Sir, – In years to come, when future generations look back at The Irish Times archives and view Tuesday’s front-page photograph (July 22nd)of emaciated infant Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq, with his ribs protruding through his back and a black refuse bag as a nappy, they may justifiably ask: “What did we do at the time to stop this?”.
Even for readers bombarded day after day by horrific images from Gaza, this photograph stopped people in their tracks. It highlighted the scale of failure by the international community to prevent this humanitarian nightmare deepening, and underlined the urgent need for effective action to address this suffering.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council that what is happening in Gaza is a “horror show”, that “malnourishment is soaring. Starvation is knocking on every door”, and that Gaza was enduring “a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.
Concern welcomes the secretary general’s focus on Gaza, and the recent statement by the foreign ministers of 28 countries and the EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, but it is not enough.
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International efforts must ensure that aid is not just allowed into Gaza, but that it is available where people need it. The very limited access to essential food and aid – there are currently just four distribution points where there had been 400 during the temporary ceasefire – is adding to suffering, forcing two million people into overcrowded, increasingly militarised zones where they face growing levels of risk and insecurity.
Concern is playing its part, providing funds and technical support to its partner, CESVI, who this week installed a reverse osmosis filter to provide safe water to the Al Rantisi Hospital – the only children’s hospital currently operational in Gaza city.
With Concern’s support, CESVI has also been trucking water to over 100,000 people on a regular basis over the last 12 months.
Earlier this week, Antoine Renard, the country director for the UN’s world food programme in Palestine, stressing the need for humanitarian assistance to reach people where they are, noted that aid agencies in Gaza were seeing people who were so weak that some were fainting while queuing for the meagre rations available to them – boiled water with just a few lentils in it.
Central to international humanitarian law – the law of war – is the requirement that civilians must be protected and must never be targeted.
The level of risk facing those seeking to access the very limited food and aid that is available is well known, and the civilian population now has to choose between risking their lives trying to access food aid for their family or face slow starvation.
Highlighting the need for urgent action, the IPC – the globally recognised system for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity and malnutrition – estimates that 470,000 people (22 per cent of Gaza’s population) will likely face “famine” levels of food insecurity between now and September.
The current situation in Gaza highlights why the UN Security Council passed a resolution in 2018 that condemns both the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access.
It urged parties to all conflicts to comply with international humanitarian law and called for accountability for those who violated it.
To prevent further unnecessary loss of life, the international community must make greater political efforts to secure the release of all hostages, a permanent ceasefire, unfettered access of civilian populations to adequate levels of principled humanitarian aid, and the restoration of respect for international humanitarian law.
Given the extreme nature of suffering being felt by Gaza’s civilian population, every effort must be made to enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to work safely and effectively to save as many lives as possible in this catastrophic situation, and to prevent it from deteriorating even further. – Yours, etc,
DOMINIC CROWLEY,
Chief executive,
Concern Worldwide,
Dublin 2.
Sir – Every time I see the bony outline of a child’s body in Gaza, I see my two-year-old. I cannot begin to imagine the helplessness of Gazan parents as their child withers away in front of them. How have we come to this, stripping a parent of their ability to care?
Now, as I am overcome with guilt as I sweep up my child’s discarded food off the kitchen floor – I plead with everyone, please can we do more?
March. Donate. Write. Scream.
Gazan parents deserve to see their children live, really live. – Yours, etc,
CILLIAN QUINN,
Cabra,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – As the Occupied Territories Bill returns to debate, I hope we remember Ireland’s proud tradition of standing up for human rights – just as we did when we boycotted South African goods during apartheid.
Israel’s ongoing occupation and settlement expansion break international law and basic decency. While we wait for our Government to act, we can take small steps ourselves.
By checking labels and choosing not to buy goods and services that profit from the occupation, we send a peaceful message of solidarity. Small actions, taken together, can help build a fairer world – just as they did before. – Yours, etc,
BARBARA McCARTHY,
Malahide,
Dublin.
Listeria outbreak
Sir, – The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has confirmed that a person has died as a result of listeria infection (“Adult dies with listeria as FSAI investigates outbreak,” July 24th).
The FSAI website goes on to list about 200 food products from a particular producer which should not be consumed.
On checking my fridge I have one such item for which I can produce the receipt for €4.25.
Yet, there is no national recall from the various supermarket chains listed as selling these products.
Surely there is an obligation on the supermarkets to take back these products and to give either a refund or a credit note?
I await their notice in the newspapers. – Yours, etc,
TONY CORCORAN,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Derrybrien wind farm saga
Sir – Thank you to Michael McDowell for highlighting the insanity that has been the sorry saga of the Derrybrien wind farm (“Demolition of wind farm cannot be justified,” July 23rd).
I have used this wind farm as a project for my 15 and 16 year-old geography students. I have visited the wind farm several times with successive classes over the past six years.
It is not until you are standing at the foot of one of these enormous wind turbines that you realise the huge cost to the environment and exchequer it will take to dismantle them.
There will be a huge amount of traffic, lorries and heavy plant equipment on narrow rural roads that will have to be used to dismantle the 74 turbines over years.
It makes the case for wind farms saving carbon emissions a bit of a joke. The bog can never be restored to being a carbon sink with 74 concrete bases and the carving up of the blanket bog into a patchwork of roads and 2 metre deep drains.
So what is the point of dismantling them? Every one of the students who have chosen Derrybrien as their project for their diploma and have done their own research cannot comprehend why they have to be dismantled. And neither can I.
The next question is how much will it cost to dismantle them? If the blanket bog can never become a carbon sink due to the damage caused, what does that mean for the dozens more wind farms built on peat uplands all over Ireland when the time for decommissioning comes?
Derrybrien has become the case cited for people objecting to wind farms on peat uplands (including in Scotland and Wales) and for academics in universities in the UK and elsewhere where they use it as a case study.
The decision to dismantle is the culmination of multiple bad decisions and lack of accountability, and it will not benefit the environment, the community of Derrybrien or the carbon emissions it was built to save. – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE KELLY,
Whitegate,
Co Clare.
Sir, – In addition to the excellent points raised by Michael McDowell, there will be an additional cost in terms of the fines to be paid when Ireland fails to meet carbon emissions reduction targets in 2030.
The bog slide of 22 years ago is water under the bridge.
It is not too late. The Government must legislate to save the Derrybrien wind farm resources. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK TALTY.
Co Clare.
Climate obligations
Sir, – Breaching climate obligations is a wrongful act under international law (“Clean environment is a key human right, court rules,” July 24th).
Some of the words of International Court of Justice presiding judge Yuji Iwasawa that didn’t make it into the article are worth highlighting.
In presenting this groundbreaking ruling, Judge Iwasawa said: “Above all, a lasting and satisfactory solution requires human will and wisdom – at the individual, social and political levels – to change our habits, comforts and current way of life in order to secure a future for ourselves and those who are yet to come.” – Yours, etc,
HANS ZOMER,
Chief executive,
Global Action Plan,
Ballymun,
Dublin 9.
Grocery prices
Sir, – Your photograph of a basket of grocery products in today’s Irish Times (page 12, July 24th) caught my attention. Of the 18 products identified I, in my time as a sales rep, sold 10 of them.
Sadly, with the rise in the cost of food prices and the growing popularity of own label products, many of those brand leading products would not feature in today’s average basket. – Yours etc,
MICHAEL C O’CONNOR,
Co Waterford.
Taxing Irish companies
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole warns that Ireland’s windfall corporation tax revenues have lulled successive governments into “laziness” and an instinct to avoid hard choices. (“Magic coins fill the coffers of paranormal Ireland,” July 22nd).
This shows up in how the tax system treats Irish start up companies.
Multinationals enjoy a low headline 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate and can remit profits overseas easily. By contrast, an indigenous founder faces the EU’s highest dividend tax rate (52 per cent) and the EU’s fourth highest capital gains rate (33 per cent).
In the round, Irish taxes on capital are the second-highest in Europe. To tempt a venture capital investor to invest ¤1 million over five years, an Irish start up must generate ¤11.7million of pre-tax value.
In Sweden, the EU country with the best track record of nurturing startups, the equivalent figure is ¤8.7 million.
This wedge dissuades successful founders from backing the next generation of entrepreneurs, and makes it impossible for startups to prize software engineers from the multinationals. Irish startups consistently cite a shortage of funding as their biggest challenge.
If Ireland wants to diversify away from US multinationals, it should stop penalising Irish start ups. Irish entrepreneurs should not have to be smarter, harder working or luckier than their European peers to compete on level terms. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN KEYES,
Executive director,
Progress Ireland,
Baggot Street,
Dublin.
Sprat chat
Sir, – I see from today’s Irish Times that the Government is to ban the fishing of sprats in Irish inshore waters. (“State to ban sprat fishing inshore,” July 23rd).
In all of the 10 years or so that I have lived in the Republic, I have yet to see a fresh sprat as opposed to ones sold in tins.
Can your readers enlighten me on where to find fresh sprats? – Yours, etc,
DAVE WRIGHT,
Co Wexford.
Setting the record straight
Sir, – Kevin Lyda (Letters, July 22nd), while defending Ireland’s new abortion law, remarks: “After repeal, I had hoped some anti-Repeal folks would actually help get things done to help families and make non-termination choices’ more attractive. I must say that I have been disappointed, even in the low expectations that I had.”
To set the record straight – since the new abortion law took effect in 2019, the Pro Life Campaign and others have repeatedly called on the Government to engage in dialogue with us on finding common ground between those with opposing views on abortion, with the aim of ensuring that no woman feels abortion is her only option.
From press conferences, numerous public marches, contributions in the Oireachtas, public submissions, lobbying efforts et cetera, pro life individuals have worked tirelessly and constructively to engage with the government and successive ministers for health, but have been met with silence.
Meanwhile, the abortion numbers have continued to soar year-on-year since the law changed, as pointed out in Breda O’Brien’s excellent article (“As abortions triple, when will we admit that reluctant repealers were profoundly wrong?,” July 20th).
Pro-life groups and other voluntary bodies will continue to offer practical assistance on the ground to women facing an unplanned pregnancy and to new mothers and families experiencing difficulties.
It is deeply regrettable however – and indeed unacceptable in a democracy – for the Government only to engage with one side of this issue when it comes to policy planning – while completely blanking the insights, perspectives and personal experiences of those with a different take on things who have an important contribution to make.
We are in contact all the time with women who opted for abortion and now regret their decision. Disgracefully, their voices too are completely excluded from the decision-making process.
This ongoing refusal by the Government to engage with differing perspectives cannot be defended and needs to change. – Yours, etc,
EILÍS MULROY,
Pro Life Campaign HQ,
Dublin 2.
Puck Fair and dates
Sir , – You report that in the course of a Circuit Court hearing in Killarney seeking the retention of late opening hours for pubs in Killorglin during Puck Fair it was stated that the fair had been running since the last year of the reign of James 1 in 1603 ( “Puck Fair’s late-night drinking hours survive for another round,” July 23rd).
Whatever about the date of the first Puck Fair, 1603 certainly was not the last year of King James’s reign, in fact it was his first year as king of England and Scotland. He died in 1625.
Had he died on the earlier date we would have been spared the Ulster plantation and all that followed as a consequence. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Dublin 9.
