Sir, – Una Mullally (“Ireland can make the world a better place. But first it must look in the mirror”, Opinion & Analysis, January 6th) says that “a principled stance offers hope to others in places where principles are lacking. The knock-on effects of hope are vast.”
Dóchas, the Irish Network for Humanitarian and Development Organisations, agrees. A century after the State was founded and 50 years after EU membership, Ireland has a confident identity on the international stage. The formation of a new government is an opportunity to renew our moral, political, and economic standing internationally.
Ireland needs an ambitious plan on the world stage based on our core values. We must uphold our principles, develop our positive presence in Africa and reinforce our strong humanitarian leadership within the multilateral systems which has earned us such respect.
Centre to this plan must be reaching the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national income on official development assistance by 2030. In 2015 Ireland committed to this, but in 2023 we reached 0.32 per cent of gross national income on official development assistance spent overseas.
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The new government must realise Ireland’s commitment to hit the 0.7 per cent target by 2030, and publish a clear spending pathway to achieve this, so we can continue our principled stance and provide that hope on the world stage. – Yours, etc,
JANE-ANN McKENNA,
CEO,
Dóchas – the Irish Association of Non-Governmental Development Organisations,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Una Mullally appeals for Ireland to be a force for good in the world and try to do the right thing. We ourselves do huge damage internationally by facilitating global greed, as one of the world’s largest tax havens. Poor countries are deprived of a tax base for hospitals, schools and housing by our actions. Our reputation in other areas – upholding international law, championing human rights, promoting peace, contributing to the developing world – is also undermined by our embarrassing centrality to this rotten system. It would be a great new year’s resolution to start to disentangle ourselves from it. – Yours, etc,
PAUL CONNOLLY,
Cavan.
Sir, – I see that Una Mullally is the latest Irish Times journalist to pen a pessimistic view of the world as we move into 2025. The global trend away from extreme wokeism and collectivist identity politics seems to be taking its toll. Perhaps some leftist hugs would help? I can only imagine the atmosphere in there now that we are going to see the back of Justin Trudeau. – Is mise,
SEAN MOONEY,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
Changes to the asylum system
Sir, – I refer to the letter by Martin McDonald (“Changes to the asylum system – well-intended initiatives ended up as policy failures”, January 4th) that states that one reason for the increase in asylum seekers in Ireland over the last few years was the “pull factors” of the White Paper on Ending Direct Provision and the regularisation scheme for long-term undocumented migrants. While this narrative of asylum trends following such policy changes is common, it has been proven incorrect by extensive international research.
Colleagues and I reviewed this research for an Economic and Social Research Institute report. We found that the one thing that can be said with relative certainty is that reception conditions (like those laid out in the White Paper, such as type of accommodation provided, access to social welfare) have almost no impact on where people apply for asylum. Instead, multiple factors are likely responsible for the increase in Ireland, including a period of global instability which has seen applications increase across Europe, the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions (which happened later in Ireland), a deflection effect from the UK for some nationalities, and a long-term social network effect. It also found that a general perception of welcome (including by the people in the country) was more important than specific policies, which asylum seekers are usually not aware of.
Ireland historically had surprisingly low asylum application numbers for a western European country – it was inevitable that this would change as we move from a country of net emigration to net immigration long term. Ensuring that we have flexible reception systems to accommodate asylum seekers, and that contingency plans are in place for when there are sudden increases (as there often are in asylum, which history has shown to be an unpredictable form of migration) is therefore crucial, as well as ensuring sufficient processing capacity.
The letter also mistakenly implied that Ireland was the only country to run a regularisation scheme. In fact, multiple European countries, including Spain and Italy, have recently run regularisation schemes. – Yours, etc,
KEIRE MURPHY,
Senior Policy Officer,
European Migration Network Ireland,
Economic and Social Research Institute,
Dublin 2.
Flu season and medical staffing
Sir, – Many good points are made by Shauna Bowers regarding the perennial winter crisis that afflicts the Irish healthcare system (“Flu season is predicted to peak next week. Why is Ireland not better prepared?”, Health, January 6th). One further matter is worth adding as it may help explain the lack of improvement seen. This is that temporary or seasonal workers are hard or impossible to recruit.
In any other field of work – tourism and hospitality, retail, agriculture, for example – predictable peaks in activity are dealt with by employing more staff on temporary contracts to deal with the challenge, often with little experience. Knowing that we are likely to be deluged with illness is useful for planning.
But finding people who can rapidly act as doctors and nurses is unfeasible. Most who do these jobs work to the legal limit of their hours. Bringing more in from abroad is hard as professional registrations take time and most nearby countries face the same challenge simultaneously. Knowing you are running into a problem is useful, albeit less so if you cannot prevent or address it. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sinne na Daoine
Sir, – I am writing in response to your article “The rise of anti-immigration watchdog organisations” (Conor Gallagher, News, Analysis, January 3rd).
The article contains inaccuracies regarding myself and the organisation Sinne na Daoine, which I feel compelled to address in the interest of truth and fairness.
Firstly, Sinne na Daoine operates without a leader. This structure is central to the organisation’s ethos, ensuring that decisions are made collectively and transparently.
Secondly, the characterisation of Sinne na Daoine as a vigilante group is entirely baseless. Sinne na Daoine is committed to operating within the bounds of the law and ensuring that information shared with the public is factual and responsibly verified. The use of the term “vigilante” is misleading and unfairly tarnishes the organisation’s reputation.
Lastly, the assertion that I was expelled from the Irish Freedom Party is incorrect. My departure from the party was the result of a voluntary resignation, which I made due to a lack of confidence in its leadership. This decision is clearly outlined in my resignation email and publicly reflected in my online statement. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY CASEY,
Maganey,
Co Kildare.
Programme for government
Sir, – The public is no longer interested in a wish list; we must this time have a set of key performance deliverables. Yes, that’s sounds like jargon but it’s an attempt to identify what we want to do, by when and for what cost. That programme for government should follow a rigorous plan to be published and not just for the eyes of ministers. The customers in this plan are you and I, families, the haves and have-nots, the marginalised, those just managing or not at all. The country would be prepared, I think, to wait some while until it is complete so that broadly the architects of this plan are given time to get it right; there is no shortage of content, just the problem of where the priorities really lie. No one ever said this exercise was easy, whether in the private or public sector; because of competing priorities, it’s really difficult. But it has to be done. – Yours, etc,
ALASTAIR CONAN,
Coulsdon,
London.
Dublin traffic congestion
Sir, – I commiserate with Dublin City Council on Dublin coming only third in Europe for traffic congestion (“Dublin is Europe’s third most congested city after London and Paris”, News, January 6th). It must feel disappointed not to have come first after the effort it has made in blocking off roads, changing traffic light sequencing to create semi-permanent traffic jams and using the construction of bicycle lanes to block traffic. Still, the council can take comfort in moving up one place this year. And, of course, they can use the result to introduce further congestion measures in the future. – Yours, etc,
JOHN HAMILL,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 11.
Penalising single people
Sir, – Justine McCarthy (Opinion & Analysis, December 27th) highlights the discrimination “singletons” suffer in present-day Ireland. This is despite “marital status” being one of the nine grounds on which it is illegal to discriminate in all but a few specific areas. She mentions how having a “spouse” on your car insurance can reduce the premium. I have been told by my insurer, that should I acquire a “spouse”, my premium would be reduced by €120. Single occupancy in hotels is another bugbear, not to mention package holidays.
Why is it not a legal requirement to offer a quota of single rooms in any guest accommodation?
We definitely need a National Singletons’ Council, with generous funding equal to that given to the National Women’s Council. – Yours, etc,
GABRIELLE BROCKLESBY,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Blanket forecasts
Sir, – If we have learned one thing from last weekend’s weather warnings, it is that Met Éireann need to divide larger counties like Cork to provide an accurate service.
There was an orange weather warning for snow issued for the entire county for a 24-hour period. Yet, Cork city and its hinterlands hardly saw a snowflake, and certainly none that remained on the ground. It was a cold, wet weekend here. Nothing unusual for the month of January. At most it warranted a yellow warning for rain.
This was not the first time Met Éireann has applied a blanket orange warning to the entire county when it has forecast the extreme weather conditions in only one area.
It is hard to give the severity of their warnings any credence when the severe conditions are in the opposite end of the county.– Yours, etc,
WILLIAM BURKE,
Beaumont,
Cork.
Use your public libraries
Sir, – As we are now at the start of the year it becomes customary for people to make a resolution. This year I want to share mine and encourage others to do the same and that is simply to use your local library more often. We are often told to use something or lose it and I think that’s certainly the case when it comes to public libraries, which are vital to our communities. – Yours, etc,
WJ CRAIG,
Belfast.
Changes to the Leaving Cert
Sir, – Carl O’Brien predicts that there will be opposition in 2025 to implement what he persistently calls the Leaving Certificate “reforms” (”Our predictions on what’s next for education in 2025″, Education, Analysis, January 7th). The dictionary definition of reform is to make something better by removing faults or errors.
As O’Brien notes, there may be a battle, as many people, including teachers, are not convinced that the proposed changes will make the Leaving Certificate experience better.
In the meantime, it would be helpful if your education editor could refer to the proposed changes as just that, “proposed changes”, thus indicating his and The Irish Times’s neutral stance on what may become a very divisive issue. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Santry,
Dublin 9.
The dry light of reason
Sir, – So far, Dry January has been terribly wet. – Yours, etc,
LAURA O’MARA,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.