EDITOR – Victor Meldrew’s iconic catchphrase, ‘I don’t believe it,’ is an appropriate response to the continuing taxpayer funding of horse racing and greyhound racing.
Budget 25 saw €99.1m (€79.28m to horse racing/€19.82m to greyhound racing) allocated to two activities. The 2025 allocations will bring to over €1.8bn the amount of taxpayers’ money channelled into the two gambling activities since 2001.
In Budget 25, we got the government response expressed in a 4.3% increase in funding.
For women in nine counties that don’t have a domestic violence refuge or for children enduring a painful wait for spinal surgery, or for those sleeping with a pavement Eircode, or for children forced to learn in demolition-grade classrooms, plus myriad other underfunded social services, this represents lines on a beaten betting slip.
They bet on a belief that in their hour of need, their government would help them. That hour is at hand. Are the financial lifeboats on the horizon?
No, as back on dry land, our government is busy financially wallpapering stables and kennels.
The government needs an attitude adjuster for their ongoing funding of animal abuse.
John Tierney
Campaigns Director
Association of Hunt Saboteurs
Dublin 1
Irish hypocrisy over Israeli war planes
EDITOR – The US military is providing active support to Israeli military attacks in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and the likelihood that Israel will be judged by the International Court of Justice to have been in breach of the Geneva Convention could lead to Ireland being accused of complicity and also a target.
This government should end US military use of Shannon Airport and stop fuelling a war that is not of our making.
Simon Harris said he would talk to President Biden about the humanitarian situation in Gaza the same day that our Department of Foreign Affairs approved the refuelling of two US military aircraft on their way to the Middle East.
Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.
Focus on fixing wrongs against Irish women
EDITOR – When I was ‘young’, a question often posed was: ‘How does one get a politician to attend a local event’? Answer: ‘Announce a photographer will be present’.
Times have changed, but politicians in general take every opportunity to have their photographs taken. Recently, our Tánaiste Micheál Martin was photographed beside actress Meryl Streep, in support of women in Afghanistan.
Mr Martin is leader of a political party which many would say showed little interest in the ‘rights’ of women in Ireland in the past.
Unmarried mothers were locked away in mother and baby homes or Magdalene laundries, where they were basically treated as slaves. While governments of today agree this treatment was unacceptable, many of those who suffered are still awaiting compensation.
Perhaps Micheál Martin should focus his attention on rectifying the wrongs inflicted on the unfortunate women of Ireland?
Michael A Moriarty,
Rochestown,
Cork.
Walkway construction a great inconvenience
EDITOR – I am posing a question regarding the construction of the walkway in Bandon. Who designed it? What is the budget? Was it put out to tender? What is the timeline for the completion of the walkway?
The travelling public are greatly inconvenienced by the construction of this walkway, especially those people going and coming from work.
I would suggest we could construct many other walkways for the money spent on this project, which might be better spent on completing the Bandon bypass.
I hope these concerns are raised with the relevant bodies, because we need accountability, where the spending of public money is concerned.
John O’Sullivan,
Innishannon.
Hypocrisy personified over ‘rogue’ State
EDITOR – It is hypocritical in the extreme that worldwide Governments’ responses to the genocide in Gaza and now the Lebanon for over a year, has been limited to mouthing calls for a ceasefire without taking concrete action to back them up.
Yet, when Israel’s terrorist IDF shoot off a few rounds over a UN peacekeeping base the international community is outraged, make phone calls, write letters, initiate trade sanctions and some stop sending arms to Israel.
It amply demonstrates the hypocrisy of global governments, including Ireland’s, and their attitude towards and treatment of Palestinian men, women and children being slaughtered in their hundreds and thousands by the rogue State that is the US of Israel.
Kevin T Finn,
Mitchelstown.
Travellers have very poor life expectancy
EDITOR – The life expectancy of a member of the ethnic group in Ireland known as ‘travellers’ is a full 15 years less than the settled community.
Born into a world of stigma and some discrimination is it any surprise if some follow a life of drinking and anger? A traveller male is five times more likely to end up in prison and a traveller woman is 30 times more likely. On an even darker note, suicide is rife in the community – being 10 times more likely than the settled community. And, for gay travellers, the pressure is enormous.
Michael Hallissey,
Mayfield,
Bandon
