Letters to the Editor: Childhood poverty is a national disgrace

If the Government cannot protect children from poverty, perhaps it should stop congratulating itself on how well the economy is doing. File picture

Some 200,000 children in Ireland are living below the poverty line.

That is not a few unfortunate families slipping through the cracks. It is a national disgrace on an industrial scale.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have never been shy about finding money when it matters. Banks were rescued overnight. Multinationals get personalised tax arrangements. Funds that buy up debt and property for profit somehow find the political system remarkably accommodating.

Ask for a favour on behalf of a hungry child, though, or a family trapped in a broken housing market, and suddenly the cupboard is bare and we must all be prudent.

But why address the inconvenient reality when there are institutional investors, corporate landlords, and vulture funds still waiting for their next policy tailwind?

Perhaps that is the problem. Children don’t have lobbyists. They don’t have corporate lawyers, property portfolios, or well-connected friends in government.

They can’t make campaign donations or threaten to move an investment elsewhere. They simply have to rely on the promises of the people elected to represent them.

Two parties have shared power for so long that they have forgotten what it is for.

The rest of us are told the economy is booming, and it is — for those already at the table. The children outside the window are welcome to watch.

If the Government cannot protect children from poverty, perhaps it should stop congratulating itself on how well the economy is doing. Somebody needs to explain exactly who all that prosperity is supposed to be working for.

If hundreds of thousands of Irish children living in poverty isn’t a national emergency to this Government, I would love to know what is.

Alan T Kelly, Castlewarden, Co Kildare

Failure to publish disability report

A 60-page report entitled ‘The HSE National Disability Services Needs Analysis’, commissioned by the HSE, is not to be published. 

With up to 4,000 expressions of concern being made in the first six months of the year in relation to failure in the area of adult disabilities, failing to publish the report is like an act of concealment to prohibit the public access to the relevant information as expressions of concern.

While the HSE as a statutory body is supposed to be providing for the welfare of disability users, in this case it is doing everything possible to prevent such disability concerns from being addressed.

This situation can only change when our politicians at both national and local government levels follow the leadership of East Cork TD Liam Quaide in his attempt to shine the light on the problems facing disability users and their families.

Tadhg O’Donovan, Fermoy, Co Cork

Lourdes is still a place of hope

Pope Leo’s visit to Lourdes must have resonated with the thousands of Irish pilgrims who, over the years, also knelt and prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle in the same manner as Pope Leo in the quiet of an evening. 

Much media comment has already been made at the extraordinary attendances at his Masses in Paris and Lourdes. In that regard, one statistic has stood out and surprised everyone and that is the preponderance of young people attending.

While France is an officially secular state (protocol prevented president Macron attending) the pope will have taken heart from this unforeseen source of support and particularly, I can only imagine, from those many T-shirt wearers in Lourdes bearing the unmistakable message “Generation Leon”. 

In their eyes he has definitely arrived. What a compliment!

Perhaps they could take further heart and inspiration from the 1944 Academy Awards winning film The Song of Bernadette. Towards the end of the film, the recently sceptical mayor of Lourdes utters the unforgettable lines “to those who don’t believe (in Lourdes) there is no explanation, to those who do believe no explanation is necessary”.

Lourdes then and now is a place of faith and hope, its continued existence is a testament to that.

As a pilgrim and cancer survivor, I can only agree.

Frank Russell, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15

Wealth is never evenly distributed

Research from the Royal London Ireland shows that one in seven adults are receiving financial support from family, rising to almost one in four among those aged between 33 and 44 years.

Nearly half use this money to cover everyday living costs, while three in 10 say it helps them keep their heads above water.

This research lifts the lid, while not necessarily liking what’s underneath.

These people, who are not young, are very much dependent on the older generation.

This research shows that family is increasingly becoming Ireland’s unofficial safety net. This family support is not funding luxuries, rather it’s helping in covering life’s essentials, as people who are in receipt of this assistance are using this funding for groceries, utilities, childcare, insurance, and other everyday costs.

Some 53% of adults with children or grandchildren provide them with financial assistance. All this just goes to show that wealth is not distributed equally throughout the community.

John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Trump ‘being played like a fiddle’

Donald Trump’s nerves seem to be stretched to the limit these days, with him snapping at reporters in the White House when they ask him perfectly reasonable questions.

His presidential instruments, the discordant mixed message notes he sends out to the nation, such as renaming geographical entities, seem to be increasingly divorced from reality.

Some say that this is because his office manager Natalie Harp is playing him like a fiddle.

It must sound like lovely music to the ears of Putin et al.

Bobby Carty, Templeogue, Dublin 6W

FAI was right to play Israel

The FAI was quite right in its decision to play Israel. I agree wholeheartedly with everything the objectors say but why give them a six-point free ride into the next round? 

Both Austria and Ireland have beaten Israel in their first matches, so all we have to do is beat them on Sunday and Austria to beat them in November to slow their progress in the competition.

If we refused to play Israel, we would face undetermined sanctions from Uefa. 

Israel should not be in the competition anyway.

John Fair, Castlebar, Mayo