Letters to the Editor: Old gods prevail in sport grant allocation

'The GAA got 97m, rugby just a crumbs-from-the-table tenth of that despite world-class delivery and performance. Soccer, routinely dysfunctional at a domestic level, was awarded 41m.' Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

We have become adept at purring our self-congratulation about how our society has evolved for the better. We rightly celebrate diversity, inclusion, and occasional international achievement.

Every now and then, a metric suggests that change is a very thin veneer and that the old gods prevail. The recent allocation of sports grants is a case in point.

The GAA got €97m, rugby just a crumbs-from-the-table 10th of that despite world-class delivery and performance. Soccer, routinely dysfunctional at a domestic level, was awarded €41m.

But it gets much worse. Boxing — thanks Kellie — got a laughable €840,000. Rowing, that great, surging source of national joy and uplift, got €1.5m — the same as the price of a Dáil security hut. Imagine what rowing might have gotten if the sport had not delivered a truly spectacular return on a miserable investment?

In terms of preparing for the next Olympics, our oarsmen and women — among whom is our greatest ever Olympian — can rightly feel they have been short-changed.

However, the insularity shown through these allocations short changes us all. An imminent election may be a significant factor.

The more things change...

Jack Power, Inniscarra, Co Cork

Rich Government poor on empathy

I drove up the M8 and M7 recently on a trip home from Skibbereen.

The driving conditions were appalling. As we made our way home, we thought of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are living in tents courtesy of our Government.

Do our elected ministers even think about these fellow human beings and how they are after the horrendous weather from Thursday?

We have billions in the bank and yet we are so poor on empathy.

Paul Doran, Clondalkin, Dublin 22

Fianna Fáil’s budget deliveries

One could see the joy and contentment on the face of our former finance minister Michael McGrath as he stood up in the Dáil after the previous budget was delivered last year.

In fact, one could see it on the Fianna Fáil backbenches too.

It had been a long time since another Fianna Fáil minister delivered a budget, and the context and contrast was so different.

If one were to think back to another former Fianna Fáil finance minister Brian Lenihan when he was delivering those budgets at a time he knew that he was suffering with cancer.

He certainly believed that he was a patriot who was trying to do the very best in the most difficult of times even though his life was being foreshortened.

One will always remember how Mr Lenihan was trying to get some really difficult measures over the line, especially when it came to those cuts that had to be done in the bad times.

I would imagine that this is still something that Fianna Fáil TDs may talk about.

It may have been that Fine Gael did an awful lot of the work, but the bulk of the heavy duty work of the cuts would have been in Brian Lenihan’s final budget.

That die was cast before the Coalition ever became operative.

At that time, his personal circumstances were so extraordinary — in that he was doing that type of work at the time.

Let’s fast forward to the day in 2023 when Michael McGrath stood up in the Dáil chamber after his first budget was delivered, the first Fianna Fáil minister to do so since Brian Lenihan, and one could see how very efficient, very smooth, and clearly very happy he was.

Also one of the remarkable things about all of this was the relationship that Michael McGrath had with Paschal Donohoe, the minister for public expenditure and reform.

They had different roles at the beginning of this coalition Government, but these two ministers seemed to have this amazing professional relationship.

The optics of that relationship may suggest that, overall, this Coalition may still very well be in a rather good place.

John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Loss of Lennox’s

I was gutted to read about the closure of Jackie Lennox’s renowned fish and chip shop (‘The Last Supper’, Irish Examiner, October 1).

My favourite story about Jackie’s was of my [college] housemate Brian. He was up in the house one St Stephen’s Day or New Year’s Eve with visiting friends.

He took them to Jackie’s for a feed in the evening, only to find it closed. The laundrette next door was open so he went in to express his disappointment to one of the Lennox ladies.

Lo and behold she produced half a cooked turkey and a side of ham. “Never let it be said Lennox’s left lads go hungry,” she said. A legend.

John MacFarlane, Glasheen, Cork

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Taxpayers’ money thrown like confetti

Your front page article on wasteful Government spending of taxpayers’ money as detailed in Comptroller and Auditor report, is very concerning (‘Watchdog shines light on wasteful State’, Irish Examiner, October 1).

From modular homes for Ukrainian refugees doubling in price to an astonishing €442,00 per unit to a “high level of non-compliance” on the Foynes to Limerick freight line, one wonders if the embarrassment of riches this Government has is being thrown around like confetti.

The Foynes freight line is a real stinker because not only is the Government committed to spending over €150m of taxpayers’ money on a rail line for exclusive use of freight from Limerick City to Foynes, but the deepwater port is also getting a new 15.6km dual carriageway to Rathkeale as part of the projected €450m contract to bypass Adare. What is the point, one might reasonably ask, in two simultaneous expensive connections to a port in rural Ireland when Cork and Dublin ports are under-funded and under-resourced?

Even Listowel is not immune to flagrant misuse of taxpayers’ money, with the almost €1.7m provided for a food hub in the town with the promise of 50 jobs, lying empty and vacant with no sign of any of the employment promised.

And they want us to trust them with our hard-earned money for another five years?

Tom McElligott, Listowel, Co Kerry

Risk of alternatives to social media use

While the idea of banning social media for children under 16 is suggested with the best of intentions, could the alternative be worse?

If young people don’t have their apps, they may flock to the uncensored, unfiltered, and unmoderated internet.

They can go online and search for anything and everything without any age restrictions or censorship.

Some less reputable websites may lead students down a rabbit hole of radical ideas and inappropriate content.

Also, if a young person has a disagreement on a web forum, the responses may be a lot more intense than anything previously experienced on their socials.

Banning social media may offer a certain amount of protection for children, however, if they turn to the internet for entertainment, parents and teachers may find themselves repeating the same internet safety speeches they were given in the late 1990s — before apps were so popular.

John Jennings, Knocknacarra, Galway

CAO system is a game of appraisal

We have just come through another period of competition and selection of candidates to enter the higher and further education sectors through the CAO system.

Since its inception nearly 50 years ago, the CAO has always been a quantification game — with little cognisance given to the lived realities of the candidates caught up within its system.

The viability of the CAO, which is tasked with managing the education transition of thousands of applicants each year, has been interrogated by various education, employment, and welfare policymakers and stakeholders in the intervening years.

Given the length of time it has taken in recent years to implement the curricular reforms in the secondary education system, ie the new Junior Certificate and the ongoing Leaving Certificate revisions, we appear to be no further along in achieving a more humane and equitable process of managing and supporting the educational progression of our citizens.

Lucy Hearne, Listowel, Co Kerry

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