Letters to the Editor: We must end the carnage on our roads
An entire community came together to share their grief and offer their support for the bereaved families during the vigil in Kickham Plaza, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, on Sunday evening. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA
The recent carnage on our roads with the untimely deaths of four teenagers in Clonmel is becoming an all too common occurrence. There is a pattern emerging of teenagers going to various events in cars which can result in fatalities. We need to find out why these things occur. There is a conspiracy of silence around fatal accidents in this country, as the funerals go on and on without anyone asking why? We canât fix it until we know what is broken and prevent these things from ever happening or negate the possibility of them doing so.
When the price of a pint tipped over the âŹ4 mark some 10 years ago, I considered giving it up altogether. Never one for making quick decisions, I have, at time of writing, the matter still under consideration.
Whatever about climate change and forest fires, many Irish people look forward each year to a holiday in the sun, and Spain is at the top of their list of options.
Please donât become part of that audience. If you do, you might as well assist the Matador to stab that tortured animal in the back. So, enjoy the sun, but skip the cruelty.
The leader page in the Irish Examiner runs to a fairly standard format, with editorial comment, journalistic articles, and letters.Â
However, a letter by Mr Ray Cawley â âIn defence of new RTĂ boss Kevin Bakhurstâ (Irish Examiner, August 25) drew my attention. He castigated hotelier Mr John Brennan for daring to have an opinion on the recent RTĂ saga. Mr Brennan, in an even-handed and temperate open letter questioned whether the axing of Tubridy by the RTĂ director general (DG) was humiliating to Tubridy, and on the face of it, and without knowing the details of the discussions taking place, it very much looked humiliating. Mr Cawley deemed the letter a ânasty attackâ on the DG.
However, a week or so previously one of the nastiest, personal and vitriolic letters I ever read was from the same Mr Cawley â âLack of response from Martinâ (Irish Examiner, August 15) â in which he attacked the TĂĄnaiste and Minister for Defence MicheĂĄl Martin in a particularly despicable manner, for the crime of failing to live up to Mr Cawleyâs high standards.
On another note and referring to the same page on the same date, the column by Jennifer Horgan â âHotels stock free shampoo and sewing kits, why not sanitary pads?â â was about tampons and who should pay for them.
I am puzzled as to what audience this was targeted at. However, I am saddened that journalistic standards have gone so low.
I would like to support Jennifer Horgan idea of having sanitary products in hotels.
She highlighted a situation most women have been in at some stage of their lives and I really identified with it (although I have never appeared on live TV).
Hopefully the Irish Hotels Federation will take this idea on board, it would be a great help to the women/girls of Ireland (and elsewhere).
While I agree with everything Dr Colm Henry says in the article â âAgeing population means elderly are now âpurposeâ of health systemâ (Irish Examiner, online, August 22) â I fail to understand the statement of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly last week in which he says patients over the age of 70 will not have to wait no longer than 24 hours on a trolley to get a hospital bed.
Dr Henry points out that this is frankly unacceptable yet Mr Donnelly is quite happy to be OK with this. Why the conflict minister? Why not allow those with the medical expertise decide.
Luckily, there is a solution to the planning permission hell described in the article âCouncil refuses planning for Midleton solar farm to âpreserve characterâ of green beltâ, a problem which sadly faces so many new solar developments.
The solution is putting panels on roofs, and not on precious land. An example of how well this can work can be found in the Netherlands.
On a good day in that country, solar panels easily generate some 14 Gigawatts of electric power, which is more than three times the typical demand of the Irish grid. They have accomplished this in a country less than half the size of Ireland.
This is possible because in the Netherlands solar energy is primarily produced on the roofs of households and businesses: 80% of solar was placed on roofs in 2021. Only a minority of solar energy is generated in commercial large-scale installations on fields.
This impressive feat was made possible by allowing consumers to cross off excess electricity generation from their remaining power usage, thus giving households rewarding and predictable savings.
The State should, as much as possible, encourage consumers to place solar panels on their roofs; not only because this spares scenic agricultural land, but also because it has the additional benefit of taking initiative out of the hands of the industry, putting it into the hands of consumers instead.
Consumers thereby become electricity-conscious âprosumersâ, who profit from their contribution to the energy transition, instead of it just being a sunk cost.
