Sir, – Simon Carswell and your headline writer appear to have got slightly carried away in relation to the figures released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act regarding responses from the public to Leo Varadkar's criticism of Nphet ("Public praised Varadkar for Nphet criticism", News, January 11th).
It appears we are talking about a total of just 68 people who felt sufficiently moved to vent their support or criticism in writing.
That’s hardly likely to be a robust, representative sample from which to accurately gauge public opinion.
And with such a small, unrepresentative base, the majority of 55 people who praised Mr Varadkar could hardly be fairly described as being “vast” – or indeed to justify a headline that gave the impression that a substantial swathe of the public supported the Tánaiste on this issue.
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They may have done but these figures do not prove it. – Yours, etc,
JOE CLANCY,
Dunboyne,
Co Meath.
Sir, – Tánaiste Leo Varadkar may congratulate himself for receiving public support for his criticism of Nphet on RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live programme in October.
However, he must know that in undermining the public health message, he contributed to the dwindling level of compliance with Covid guidelines over the subsequent weeks.
We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of having the highest number of new Covid cases per million population in the world (“Ireland had world’s highest Covid-19 infection rate last week”, News, January 11th).
Sometimes cheap political ploys come at a high price. – Yours, etc,
CONOR BARRY,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.