Sir, – Listening to An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, speak at Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday (January 16th), you could be forgiven for thinking that people with disabilities are experiencing the same winter as everyone else. They are not.
While the Government speaks of future plans, reviews and budgets yet to come, disabled people are already living with the consequences of inaction.
The emergency winter payment campaign exists because people are being forced to choose between heating and food, cancelling essential medical appointments, and sitting in cold homes because energy costs are unaffordable. This is not hypothetical. It is happening now.
People with disabilities and their families have already spoken about what winter means for them: increased pain, deteriorating health, isolation, and real risk.
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These were not abstract policy arguments but lived experiences of people who cannot simply “wait until budget time” to survive.
The same reality was laid bare again at a packed event in Leinster House this week, hosted by the Social Democrats.
Disabled people described how additional disability related costs, heating, medical equipment, transport, do not pause because a Government process is unfinished.
Yet the response remains detached. The Government talks of a cost of disability payment but even when this is eventually introduced, it will not arrive in time for this winter. A policy promise does not keep the heat on in January, nor does an uplift in services put money in people’s pockets.
An emergency winter payment is not radical. It is a basic, time-limited measure to prevent foreseeable harm. If the Taoiseach truly understands the situation, he must act now, not next year. We will no longer be used as election pawns. We need action now. – Yours, etc,
JOAN CARTHY,
National Advocacy Manager,
Irish Wheelchair Association,
Dublin 3.
Inflation and the cost of living
Sir, – I was fortunate to attend a workshop on supporting wellbeing and mental health at work in Loughlinstown Training Centre last week.
During our conversations and reflections on the topics under discussion, attendees from various organisations correctly pointed to the surging cost of living in Ireland being a significant factor in poor wellbeing.
The fact of the matter for the majority of people is that their salaries have not even come close to matching inflation over the past decade.
This ongoing deterioration in real terms in people’s purchasing power is most definitely not a positive for wellbeing or mental health at work.
Unless people’s physiological needs are being met in the first instance by employers (including the State) – such as a roof over their head and food in their bellies – it is impossible for them to aspire towards self-actualisation and/or self-esteem.
Our politicians should not patronise the public – and tell them it will be okay, when workers are increasingly anxious about meeting the mortgage, rent payments or, worse still, have no place to call home.
If Simon Harris, Micheál Martin and Jack Chambers genuinely care about the wellbeing of the citizens of their country at work, they need to find a solution to curb inflation.
Or alternatively ensure that people’s salaries and wages match inflation. I won’t take a big breath. – Yours, etc,
RAY SILKE,
Business Department,
Coláiste Iognáid SJ,
Galway.
Flat out
Sir, – In recent times I’ve noticed that the inner pages of The Irish Times are creased. Is it time to take out the iron? – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
The DAA and Kenny Jacobs
Sir, – The ongoing issue at airport operator DAA is further evidence that many boards struggle to provide the governance and stewardship that organisations crave. While the Government is the main shareholder, DAA is not in debt to the taxpayer as it is fully funded by its commercial activities.
Last year the DAA was on target to generate income in excess of ¤1 billion.
While many would find fault with facilitating a settlement agreement with a CEO, the reported cost of same is a negligible percentage of revenues.
The Minister has also refused to sign off on a mediated settlement.
The nature of disputes, such as this one, is they become extremely lengthy and costly, and often result in irreparable damage to employees in the middle of them, notwithstanding they are sometimes culpable.
The intricate details lived out in the media is not conducive to a win-win resolution, and I believe time will prove the mediated solution, and timing of same, was the appropriate clearance for take-off. – Yours, etc,
DAMIEN HANLON,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Energy and climate targets
Sir, – It is now a common narrative that Ireland requires vast amounts of electricity to satisfy the needs of multinational companies and a growing population.
What is rarely addressed is how disproportionate this demand has become. Ireland already allocates about 22 per cent of its electricity to data centres, over seven times the EU average of 3.1 per cent, yet we are told the solution to grid strain and economic risk is simply to build ever more generation.
The real question is not whether Ireland can produce more electricity, but how this level of demand can be reconciled with legally binding climate commitments, especially when the Government is placing almost all its bets on intermittent renewable energy.
The strategy for meeting this demand rests heavily on wind and solar power. While renewables are essential to decarbonisation, their intermittency cannot be ignored.
Wind turbines operate with capacity factors of around 40-45 per cent, while solar efficiency over a full year is closer to 10 per cent. Data centres, however, require power 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
When the wind calms and the sun stops shining, the question remains: where does the electricity come from?
Interconnection offers limited relief. Ireland’s maximum import capacity is currently about 2.6GW, while all-island peak electricity demand already approaches 7GW and is forecast to rise sharply if current policy continues.
Battery storage can address short-term imbalances but cannot support prolonged shortages.
The unavoidable implication is greater dependence on gas-fired backup, locking in fossil fuel infrastructure precisely when climate policy demands the opposite.
This raises a fundamental question: how can a State committed to legally binding carbon budgets justify policies that require ever-greater fossil fuel support simply to sustain one sector’s growth?
Climate policy is being contorted to facilitate multinational energy demand, while households face higher network charges and rising bills.
If Ireland aligned even roughly with the European average, much of this pressure would disappear and our climate targets would be far more achievable.
If the rest of Europe can manage this balance, why can’t we? – Yours, etc,
UNA KEALY,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.
A dog’s life
Sir, – Your correspondent was dubious about sleeping in a hotel bed that may have had a dog as the previous occupant (Letters, January 13th).
Yes, hotels are now more dog friendly which in my view is to be welcomed, but you have to book a specified doggy room and pay a charge for the extra cleaning deemed necessary.
Having mixed with many dogs and people over the years I personally would be far more concerned with the domestic habits of some of the two-legged occupants I have encountered. – Yours, etc,
FIONNUALA DUNNE,
Sandycove,
Dublin.
Post-Christmas post blues
Sir, – The end of daily postal delivery might not be the only victim of An Post. Inordinate delay in delivery of Christmas cards took the joy out of the cards this season.
Each year, I would string my received cards along my entrance hall wall. Delighted to be able to display my wide range of contacts. Not this year, unfortunately.
So few cards arrived before Christmas that they ended up, forlornly, in a basket.
My Christmas cards are still arriving, the last one dropped into the post box on January 14th.
Will An Post kill off the sending and receiving of Christmas cards as well as daily postal delivery? Only time will tell. – Yours, etc,
KATHLEEN KELLEHER,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – I received a Christmas card from Canada in this morning’s post. Is this a record? – Yours, etc,
PETER LYNCH,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Reading Robert P Gogan’s letter in today’s newspaper recalling the five postal deliveries a day in Dublin at the start of the last century reminded me that the service in the late 1950s was still, by today’s standards, stellar.
In early 1959 I was a student in UCD and in “digs” on Northumberland Road; at that time my boyfriend was a resident student in Trinity College who used to walk me home after an evening out, go back to his rooms, write me a letter, post it by quarter past midnight on the campus and I would receive it by the 8 o’clock post that morning.
Not quite as quick as an email, but somehow more intimate. – Yours, etc,
KATHLEEN MAURER,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
Trump’s Nobel peace prize
Sir, – First, Venezuela’s opposition leader and election winner Maria Corina Machado was snubbed by US president Donald Trump after Nicolas Maduro’s overthrow and capture.
She then decides to present Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize. Take a bow, Ms Machado. You’re the inaugural winner of the World Sycophant of the Year award. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – My son presented me with his sack race medal, egg and spoon race medal and 50 yard dash medal. I also was given the medal won by a friend for growing the largest potato in our locality.
Mr Trump, eat your heart out. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK HAGIN MEADE,
Ballinteer,
Dublin 16.
Calling out Ireland’s Call
Sir, – “Ireland’s Call is still not the national anthem,” declares Johnny Watterson (“Ulster Banner shows Ireland’s’s Call was not such a bad idea after all,” Sports Friday, January 16th).
Those in positions of authority within the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) would certainly not agree. They have, without public discourse, debate or agreement, simply replaced Amhrán na bhFiann whenever our rugby team travels abroad these days. Ireland’s Call alone is presented as our national anthem.
Both anthems are heard on home match days but only Ireland’s Call is deemed worthy of an airing on “away” days.
This bizarre anomaly continues without explanation from the IRFU – which also receives significant public funding – to this day.
Little wonder that there is reported confusion abroad. – Yours, etc,
JAMES CONNOLLY HERON,
Dublin 6.
