Madam, – Your feature (“Life for the boom’s dead spaces”, June 30th) points us in a promising direction and it’s encouraging to see the newspaper used as a place to figure our way out of the post-boom quagmire.

I think architect Dominic Stevens cuts to the chase when he says that the fate of the empty housing estates (bank-owned, hence Government-owned, many of them) must be placed in the hands of the local communities where they sprang up, whether they were wanted or not.

A crucial next step is to bring people from local authorities, community groups and government bodies into this conversation so that we can re-imagine the political processes and bureaucratic/ legal procedures needed to enact real change.

Of course it is an enormous task, but we have to tackle it instead of waiting to see if the “current climate” will shift.

Here in north Roscommon, where we have hundreds of stagnating houses and there are all kinds of possibilities for transforming them into more vibrant mixed-use commercial and domestic zones or assisted living facilities for the elderly among us.

But we need to give our local community bodies more of a voice and, more importantly, the power to enact the changes they deem best for their own localities.

Can The Irish Times have a hand in getting this national discussion really going? Meantime, it is the woodlice and spiders who are setting up house in all those primrose-yellow, semi-detached houses. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – The creative contributions of the architects and artists reawakened my misgivings about the composition of the Government’s innovation taskforce.

There is no doubt that the entrepreneurs, technicians, scientists, academics and civil servants have talents that merit their inclusion.

But where are the writers, poets, designers, artists, musicians and philosophers?

The ability of our artists to inspire and capture the imagination of the world is well known.

Surely the melding of their attributes with the technical and scientific is the creative leap we need to make if we are to go beyond being surrogate mothers of invention to being natural fathers of true innovation .

Such a collaboration seems to me to be much more likely to give us not only a clever economy but a society of added values that could even light the way for both Berlin and Boston to follow. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the approval by the people of Ireland of measures to allow voting rights for six of the seats for Seanad Éireann to be reformed and their electorate extend beyond the then existing third-level institutions.

After all these many decades the provision of voting rights for those third level graduates from outside the NUI and TCD as approved by the people has still not come to pass.

You have yourself editorialised about this issue on a number of occasions.

There are close to 400,000 Irish citizens who should have voting rights but don’t simply due to government inaction over the last 30 years.

This is more than twice the number of the current electorate for both the TCD and the National University of Ireland panels combined. According to recent CSO figures there are 527,775 adults in the state with a degree or higher yet only about 150,000 are on the combined registers for the NUI and TCD. This means less than 30 per cent of those envisaged by the constitution as amended in 1979 are able to vote for the Seanad. A number of third-level colleges have even lost their voting rights since 1979 including the national teacher training colleges at St Pat’s, Drumcondra and Mary Immaculate, Limerick.

Is this the biggest problem facing the nation? No. Yet if it takes us 30 years to do the straightforward what hope is there for solutions for the big problems? Moreover, movement on this issue would also serve as an intermediate step to widening the franchise for the Seanad elections eventually lead to all citizens having a vote for a reformed Seanad.

However, it appears that there is stalling by the leader of the Seanad Senator Donie Cassidy (FF) in extending voting rights . When the Minister for the Environment John Gormley announced on March 11th last that the cross-party group which he chairs would meet for one last time before proceeding with reforms, it was anticipated that full co-operation with all parties would lead to speedy progress being made. The group has indeed met but it appears that one group is still outstanding with their contribution. The FF group is the only one for which confirmation of having completed and returned their submission is not available.

The last report on Seanad reform was chaired by Senator Mary O’Rourke of Fianna Fáil so it doesn’t appear this delay is an official stance by either Fianna Fáil or the Government, both of whom have repeatedly stated that they are in favour of this reform proceeding as soon as possible.

In recent discussions with the Minister’s representative I’ve been assured that the timetable of seeking to legislate by the end of the year still applies.

So the question we must ask is why is Senator Cassidy, himself a noted impresario, holding up the whole show? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – You report (“Burger apologises to team mates and fans”, July 2nd) that Schalk Burger has so far declined to apologise to Luke Fitzgerald for last Saturday’s eye-gouging incident.

Another story (“Rowntree rows in as ill feeling lingers”, July 2nd) notes the Springboks’ consternation at what they perceive to be the failure of the Lions to congratulate them properly on their series win.

Are the two issues by any chance related? – Yours etc,

Madam, – Without realising it John Waters says it all (Opinion, July 3rd) about the mess created by a small number of people at the head of Government, banks, Church and media.

His statement that “once, Ireland was world famous for being a place where everything was not reduced to ‘ethics’ and ‘equality’ and rules” neatly encapsulates the situation in which if you were powerful enough the only rule was that arrogance would get you anywhere.

From their lofty positions the most powerful showed contempt for the rest of us who expected those to whom enormous power had been entrusted to live up to the importance of their positions.

As a result we now have a country that is nearly bankrupt, a banking system that has failed, a Church that has lost all credibility and many in the media who still still see their role as acting as cheerleaders for those who are responsible for the present mess.

Far from “ethics” and “rules” being a “tyranny” a total absence of morals among the most powerful has brought the country to its knees – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Your letters (July 3rd and 4th ) refer to the poor condition of our national flag displayed on certain buildings at home and abroad . One could also lament the obvious ignorance of etiquette in the treatment of this emblem. The national flag should be set to fly above other flags and lowered at dusk. Most of our displays seem to be in permanent positions. Perhaps a lesson in basic civics would help sustain our national pride . – Yours, etc,

Madam, – it is very interesting to see Cyril Butler (July 3rd) refer to Richard Dawkins description of the Judaic/Christian God as “accurate” when in fact Dawkins contends that this God does not exist at all.

I was also impressed that he knew the gender of the authors of the Bible because the actual identity of the canonical authors is unknown.

But it is with his presumption that uneducated men are incapable of defining or describing a moral life that I take exception.

This modern-day gnosticism is the new tool of oppression and is an intolerance of a person’s right to their own beliefs.

His support for consequentialist morality raises the spectre of exactly who is going to decide on whether or not an action is “good”.

The real danger here is the replacing of the old tyranny of clericalism with a new tyranny of scientific gnosticism. – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Spiceburger? Humble? How dare you! It is a proud Glasnevin tradition.

Madam, – Prof Morgan Kelly’s (Opinion, July 3rd) essay made my day. It is sanity in this economic bedlam! – Yours, etc,

Madam, – Oh God. Gay marriage has been denied and Pride is more about protest than partying again.

Dole queues are getting longer, social welfare payments shorter and there are anti-abortion activists back on the streets .

If Dublin goes any further back into the late 1980s, we soon won’t be able to get a decent cup of coffee any more and at that stage I’ll be forced to leave. – Yours etc,