Letters to the Editor: Who gets more should give more
Brother Kevin at the Capuchin Day Centre. Picture: Nick Bradshaw
I used to be able to donate €150 per month to some charities from my CIÉ pension.
After waiting in vain for a decade and a half to get any increase in the same, I had to reduce my contributions last year to €86, split unevenly between the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Capuchin Day Centre.
I will be informing Br Kevin Kiernan by letter that I can no longer afford the €75 each month and will only be contributing to the other charity.
Might I suggest to our Cabinet ministers that, instead of your government and your civil servants, along with previous administrations, preferring to reward failure better than success — such as overruns on projects as diverse as the motorway network, HSE’s PPARS (personnel, payroll and related systems), Luas, Dublin Port Tunnel, and the National Broadband Plan, which works out at more than enough to cover any shortfall in any pension plan either private or public for the next 20 years (the likely overrun on the new NCH alone, currently rising faster than global warming tides, is enough to provide every politician with a pension pot for several years into the future) — that ministers and senior civil servants stop spending most of their time figuring out ways of increasing their own stipends and ginormous pension pots, to which they make no contributions, and are entirely funded out of the public purse, and try a little altruism instead by donating the same amount I used to, to the charity founded by Br Kevin Crowley.
I would expect the likes of secretaries general such as Robert Watt — and him not even the top dog in the civil service — to contribute a whole lot more than that: After all, what other purposes could they possibly have in mind for thousands of euro per month that they don’t need?
Alternatively, ye could all trade in your motors and chauffeurs in preparation for something more fitting when Mother Nature really gets going — wellies and pedalos.
I may no longer be able to afford much in the way of charity donations, but I still have enough in the pot for pen, paper, and postage.
I am the owner of Portland Barbers located in Portlaoise Co Laois.
As barbers and hairdressers are in the hospitality sector (why I do not know) Barbers and hairdressers have seen Vat rise from 9% to 13.5%, which is a 50% increase.
I have been in business for 22 years and currently employ eight full-time and part-time staff.
The last few years have been detrimental to our business with covid and also due to black market trading as a direct result of covid, when many businesses set up at home.
The escalating costs associated with running a business including employers’ PRSI and statuary sick pay, which is basically holidays for staff who just have to phone a GP to get a sick certificate.
I am not only voicing my option but that of all hairdressers and barbers across the country.
I have seen some long-established barbers and salons close their doors recently due to costs and especially the Vat rate.
I urge Taoiseach Simon Harris to address this situation before we too become a statistic.
Dear Taoiseach, We are writing to request urgent action by Government to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Review of the operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 developed by independent chair, Marie O’Shea. This review was published in April 2023, yet progress is awaited on many recommendations. Our call for immediate action is also reflected in the conclusions of the Oireachtas joint committee on health, whose December 2023 report supports the review’s recommendations, describing them as necessary measures to ensure the 2018 Act meets the needs of women and called on the Government to advance their implementation without delay.
While we acknowledge efforts to improve operational aspects of abortion services in the past year — including 17 of the 19 maternity hospitals now providing care — significant barriers to equitable and accessible abortion services remain. These include ongoing criminalisation, the mandatory three-day wait, inadequate data collection, lack of safe access zones, uneven geographical coverage, and narrow rigid legal criteria for abortion access after 12 weeks; including the 28-day clause for fatal foetal anomalies. These obstacles have resulted in women and pregnant people being denied timely reproductive healthcare and, in many cases, being forced to travel abroad.
To address these barriers this coalition of service providers, civil society organisations, academics, and other relevant stakeholders is calling on the Government to take the necessary legislative and operational steps, beginning with:
Full decriminalisation of abortion in line with WHO guidance to remove the chilling effect on healthcare providers, ensuring that they can use their clinical judgment to care for people without fear of prosecution;
Remove the mandatory three day wait period, ensuring timely access to abortion care;
Review the 12-weeks gestational limit to ensure women and pregnant people are not timing out of care and forced to travel abroad for essential reproductive healthcare;
Recruit a HSE primary care lead for termination of pregnancy to address gaps in training, guidance, and data collection for early medical abortions;
Expedite legislation regarding safe access zones, ensuring swift implementation to protect the areas adjacent to abortion services The recommendations in the review have a robust evidence base, rooted in qualitative research of the lived experiences of women who have accessed abortion services since the commencement of the act.
We call on the Government, who commissioned this review, to immediately progress legislative amendments and service developments which accurately reflect the findings of the review, the research underpinning its recommendations, and international best practice set out by the WHO.
The review clause was included in the 2018 Act in recognition that healthcare policies should never be frozen in time. The Government cannot delay the necessary legislative and operational changes any further, political leadership is urgently required to ensure Ireland’s reproductive healthcare system is equitable and responsive to emerging evidence and clinical best practice so it can meet the needs of all women and pregnant people.
I note that pressure is increasing for Ireland to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision.
While this may be disappointing for the artist concerned, there is a wider moral issue here. There is no longer any doubt that Israel is committing genocide. In that context, it is unconscionable that RTÉ participate in a contest where Israel is also a competitor.
Some months ago, I initiated a petition on Change.org, asking RTÉ to boycott this competition on moral grounds. I am a 71-year-old grandmother who has been horrified at what has been inflicted on the people of Gaza by Israel. Thousands killed, maimed, and now starved. I am also a member of Cobh Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Despite contacting RTÉ on numerous occasions, they have never responded to my emails notifying them of the petition.
Pretending that genocide does not exist is not an excuse.
The reporting of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank by RTÉ has been pitiful and inadequate.
While the Eurovision is not a world-changing event, our participation condones Israel’s appalling genocidal acts in Gaza. Over 5,000 people have signed the call for a boycott by RTÉ on Change.org. We will shortly deliver a hard copy to RTÉ so they can no longer ignore it. We are not the only ones calling for this to happen — there are many voices asking why double standards are being applied. After all, Russia was banned for sport and cultural events after its invasion of Ukraine.
