this mean Transport Minister Eamon Ryan will get a tandem bike with an armed peddler?

Just wondering.

Kevin Devitte

Westport

Co Mayo

Interminable wait in airport terminal

I am writing for myself and on behalf of the other unfortunates who spent 16 hours in Edinburgh airport waiting for a flight that arrived in Cork airport at 3.30am on Sunday instead of the scheduled arrival of 11.30am on Saturday.

We kept getting told the flight was delayed in two-hour increments, that the plane was variously grounded in London, Cork, or Edinburgh.

Passengers were mainly Irish and Scottish with a mix of other Europeans and some from America. The craic was good and people behaved with forbearance and friendliness but there were two families with small children and a lady in a wheelchair.

No wonder Michael O’Leary wants to freeze out the press.

Let’s generally wise up to this type of unfeeling corporate profiteering.

Don O’Driscoll

Sutherland

England

and Cork

UK’s fickleness on ‘close relationship’

British ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston claims to have been touched by the outpouring of affection and admiration by the people of Ireland for Queen Elizabeth II since her passing, including tributes from both houses of the Oireachtas.

Mr Johnston expressed gratitude and confidence that the commitment to the uniquely close and important relationship across these
islands will remain steadfast.

This was not the first time that the Oireachtas passed a unanimous motion.

A report issued by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice in 1984 highlighted instances of Downing Street obstruction in investigating such crimes as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 and the Miami Showband massacre of 1975.

Successive British governments refused to cooperate with the Barron inquiry into the bombings.

The British government ignored three all-party resolutions passed unanimously by Dáil Éireann in 2008, 2011, and 2016 urging the British authorities to make relevant undisclosed documents available to an independent, international judicial figure.

It is regrettable that this policy remains unchanged.

In the spirit of strengthening still further the close relationship across these islands perhaps Mr Johnston might use his influence to bear on Westminster to reconsider their stance on this issue and share this information with the Irish Government.

The possibility that this demand may cause diplomatic tensions between Dublin and London must not be a deterrent from our pursuance of justice for the innocent victims.

Tom Cooper

Irish National Congress

Pearse St

Dublin 2

School bus fiasco is of Foley’s making

Education Minister Norma Foley said this week on RTÉ’s Prime Time that she is in discussions with Minister McGrath regarding funding for more bus places for children.

This increase in demand was predictable from the announcement of free school transport on July 5.

Ms Foley opens schools and compliments the awarding of Green Flags for environmental conservation policies yet has countless parents unnecessarily burning fuel in family cars.

Her use of words such as ‘eligibles’ and ‘concessionaries’ during the Prime Time programme is disingenuous.

These are children, not ‘individuals’ — another word she uses to refer to schoolchildren.

These are children whose school access is hugely impacted by this unnecessary stress on them and their families.

Our current cohort of school-goers have endured more than their parents and grandparents with the closure of school buildings during the pandemic. They face another winter sitting in cold, inadequately ventilated classrooms and now Ms Foley cannot even get them to school.

Education is a basic right for all. When access to education is impeded disadvantage is created. The education minister has created this disadvantage through lack of planning.

Neasa Ní Lionáird

Killarney

Co Kerry