Eoin Hayes and Social Democrats
Sir, – Myself, and I believe many other people, voted for the Social Democrats with a view for change.
In my constituency the Social Democrats got a large transfer of votes as a second or third preference. It’s very unlikely that these transfers would have happened if the voters knew that our prospective TD [Eoin Hayes] had profited from a US company directly involved in supplying Israel and the IDF, given the horrendous loss of life in Gaza. I certainly wouldn’t have voted for him.
It now transpires that, at the very least, he was economical with the truth regarding when he sold his shares. His party’s deputy leader said what the new TD said prior to the general election was not true.
Over the term of the last government we saw questionable activities by various TDs, and people are tired of politicians and politics, reflected by the low turnout of eligible voters.
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If “start as you mean to go on” means anything to the Social Democrats, their TD for Dublin Bay South should resign his seat immediately. He can “reapply” to the voters as part of an immediate byelection.
Anything less and the Social Democrats are in danger of being regarded “as the same as the rest of them”, prioritising their own members regardless of what the voters think. I believe having him as a TD representing me is an embarrassment. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN CONNOLLY,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – The new Dáil hasn’t even sat yet for the first time and Sinn Féin are already calling for a resignation. So much for voting for change. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN McGRATH,
Waterford.
A chara, – In reference to the ridiculous “scandal” surrounding Eoin Hayes, I believe readers should note that in selling the shares when he sold them, he has lost out on more than €200,000 in profits than if he held them today.
He sounds to me like someone who has made a significant financial sacrifice to serve the public in his role as a councillor (by divesting himself of an appreciating asset). It is disgusting to see him hounded out of the Social Democrats for not doing this in a perfect manner.
If we persecute parliamentarians like this, I don’t see how we can expect capable, honest people to stand for election in the future. – Yours, etc,
ALAN COAKLEY,
Roscommon town.
Intellectual disability
Sir, – It is, without doubt, extremely encouraging to see the increase in the number of students from Deis schools progressing to third level (“Feeder Schools: Record numbers of students from disadvantaged areas progress to third level”, December 10th). Some 80 per cent of all school leavers nationally availed of a third-level place in 2024.
Last week your newspaper featured an article on transition year uptake and noted that 80 per cent of teenagers participate in transition year (“Transition year gap: ‘Why is it only some schools get to go on trips abroad?” December 3rd). I wonder are the 20 per cent not represented in this data the same 20 per cent who do not routinely participate in TY through poverty or disability?
Within this 20 per cent exists a cohort of young people with intellectual disability who have no meaningful post-school options. They are invisible.
Students with intellectual disability who attend special schools are disadvantaged and discriminated against because of their intellectual capacities. They are not afforded the same amount of time in school as their typically developing peers. They have no access to transition year to further develop their wellbeing, essential life skills and community participation.
They routinely do not go on ski trips, participate in school musicals, or have any choice in work experiences to prepare them for life after school.
In such a complex, difficult world for all our young people, spare a thought for the most marginalised. But perhaps in sparing a thought, are we falling into a well-meaning trap of the charity model where we are the benefactors? Are we happy to be the benefactors bestowing something that is a human right that should be afforded to every citizen of this country and not an intellectual beauty contest? – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE FARRELL,
Dublin 3.
Alcohol and healthcare
Sir, – I see that Cormac Healy, director of Drinks Ireland, is offering help to the chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland (Letters, December 11th). He states that “in formulating policy on anything, the facts must be properly considered”. Here are some additional facts which he overlooked.
Policies which have successfully helped to reduce Ireland’s alcohol consumption, including the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, were consistently opposed by his organisation (formerly known as the Alcohol and Beverage Federation of Ireland), the industry it represents and other organisations funded by the industry such as Drinkaware.
His organisation, along with Drinkaware, lodged minority reports in opposition to the National Substance Misuse Strategy which I chaired as chief medical officer which was the policy which led to the groundbreaking Public Health (Alcohol) Act.
Vested interests in the alcohol industry lobbied heavily to limit the range and impact of the measures in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act, slow down its enactment and push out commencement time frames as far into the future as possible with the effect that some critical measures have yet to be implemented.
The industry, which he is representing, opposes a public health-based focus on the normalised “use” of alcohol by the whole of society and try to keep the focus on blaming “misuse” on an (implied) minority.
The Healthy Ireland Survey 2024 shows that 27 per cent of adults did not drink in the previous 12 months, meaning that current population consumption is equivalent to in excess of 20 standard drinks per week which exceeds current public health limits.
While we have made much progress in dealing with Ireland’s over- consumption of alcohol, two facts are clear: we need to make more progress; and the alcohol industry will oppose any such progress. – Yours, etc,
PROF TONY HOLOHAN,
Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on One Health,
Adjunct Full Professor of Public Health,
University College Dublin.
Sir, – Cormac Healy, director, Drinks Ireland, demonstrates why the alcohol industry should not be involved in public health matters (Letters, December 11th).
He advises that targeted education and awareness raising should be employed. However, Drinks Ireland has ferociously opposed Ireland’s upcoming health information labelling regulations on alcohol products which will provide facts including a warning about alcohol and fatal cancers. Such risks arise even at relatively low levels of consumption such as one-two drinks per day.
Might we expect that Drinks Ireland will now recommend its members start placing these labels on their products in advance of them being legally required from May 2026?
What could the industry possibly fear from this modest public health measure – a decrease in consumption perhaps? – Yours, etc,
DR SHEILA GILHEANY,
Chief executive,
Data centres
Sir, I welcome the analysis which underscores the significant threat islanded data centres pose to Ireland’s climate targets (“Study raises data centres climate targets risk”, December 10th).
Based on data I requested from Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan through a parliamentary question, the study highlights how data centres are bypassing constraints in the power grid by connecting directly to the natural gas network, thereby prolonging Ireland’s dependence on fossil fuels.
As the report’s author rightly notes, “This underscores the need for policy interventions that ensure renewables displace fossil fuels rather than fuelling new demand.”
Unfortunately, Mr Ryan’s approach to this issue has been alarmingly weak. Despite the clear risks, Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) is procedurally only one step away from granting these connections. All that is preventing GNI from enabling this climate-damaging practice is a simple ministerial letter requesting they refrain – a measure easily undone.
Sinn Féin has been calling for emergency measures to curb islanded data centres since October 2022.
In 2024 we tabled amendments to the Gas (Amendment) Bill to introduce a full legislative ban on these data centres connecting to the gas grid. However, Mr Ryan refused to support these amendments, prioritising weak half-measures over decisive action.
As the report makes clear, without strong policy interventions, Ireland risks blowing its emissions targets. Islanded data centres are an existential threat to our carbon budgets and a glaring failure in climate governance. The time for action is now. – Yours, etc,
LYNN BOYLAN MEP,
Dublin 22.
Greyhound racing
Sir, – I was emboldened to hear that the New Zealand government has proposed banning greyhound racing from 2026, the reason being that the percentage of dogs injured in races remains significantly high.
New Zealand’s greyhound racing industry has long faced criticism for not doing enough to protect the welfare of these animals, with three reviews on the industry over the past decade all recommending major changes.
I think it’s inevitable that Ireland will follow New Zealand’s example. Already the very last greyhound track in Mexico has closed down. That’s one more country where there’s no longer greyhound racing. The Irish public does not seem that interested in greyhound racing any more, judging by the poor attendances at these events.
I believe there’s a lot more awareness about the inherent cruelty in greyhound racing wherever it happens. When one witnesses six greyhounds racing very, very fast in an oval fashion, one will often see the dogs injure themselves as they reach the fourth bend as this is where such a collision frequently occurs. There’s actually a saying in the industry that the fourth bend is often the last.
In 2024 there’s sadly been a large increase in the number of greyhound deaths. As an animal lover, I really cannot understand the delight and pleasure that some people derive from witnessing the cruelty of innocent, defenceless creatures being abused in such an egregious sport.
Let’s hope that New Zealand’s government in deciding to ban this appalling sport from 2026 will act as the catalyst for the Irish government to follow suit. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
Co Tipperary.
Need for inclusivity
Sir, – Your correspondent Anne Marie Flanagan’s point that “Politicians are careless and insulting about disabled people like me” (Letters, December 10th) regarding the use of language around disabled people is well made. However, as a disabled person (leg amputee) myself, I would humbly suggest that we face greater difficulties than the use of terminology, demeaning as some of it is.
The main issue as far as I am concerned is access, which has received scant attention in the run-up to the election and since.
Many places of food, drink and entertainment remain out of bounds to our section of the population, a situation which, if it applied to people of a certain race, gender, sexual orientation or any other arbitrary category, would rightly provoke outrage. Yet such exclusion applying to disabled people seems to merit not even a raised official or media eyebrow. Disabled people need to let it be known that we will no longer tolerate this state of affairs.
A timetable needs to be put in place for the changes set out below, some of which will require legislation which should be introduced in the first trimester of the new Dáil:
- All premises to be required to be made accessible with funding if appropriate for the necessary physical alterations. Where this is impossible due to, for example, the age of the building, ramps to be provided by the proprietor to allow access and the availability of such facilities to be prominently advertised;
- Any inaccessible toilets to be upgraded irrespective and independent of any other improvement works which may or may not be in the pipeline. The current dispensation whereby accessible facilities have to be provided only in the context of a general upgrade, to be abolished;
- Greater enforcement of the prohibition on parking in disabled bays and this to be policed also at weekends and evenings when payment for parking no longer applies. Greater penalties for offenders and;
- The rules regarding parking in disabled bays in public car parks to be extended to private ones. Thus the proprietors, for example, publicans, restaurateurs, supermarkets, etc, to be made legally responsible for policing the car parks under their jurisdiction.
This list is not necessarily exhaustive but they are the ones that jump out of the page at me in my 12 years’ experience of negotiating no-go Ireland but I would be grateful if people add any suggestions they may have.
Parity of esteem is a term that has come into renewed prominence lately, particularly as regards political parties jockeying for position in the new government. Hopefully they will embrace it in the broader context of people currently excluded from a wide range of amenities available to the public at large, and basically do the right thing. – Yours, etc,
SEAN O DONNELL,
Co Dublin.
Ethna Carbery’ s poetry
A chara, – Marc McMenamin’s piece about the writer Seumas MacManus in An Irishman’s Diary (December 11th) and in particular his wife, Ethna Carbery, was informative. Carbery’s poetry had a revival in the late 1970s in, of all places, the H Blocks of Long Kesh. Prisoners protesting “on the blanket” were denied any access to books or media but resourceful families and friends sometimes smuggled pages of poetry and song in to the prisoners to help maintain their sanity.
One such poet who breached the prison walls was Ethna Carbery and poems such as Rodaí MacCorlaí (still widely sung today) and Brian Boy Magee had great resonance among the prisoners, being recited through the locked doors of the wings each night.
Prison folklore tells how one prisoner, Bobby Sands, was so moved by Carbery’s words that he declared at the door that he was going to write to her and ask her to support the prisoners’ cause. A cellmate of Bobby’s, Dixie Elliott, would recall years later that the prisoners’ leader at the time, Brendan Hughes, gave the droll reply (which would surely have sent the folklorist MacManus reaching for his pen) that Bobby would need a Ouija board as Ethna had died almost 80 years earlier.
In time, Bobby too would join Ethna Carbery in the pantheon of great Irish writers. He died on hunger strike in the H Blocks on May 5th 1981. – Le meas,
EOGHAN MAC CORMAIC,
Gaillimh.
