I would like to respond to Leo Varadkar’s comments about the housing crisis and youth emigration. Specifically: “You’re not going to find that rents are lower in New York, or that it’s easier to buy a house in Sydney. It might be the case if you go to a very rural area or a third or fourth tier city but that can be true in Ireland too, so sometimes the grass looks greener.”
I recently returned from a year living in Brussels, where I was able to a rent a room in a three-bed apartment in a great location for less than €500 a month with bills included.
I came back to Ireland in September for work and struggled to find somewhere to rent. I’m now in a damp room in a draughty, 1970s four-bed house in Santry where I’m paying around €650/700 a month with bills. I pay an additional €80-100 per month for an hourly 8km bus commute into the city centre every day. I never know if I’ll be on time or not because the buses are so unreliable. My 6km commute to work in Brussels took 20 mins and cost €50 a month for an unlimited monthly urban travel pass.
In the last year, rent here has increased on average by 14% and rental supply has collapsed by almost 60%. Coupled with general cost of living spikes, poor infrastructure, poor quality nightlife and rising inequality, Ireland is a dire place to spend your 20s. It’s no wonder 67% of those under 24 are considering emigrating. As someone who recently returned and have a first-hand comparison, I would encourage them to go. Once my contract is up in this job I’ll likely emigrate again. The grass absolutely is ‘greener’ in many other places, I’d know I’ve been there.
Ben Ryan
Santry
Dublin 9
Frontline gardaí at mercy of thugs
The attacks on gardaí in Ballyfermot that left two members hospitalised is a symptom of a society where thuggish behaviour has become the all too frequent norm.
Frontline gardaí are left to the mercy of feral thugs who are running rampant through our rural and urban areas.
This is not the first time that we have seen gardaí attacked by rampant thugs.
Only recently we saw a garda car being rammed by a stolen vehicle in September of this year, in Ballyfermot, while a baying mob of feral youths cheered and clapped.
In Newcastlewest, Limerick, in October of this year we saw a group of youths running amok and overturning a car and involved in criminal damage. This is the society we live in, sadly.
How many gardaí must be seriously injured or killed before we have a zero-tolerance response from those in authority?
These gardaí, who risk their lives each and every day on our behalf, have been failed, not just by those in authority, but by a justice system that leans heavily in favour of innocence even where there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Too often we see repeat offenders, with a multiplicity of convictions, walk away from our courts with just a slap on the hand.
Christy Galligan (retired garda sergeant)
Letterkenny
Co Donegal
Government wants to end neutrality
In recent times our government is doing all it can to end Irish neutrality against the wishes of the Irish people. The Fine Gael Ard Fheis passed a motion to effectively scrap the triple lock on sending Irish soldiers on overseas missions, by eliminating the need for a UN mandate. Our Defence Forces have become so run down due to lack of government support that it seems like our government wants to decommission our Defence Forces and invite Nato or a European Union defence alliance to defend our country thereby ending the sovereignty of the Irish people and the Irish State.
Our government’s unconstitutional agreement allowing the British air force to engage in military operations within Irish sovereign airspace was just another step towards fully abandoning Irish sovereignty. The most serious ongoing breach of Irish neutrality has been our government’s decision in 2001 to turn Shannon airport into a US forward air base to wage illegal wars in the Middle East.
Irish neutrality is suffering death by a thousand cuts.
Edward Horgan
Castletroy
Limerick
What’s Fine Gael motive on military?
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, in advocating the abandonment of the triple lock (UN, Government, and Dáil approval of major military missions), insists Fine Gael seeks only to ensure that Ireland is not prevented from engaging in peacekeeping missions by the exercise of Russia’s veto at the UN Security Council. Tanáiste Leo Varadkar was more forthright in June when representing Fine Gael at the European People’s Party Congress in Rotterdam. There, he promoted Ireland’s participation in a proposed European defence force that, naturally, would not be subordinate to the UN, any more than Nato is. Dare one suggest, then, that Fine Gael’s actual reason for wishing to dispense with the UN element of the triple lock is to prepare the ground for Irish involvement in a European defence force?
Dominic Carroll
Ardfield
Co Cork
Church has done state some service
I am a 24-year-old practicing Catholic from Cork. I am a believer in the Bible and the Catholic faith.
I am shocked and horrified that any individual in this day and age could suggest that all Catholic Church organisations in Ireland should be shut down and made illegal — ‘With a history of abuse, why do we still allow religious orders to exist?’ (Irish Examiner, November 15). Such an idea goes against any notion of democracy and religious tolerance, principles which mark 21st century Ireland out as a democratic country which respects human rights.
That evil and perverse deeds were covered up by some, and by no means all members of the clergy, several decades ago should not ever mean that these principles be infringed.
Moreover, it is not as if every paedophile priest or brother in Ireland was known by church authorities; instead most of their actions remained secret to them also. It has been conclusively shown again and again that only a tiny minority of members of the holy orders were involved in such abuses.
Furthermore, much good was done by the Catholic church in the 20th century also, with many tens of thousands of Irish men and women working tirelessly and for no financial gain to help develop a healthcare system and education system in a bankrupt post-colonial state, where it would never be possible for such services to be provided by the state. Never mind the invaluable charity work conducted by Irish missionaries on the African continent and elsewhere, such as during the terrible suffering of the Biafra crisis and subsequent famine, which is today remembered with gratitude by many in these countries.
Fergus Finlay fails to account for these ambiguities in his article; instead he proposes what amounts to an effective ban on my religion, and that of every other religion in the country.
Kevin Ó Tuathaigh
Ballincollig
Cork
