Madam, - I find Fintan O'Toole's piece "Sad state of our flitting leaders" in today's edition (March 14th) offensive. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a serious condition and a major challenge for very many Irish people - young and old. It's not very helpful for people fighting this syndrome to read such statements as: "People with ADHD never get to develop good function of their working memory".
Leaving aside the alarm this would cause to an ADHD sufferer, it is simply wrong. Again he says "People with ADHD cannot keep the future in mind. They are prisoners of the present". This is, again, wrong.
People with ADHD can experience difficulty in all the areas he mentions, but they can, and frequently do, overcome these challenges with therapy, medication or simple learned routines. I just think it thoughtless and insensitive of O'Toole to use these inaccurate references to poke fun at anyone. - Yours, etc,
JOHN GRIFFIN, Kells Co Meath.