Letters to the editor: Disloyalty of defence minister to staff of Defence Forces

Our defence forces don't deserve cheap shots aimed at by the Government argues one reader. Another suggests we are the soft underbelly of Europe, reliant on our old enemy, the UK, to come to our defence if and when needed.

In recent days Micheál Martin has been quoted as saying: “The Defence Forces should admit their failures and learn from them.”

Is our minister for defence already ignoring the collective responsibility that he, as minister, the secretary general and the Defence Forces share?

In my letter — Government couldn't care less about defence — I pointed out squarely where the problems lie in the Defence Forces: the minister and the secretary general, who have statutory responsibility, and those whom they appoint to senior positions of responsibility in the Defence Forces.

Has the minister already abdicated his responsibility to his ministerial role and is he laying the blame at the feet of the volunteer soldiers of our country?

Let me remind the readers that the Government and individual ministers were loud in their praise of the “wonderful” Irish peacekeepers in all corners of the globe, as they and Foreign Affairs beat the Irish soldiers drum in their attempt to gain a seat for a year at the UN Security Council in New York.

Eaten bread is soon forgotten and I suggest to Mr Martin that he will never ever see or hear quality and successful leaders berating their staff in public. That is called disloyalty and has no place in any organisation.

Accepting that there are difficulties, and very serious ones at that, in the Defence Forces, Mr Martin’s was nothing more that a cheap shot at those whom successive governments have downtrodden through the years.

Maybe Mr Martin should consider his position as minister for defence?

Ray Cawley

Commandant Retd

Douglas

Cork

Housing minister Darragh O'Brien.

Open letter to Darragh O’Brien

Hi Darragh,
Hope you are keeping well. Regarding the planned ‘Cost Rental Subvention Scheme’ and measures to reduce construction costs.

Recent press articles mention the lowering of development fees, however, ESB network standard domestic connection charges should also be lowered as fees for one dwelling cost €3,235 and for four €20,880 — both figures are plus Vat.

Since ESB is state-owned, reducing these fees will have a minimal net cost to the taxpayer, ESB Networks’ loss is the labour element.

I’m recommending a 75% reduction on the fees, subject to restrictions.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Pat Lyons

Abbeyfeale

Co Limerick

TDs without qualms of conscience

Regarding the 21 landlord TDs named in the Dáil: I see that qualms of conscience haven’t affected our landlord TDs following the example of their old English predecessors in enabling legislation to evict tenants from “their” property.

In the interests of establishing the truth, maybe we should ask them how many of the other practices and customs that were undertaken by the old landlords are currently being utilised by them, if only to prove the old adage true that “you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb”.

Liam Power

Blackrock

Dundalk

Co. Louth

Support women in unplanned pregnancy

A serious and wide-ranging debate on abortion is sorely needed in this country. We’ve recently seen a deluge of media reports and articles on issues like exclusion zones against pro-life citizens; leaks about the contents of the three-year review report, and criticism of the three-day waiting period for reflection between abortion appointments. But we seem to be ignoring the major issue of the number of abortions which
have taken place in the first four years since the law was introduced.

The anti-abortion perspective has not been meaningfully heard in this country for several years, with some media outlets taking the unfair view that the 2018 referendum decided finally and forever the long-running debate on abortion in Ireland. But we’re in a new scenario now. Since the legislation came into effect in January 2019, there were 17,820 abortions up to December 2022. This surely requires a re-examination of Ireland’s abortion policy, not simply a debate about how to make abortion even more expansive. If the latter course is pursued, then we’ll undoubtedly see the annual abortion rate continue to climb.

The abortion rate represents a failure of government policy to provide women in unplanned pregnancies with much-needed supports. We know socio-economic factors are the reason for the majority of abortions, that often women feel they simply cannot afford the costs of raising a child.

To reduce the high abortion rate, the government must begin to provide women in unplanned pregnancies with real support, not just during her pregnancy, but throughout the parenting process. One proposal which would help alleviate the costs of expecting a child would be to begin social welfare payments whilst the woman is still pregnant. This would help offset some of the costs associated with a new baby, whilst also reaffirming the reality that an unborn child is a valuable human life.

Tony Curran

Firhouse

Dublin

Shameful treatment of Defence Forces

What an absolute joke we are as a nation that we have to beg and borrow a transport plane from other countries to transport our troops abroad to evacuate our citizens in warring countries like Sudan.

Respective ministers for defence and top civil servants have paid lip service to the concerns and needs of a once proud and highly thought-of Defence Forces with swingeing cuts, poor pay, loss of personnel, and a failure to properly invest in manpower and up-to-date equipment.

While the usual suspects talk about Ireland’s neutrality on the world stage, we are defenceless as a nation if rogue nations like Russia decided to breach our national sovereignty as they have done in Ukraine.

We are the soft underbelly of Europe reliant on our old enemy, the UK, to come to our defence if and when needed.

Respective governments should be ashamed of their treatment of those who have served, and do serve us, proudly both at home and abroad To see our naval vessels tied up in harbour due to the lack of personnel is shameful and the blame for that goes back to the Government, the minister for defence, and other decision-makers, within the Department of Defence and the Department of Public Expenditure.

Shame on those who have decimated and denigrated the serving men and women of our Defence Forces.

Christy Galligan

Letterkenny

Co Donegal

A new Irish motto

Might we in Ireland, profitably take the three-word motto of certain countries with their cry of Liberté, Égalite, Fraternity, and go instead with Fubar, Snafu, Nepotism — with or without the I?

Liam Power

Dundalk

Co Louth

Tucker’s demise

Irony? Tucker Carlson’s last Fox News item was about eating bugs and now he has been squashed.

Maybe Fox is trying to save money after their recent settlement with a number of other cases still to be resolved.

Carlson seemed to be the front person for the ‘stolen election’ on Fox so he would be first to be shot down although he might not have expected to be shot in the back.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne

Australia

Folly of selling house to pay inheritance tax

People who inherit property once should pay no tax, or at least very little tax.

Having to sell a house to pay inheritance tax damages communities, as well forcing sellers to be strangers in another locality, but the Government doesn’t care about this hardship.

Can someone please tell us what’s being done with the Local Property Tax paid by neglected country people?

Simplistic policies will soon wipe long-standing rural dwellers away from the countryside they love.

I don’t want the countryside to be filled with blow-ins who don’t care about the area.

Dr Florence Craven

Bracknagh

Co. Offaly