Letters to the Editor: We should heed what families say on the subject of assisted dying

One reader calls for compassion in the debate about assisted dying, while others consider issues including public spending, organ donation, hunting, and landlords' rights 

'None of us really knows what’s before us as we age. I don’t know if I’m facing a short life due to medical issues or a silent life due to dementia.' Picture: iStock

Regarding 'Assisted dying: Knowing when it is time to go' (Irish Examiner, September 23)  I don’t know what the future holds for me, yet I completely understand why families in Ireland need this to be looked at from a compassionate perspective.

None of us really knows what’s before us as we age. I don’t know if I’m facing a short life due to medical issues or a silent life due to dementia. Or a stroke when I may just be a number in a nursing facility.

Families need to be heard and listened to regarding end-of-life support.

Noreen Kiely, Limerick

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Government needs to spend better

In the few years I have experienced as an adult, I have found it surprisingly easy to spend money I didn’t expect to, on things I don’t need.

Despite my less than admirable financial discipline, as is often the case with students, I can’t help but be reassured in what little frugality I have by the consistently frivolous spending by Government.

For example, as an arts student I feel entirely qualified to assess that even if you asked someone so drunk their wobbles register on the Richter scale, they would still be able to tell you that the best place for a new hospital in Galway, is in Merlin Park.

However, Saolta spent €655,364 on a report from KPMG to say this exact same thing.

Moreover, the recent lunar mission from India cost less than what we have currently spent on a metro.

This is particularly ridiculous considering that we don’t even have a metro. I would go so far as to say it would be cheaper for a metro to be built on the moon, than have the current Government try to build a metro in Dublin.

I’m not saying that the State needs to spend less. I would say the opposite, but we need to spend better.

Seán Burke, Loughrea, Co Galway

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Consider being an organ donor

May I appeal to people to carry an organ donor card? I have always done so, but never thought I’d be a recipient of donated organs myself.

I was diagnosed in 2018 with Fuchs’ Dystrophy, an eye disease where fluid builds up in the clear layer (cornea) on the front of the eye, causing it to swell and thicken.

This leads to glare, blurred or cloudy vision, and eye discomfort.

The disease usually affects both eyes, causing the vision to gradually worsen leading to blindness.

I had a corneal organ transplant in each eye. The two organ donors bequeathed the gift of sight to me and they’ll be forever in my thoughts and prayers. There is an acute need for donated organs, to save lives or to considerably improve the lives of organ recipients, like myself.

Under new legislation, all adults are considered to be posthumous organ donors unless they have opted out. A driving licence card can be used as an organ donor card by ticking the Code 115 box on the driving licence form to signify willingness to be an organ donor. Currently, out of 3.2m people with a full licence or learner’s permit, about 1.48m or 46.3% have done so. Organ donor cards can also be picked up in doctors’ surgeries and pharmacies.

My new book, Donor Organ Transplants or Blind for the Football, which was launched recently by the impressive senator Martin Conway, provides a detailed insight into the challenges I faced in a four-year medical battle against visual impairment and possible blindness.

The book is available for purchase at www.amazon.de Type “Billy Ryle” in the search box.

Profit from book sales will be donated to the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) towards its outstanding work for people with sight loss.

Billy Ryle, Spa, Tralee

Hunting: Time to silence the guns

Shooters in a flap over the article 'Four birds added to hunt ban list' (Irish Examiner, September 21) are disputing the statement that “people just throw [woodcock] away after shooting them”.

They maintain that the unfortunate avian victims are actually defeathered, pulled apart, and eaten.

Regardless of what happens to the lifeless and bloodied bodies, the gunning down of this magnificent creature should be stopped.

Woodcock was identified by Birdwatch Ireland and RSPB Northern Ireland as one of the red-list species of highest conservation concern.

Despite being at risk of extinction, they may be blasted out of the sky every day between November 1 and January 31.

Contrary to baseless claims that the four species already removed from the shooting list are “showing good populations” and “increasing” (Letters, September 26), the truth is that there have been dramatic decreases.

A Department of Heritage statement outlines that the reason scaup, pochard and goldeneye were taken off the 2023/24 open season order was “due to the great decline in their numbers in Ireland”.

It revealed the shocking extent of the demise — “over the period 1994/95 to 2019/20, estimated declines of 89% (scaup), 79% (pochard) and 67% (goldeneye) have been recorded”.

Pintail was saved from the gunmen “due to the very small numbers in Ireland at this time”.

Minister Malcolm Noonan must disregard the untruths being unleashed by hunters and proceed to protect the remaining 11 amber- and red-list species which continue to be targeted.

How close to extinction will they come before the guns are finally silenced? Let’s hope lessons have been learned from the sad plight of the curlew — it wasn’t until 2012 when the number of breeding pairs had plummeted by up to 96% that it was removed from the shooting list.

Philip Kiernan, Irish Council Against Blood Sports, Mullingar, Co Westmeath

Where is the support for landlords?

Evicting tenants should not be a simple “get out by tomorrow” process but neither should it be a never-ending saga. 

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) continually proclaims its impartiality but then turns around and prioritises tenants’ rights.

As part of the viction process we (as landlords) received yet another letter from the RTB this week that talks about all of the help that will be given to the tenants but we get no help whatsoever from them. Landlords pay an annual registration fee for absolutely no return while tenants pay nothing and get continuous support.

Some 15 months we are at this eviction process, yet this is nothing compared to the three years another landlord has spent trying to get their non-paying tenants out.

Is it any wonder there is a housing crisis with landlords fleeing the rental market?

Michael Woulfe, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick

Stopover raises rights issues

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on a stopover at Shannon Airport on Saturday, September 23.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy held an unscheduled meeting in Shannon with the de facto head of Sudan's government, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at Shannon Airport. Picture: Volodymyr Zelenskyy/Twitter

General al-Burhan seized power in a coup d’état in October 2021 and is therefore de facto head of the Sudan government.

While such diplomatic stopovers at Shannon Airport are not a breach of Ireland’s neutrality, this meeting raises important issues on human rights. In a report to the UN the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Mr Karim Khan said that he is investigating fresh allegations of war crimes and serious human rights abuses during the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

He also reported further deterioration in co-operation from the government of Sudan over outstanding arrest warrants against former dictator Mr al-Bashir and others who are facing trial by the ICC over war crimes and possible genocide in Darfur that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Widespread human rights abuses by both sides in the current Sudan civil war have been reported by human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch.

While all this is happening, the Armenian people are once again experiencing ethnic cleansing and are at risk of genocide and betrayal by the international community.

Azerbaijan military forces have taken over the region of Nagorno Karabakh inhabited for centuries by Armenian people. Ireland is one of the few Western countries that has so far failed to recognise the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish government in the early 20th century. The Irish Government should be doing a lot more to defend human rights, in Sudan, Armenia, and elsewhere.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick