Madam, - A couple of weeks ago Róisín Ingle compared the clean toilets in Irish restaurants with the filthy toilets her friend's sister found when she was in hospital (Magazine, November 12th). Last Saturday Jennifer McCann described the very high standard of service and immaculate facilities she found when she had to visit the A&E department of the hospital near her new home in Connecticut.
Restaurants in Ireland have clean toilets because if they don't people will not eat there and will go instead to another restaurant that has clean toilets. The staff and management in restaurants know this, so they constantly work to keep their toilets clean. Hospitals in the US are immaculate for the exact same reason.
Irish hospitals are filthy because there is no consequence to the staff and administrators of having filthy facilities. It may be that a properly funded health service provided by an effective state run monopoly can work, at some level. If so, it will be one of the few services that can be provided better by a monopoly state- run organisation than by competitive markets. - Yours, etc,
AIDAN WALSH, Hollybank Avenue, Dublin 6.