Sir, – Recent coverage in The Irish Times reflects growing debate about hybrid working and renewed calls for a return to offices. Yet Ireland cannot meet its climate targets while quietly restoring the daily mass commute into Dublin.
For many workers, the issue is straightforward. Spending several hours each day commuting to do work that can be done just as effectively elsewhere is a poor use of time, money and energy. It increases emissions, adds to congestion and contributes to a working week shaped more by fatigue than by productivity.
This is not an argument against offices. Having somewhere to go, to meet colleagues and collaborate in person can be positive and valuable. When attendance is optional, the office can be a place of connection. When it is mandated, it often becomes a burden.
Ironically, compulsory weekly attendance can undermine morale, while more intentional in-person activities, such as occasional team days or workshops, can genuinely strengthen workplace culture.
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Seen properly, remote and hybrid work are not lifestyle perks but structural tools. If Ireland is serious about meeting its climate targets, reducing the volume of daily commuting into Dublin is an obvious and largely untapped lever.
Fewer commuters would mean lower transport emissions and less congestion, while also weakening the logic for maintaining large, underused city centre offices.
With the right incentives, companies could be encouraged to downsize or relinquish surplus office space, allowing any suitable buildings to be converted into affordable or social housing.
At the same time, enabling more people to live and work across the country would help invigorate towns and villages, easing pressure on the capital while supporting balanced regional development.
Working from home will not suit every role or every sector. But treating it as a legitimate option, rather than a reluctant concession, could be a sensible start? – Yours, etc,
ALEXANDRA ST JOHN,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Nollaig na mBan
Sir, – I was a little bit flummoxed to read Tom McElligott’s description of Nollaig na mBan as being “overtly sexist and demeaning to all females who wish to live in a fair and equal society”.
Simply because his male friend was going home to cook the dinner for an all-male household?
As a female who works full-time outside the home, and who thankfully has a partner who works with me in the running of our busy household all year around (and not just at Christmas), let me enlighten Mr McElligott.
I have female friends and relatives who are married/single/with or without children who work solely in the home and who, like me, do both.
Nollaig na mBan is a lovely opportunity to celebrate the female relationships, friendships and camaraderie in our lives. Let us celebrate each other and be celebrated by the men in our lives, in particular those who do take on the majority of the work for Christmas in their households.
I read a lovely quote which said that women “weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we are weak and sing with us when we are strong”. – Yours, etc,
SÍOBHRA RUSH,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
Mercosur Agreement
Sir, – Your Editorial “Mercosur: Ireland’s symbolic but futile no,” (January 9th) ignores the extensive evidence provided in support of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement.
For example, Alan Matthews, one of the most respected commentators in Europe on agricultural policy, has on a few occasions highlighted the minimal impact the agreement would have on the agricultural/food sector in the EU, including in Ireland, with significant economic benefits for other sectors.
Yet, little of this was conveyed with any conviction via politicians and the media, leaving the Government having to oppose the agreement on narrow political calculation, with little regard if any for the wider EU/global context.
The only way to exercise control of problems which do not recognise national boundaries is to pool decision-making with other sovereign countries, thereby protecting the interest of the citizens of each participating state.
The EU, and its member states collectively, at present are facing existential issues regarding defence, trade, regulatory authority, and relations with China, Russia and the US, all of which can only be addressed by acting in unison.
The EU-Mercosur Agreement will create the world’s largest free trade area. It will also create a political partnership which would greatly benefit the EU at a time when it so badly needs to create alliances.
As such, the best course of action now for the Irish Government is wholeheartedly to accept the democratic decision of the EU member states, representing over 65 per cent of the EU electorate, to proceed.
And even more important, to focus urgently on how Ireland can best contribute at a European level to protecting the interests of each member state in the face of the greatest threat to our collective security, regulatory authority, and trade in over eight decades. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’HAGAN,
Department of Economics,
Trinity College,
Dublin.
Sir, – Irish farmers and the dairy sector are, no doubt, somewhat satisfied that their objection to the Mercosur deal was supported by the Government. Thankfully theirs is a pyrrhic victory.
At a local supermarket I recently saw a displayed beef joint priced at €103.
When you are paying restaurant prices at the butcher’s counter, you have to think again.
Whatever about Brazilian beef, I would not even pay such a price for a three-headed Martian antelope cut. The farmers can stop complaining, they killed their own golden goose. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM,
Firhouse,
Dublin 24.
Caught in the headlights
Sir, – Much commentary has been submitted to your Letters pages on the proliferation of wheeled vehicles now utilising footpaths.
As an ardent walker of many years standing, I thought this was my most challenging issue, but I was wrong.
Even worse is the commuter on wheels coming towards one on a footpath with headlights brighter than a welder’s torch.
It is enough to make one incandescent. – Yours, etc,
FRANK J BYRNE,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.
Increase in road deaths
Sir, – Has anybody correlated the increase in road incidents with the amount of screen distractions in newer vehicles?
Use of a mobile phone has been rightly targeted as an offence for some years now, but modern cars and trucks with largish screens giving geographical and other information plus messaging, video and audio applications are also distracting the full attention and eyes of the driver.
Perhaps head-on information displays reflected back directly to the driver’s front window could be utilised as they are in military aircraft and incorporated into the next generation of road transport. – Yours, etc,
KEITH NOLAN,
Carrick-on-Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Taking stock
Sir, – On the subject of Prize Bonds (Letters, January 9th) I purchased two prize bonds in November 1982 and have yet to win anything. Not to worry, at least my £10 investment is still safe, albeit that £10 would cost me in the region of €52 by today’s values, and is now worth about €11.50.
On the other hand, if I had invested that £10 on the stock market (FTSE Index), it could be worth anything in the region of €500-€1,000. I think I need to sit down after that discovery. – Yours, etc,
HUGH McDONNELL,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.
Role of guidance counsellors
Sir, – We read the letter by Sean Keavney (“Shortage of psychologists”, December 31st) with interest. The reported staffing gap in the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) is indeed deeply concerning, and it reflects what schools and guidance counsellors have experienced for years: a growing demand for educational psychologist assessments, and an increase in need for educational psychologist consultation and specialist input that far outstrips capacity.
However, it is important to correct one implication in the letter. Guidance counsellors are not, and should never be presented as, “clinical substitutes” for psychologists. Their role is a unique and distinct, professional one as required in the Education Act 1998: supporting students across the personal, educational and vocational domains through counselling (within scope and competence), guidance counselling, prevention, early identification, co-ordination of supports, and referral. This holistic approach is not incidental. It is essential.
When students present with complex or escalating mental health needs, guidance counsellors do exactly what ethical practice requires: engage, support, assess risk appropriately, involve parents/guardians, and refer onward to specialist services .
The problem is not that “the guidance counselling model is a relic of simpler times”. The problem is that the system repeatedly relies on guidance counsellors to bridge gaps created elsewhere.
That reliance is unsustainable. When specialist services are inadequate, delayed or inaccessible, schools and guidance counsellors are left managing high-risk situations with insufficient multidisciplinary supports.
This is inequitable and unsafe for students, families, school communities and the professionals trying to keep young people safe.
The Institute of Guidance Counsellors and its members strongly support a properly resourced, joined-up model that includes significant expansion of NEPS staffing; timely access to Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) and community youth mental health services; and strengthened and protected guidance counselling provision in every second level school – so that guidance counselllors can support early intervention, case co-ordination and high-quality one-to-one preventative work, while educational psychologists provide the specialist assessments, consultations and interventions that only they can provide.
This is not an either/or situation. Students need both. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA WROE,
National Secretary,
Institute of Guidance Counsellors,
Dublin 2.
Good attempt penalised
Sir, – With reference to the action photograph from the Brentford versus Sunderland soccer game (January 8th) I wish to applaud Caoimhín Kelleher on saving an “attempted penalty kick”, whatever that is.
It has been very thrilling indeed to see him save actual spot kicks. Keep up the great work Caoimhín for club and country. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GLEESON,
Co Kerry.
