Sir, – While the recent Irish Times editorial on disability services is welcome in looking at funding (“The Irish Times view on disabilities: proper funding a priority”, January 21st), I fear it is looking at a symptom rather than the root cause of poor and in many cases non-existent disability services.
Senior managers in both the Department of Health and HSE have long viewed disability services as an act of charity which users should be grateful for rather than a human right. Funding deficits and the grossly offensive charity model are the inevitable consequence of this attitude. We would not tolerate excluding people from society based on gender or race yet the State has for years done exactly this to children with disabilities. Parents of children with disabilities are repeatedly forced into High Court actions to secure both an education and basic services for their child. Even when these High Court actions are successful, there are never any consequences for the defendants who sought to block vulnerable Irish children accessing education and health services. Politicians and ineffectual regulatory bodies are nowhere to be seen as parent after parent faces a long and costly legal battle to secure services for their child that other parents take for granted.
Without a fundamental sea-change in attitude in the Department of Health and HSE, all the funding in the world will make little difference to the lives of these parents and their children.
Child disability services must be seen as a non-negotiable human right and the consequences for taxpayer-funded bodies that fail to deliver basic services must be severe.
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It behoves all politicians and in particular the incoming Minister for Health to address this and demand a complete attitude change in both the HSE and Department of Health. If you allow senior permanent health service management to fail to provide child disability services with zero consequences you are in effect stating that you view children with disabilities as inferior. This has never been acceptable and it is long past time that Irish politicians took a far more robust approach on the issue. The High Court has been doing its job for years, and it is time that politicians started ensuring permanent health service management do theirs.
Ending the charitable model of child disability service provision should be a priority for the Government. It must be replaced with a rights-based system which places a legal obligation on State bodies to ensure children with disabilities have the same opportunity to fully participate in society as every other child. Legislation needs to be implemented and enforced to ensure that State bodies that fail to provide services face consequences. – Yours, etc,
RUARY MARTIN,
Sandyford,
Dublin 18.
School meals programme
Sir, – With reference to Goretti Horgan’s letter (January 24th), which referred to “The view on new hot school meals programme” (Food, January 18th), it seems clear that, in principle, the concept of school meals being supplied has very many benefits indeed and it is to be commended that the scheme may be expanded soon to cover all primary schools, thus potentially involving the supply of over half a million meals to our children per day.
But there are important issues involved not mentioned in the letter or article. The Nutrition Standards for School Meals, published under the Healthy Ireland Framework mandates that meals containing red meat must be offered at least two and a maximum of three times per week. This would appear to involve therefore an obligation to produce a minimum of at least one million meals containing red meat per week.
Given well-documented environmental concerns, this is both unsustainable and damaging to our planet. David Attenborough in his book A Life on Our Planet says: “Beef makes up about a quarter of the meat we eat, and 2 per cent of our calories, yet we dedicate 60 per cent of our farmland to raising it”. Surely it is time for our Government to desist from encouraging our children to understand red meat consumption as the norm. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’SHEA,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
Dyslexia and the Irish language
Sir, – Referring to the article “‘I have dyslexia. An exemption from Irish goes some way towards levelling the playing field’”(Education, January 23rd), I would like to offer the perspective of a parent to a child in secondary Irish language education. They have always been educated as Gaeilge; from naíonra (Montessori preschool), to Gaelscoil (primary) and onwards to Gaelcholáiste (secondary/post primary).
My child has severe dyslexia and their primary language is Irish. For Irish language learners, this specific learning disability is treated differently by the Department of Education. It goes without saying that a child in an Irish-language school cannot be exempt from Irish.
You may be surprised to learn, however, despite English being their second language, they cannot be exempted from that either. Instead, along with my child, we examined the volume of work and reached an agreement with their school to exempt them from a different compulsory subject, giving them more time and effort to focus on core subjects.
Regardless of language, all students with severe dyslexia can receive a spelling and grammar waiver for State exams, subject to testing. Many of these students will be permitted to use a computer with a word processor. For students who study in Irish this advantage is only useful for one subject, English. Yet for all students with severe dyslexia, there is no extra time given.
As a parent who grew up in English-language education. I can see that language is not the issue; it’s the treatment of children with severe dyslexia combined with certain mainstream Irish-language teaching methods. Once diagnosed, all our schools have been supportive and reinforced our school decisions. Children and adults with dyslexia can study and thrive in Irish-language classes given the right supports. – Yours, etc,
CAITRÍONA REDMOND,
Balbriggan,
Co Dublin.
The right election to lose?
Sir, – Reading your headline “Donald Trump threatens tax war over US multinationals” (News, January 21st) and that Ireland “could be in the firing line of this move”, it occurs to me that perhaps Sinn Féin may be quite relieved that they’re not going to be in office for the next five years. – Yours, etc,
IAN d’ALTON,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Climate crisis and coal
Sir, – Eamon Ryan says China, like us, is going flat out for a green new deal by cutting fossil fuel demand (“Eamon Ryan: Trump’s ‘golden age’ of climate destruction would be a disaster”, Opinion & Analysis, January 22nd).
Coal remains the bedrock of China’s energy system; two new coal-fired power stations open every week and a record five billion tons of coal were burned last year.
China – the world’s biggest carbon emitter – has overtaken Europe in all-time greenhouse gas emissions. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.
European languages
Sir, – In our roles as principals in St Kilian’s German School in Dublin, we are writing to highlight the merit of adopting a wider lens when it comes to school education in Ireland.
As a background, St Kilian’s has a proud tradition of applying the best of the Irish and German education systems, promoting European citizenship in a progressive and mixed environment, from junior infants to Leaving Certificate level. We provide students with the opportunity to become fluent in German, and therefore to access opportunities not only in Ireland, but also across Europe and beyond, particularly in Germany.
For policymakers and teachers alike, we should foster this type of holistic and international approach to education. Your article on the relatively poor foreign language abilities of young Irish people (“The Irish Times view on foreign language-learning in schools: Ireland is lagging behind”, December 17th, 2024) gives us pause for thought. It points to the need to encourage our students to embrace the learning of other cultures and languages, broadening their horizons and future potential. This should also be reflected when we measure educational performance. When it comes to The Irish Times analysis on the percentage of Leaving Certificate students attaining a third-level college place (News, December 10th, 2024), we should include colleges attended not only in Ireland, but also abroad.
For example, given its educational ethos, St Kilian’s enables students to attend colleges both in Ireland and across Europe, a feature which the data does not record.
We ought to encourage young people to develop the skills needed to thrive in an international environment, particularly given Ireland’s globalised economy and membership of the European Union. This is an approach that St Kilian’s will continue to adopt, empowering students to excel in Ireland and internationally, to their and society’s benefit. – Yours, etc,
NIGEL MACMILLAN,
ANJA MEIER,
Principals,
St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.
Last stop for the 46A
Sir, – Further to “Final farewell to the 46A, Dublin’s most famous bus route” (News, January 25th), as someone who used the 46A at the Phoenix Park end of the route, I do not share in the nostalgic outpourings for its going. To me, the 46A was the bus that unceremoniously swallowed up the No 10 route which had served the Phoenix Park to Donnybrook route for a great number of years.
The No 10 in its journey took in the area of the old Cattle Market and as such played a part in the history of Dublin city. To fulfil its journey, on days when the cattle market was in operation, the No 10 had the onerous task of battling its way, either behind or through a herd of cattle being driven on foot from the cattle market to the North Wall for export. This took place on the North Circular Road from the cattle market to the Mater hospital. Although it was the experience of No 10 users to endure delay to schools and work (and was not immortalised in song!) it lives long (and surprisingly affectionately) in the memory of people.
So when you say a “fond farewell” to the 46A, please also include a thought for the forgotten No 10. – Yours, etc,
EILEEN LYNCH,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – Long before I ever went to Dublin, I was very aware of the 46A. My parents had a close friend who worked in the Civil Service and lived in Dún Laoghaire. So in the event of her coming home on a visit to Kilkenny or on the odd occasion when they might visit her, the 46A would always be referenced.
It wasn’t until I went on a primary school excursion to Dublin in 1959 that I realised that there loads of buses, with different numbers, driving the streets of the city. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
Hurling at a crossroads
Sir, – Denis Walsh writes (“Number One question will be key for Limerick as they reach a crossroads”, Opinion, Sport, January 25th) that “just like the Kilkenny team that failed to win in five-in-a-row (in 2010), Limerick are good enough and just about young enough to win another couple of All-Irelands, as long as there is some judicious pruning and replanting”.
Limerick will need to do a little better than that to match the achievements of Brian Cody’s great Kilkenny teams. Having missed out to Tipperary in 2010, Kilkenny won four of the following five All-Irelands for a total of eight in 10 years.
As a minor footnote, Kilkenny came closest of the three hurling teams in history which had a shot at the five-in-a-row. They were beaten by Tipperary in the 2010 final, while neither Jack Lynch’s Cork in 1945 nor Limerick in 2024 reached the All-Ireland final. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Dublin 6.
X marks the spot
Sir, – Johnny Watterson’s piece “X has become a dangerous place for sports people to inhabit” (Opinion, Sport, January 24th) portrays the adverse, even malign, influence of social media on those the sporting arena. I wondered what the broadsheet equivalent might be? Maybe something like your headline, one page later: “Is Antony the worst signing in Premier League history?”. The “worst” in the league’s 33-year history? If Antony read that on “X” he’d probably take it with a grain of salt. However, to read it in The Irish Times? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL KEEGAN,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
Uniting the Opposition
Sir, – Michael Martin’s description of last Wednesday’s Dáil debacle as an “utter disgrace” and “subversion of the Irish Constitution” was very apt.
The attempted stroke of allowing Independent Government TDs (one of whom was lead negotiator for the Rural Independents in Government formation talks) sit on the Opposition benches and take up Opposition speaking time was indeed an “utter disgrace” and a “subversion of the Irish Constitution”.
The only thing the Government achieved was to unite the Opposition.
It’s just a shame they weren’t able to coalesce prior to the recent general election. – Yours, etc,
PADDY SHARKEY,
Hollywood,
Co Wicklow.