Sir, – The divvying out of 23 Minister of State roles reminds me of the current practice of giving every child participant in a sporting event a medal to boost their ego and assuage their sensibilities.
I’ve always been intrigued by the policy areas deemed worthy of a ministerial oversight. For instance, the floundering house building programme is now reflected by the fact that there are now not one (James Browne), not two (Kieran O’Donnell), but three (Christopher O’Sullivan) Ministers for “housing”. Some Minister are burdened with numerous tenuously connected policy areas such as Patrick O’Donovan in “Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport” and Jack Chambers in “Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation”, yet Kevin Moran gets off lightly, with only the OPW to exercise him.
Who decides the necessity, combination or compatibility of these policy areas to the exclusion of others, such as artificial intelligence challenges or policy? – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
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Cappataggle,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.
Sir, – It is quite simply unbelievable that we now have 23 Ministers of State. It was only seven in 1977.
However, in a country with an ageing population, only we could have a full Minister for Children and a half-Minister for Older People.
The issues facing us as we age are complex and costly (in terms of health costs and care generally) and should be properly planned for.
I really hope that we properly plan before it is too late. – Yours, etc,
ANTAINE O’DUIBHIR,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – It is striking that in questioning ministerial appointments, no one seems inclined to say who should not have been appointed and what others should have.
There are only so many options.
Asking for better gender balance is rather a cop-out, I suggest, if one is unwilling to identify where the wrong option was chosen. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Whatever about the make-up of the current Government, the three largest Opposition parties in Dáil Éireann are led by women. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DELANEY,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The two main Government parties recently campaigned for the removal of the word “mother” from the Constitution.
Why would anyone be now surprised at their failure to appoint more women to ministerial rank? – Yours, etc,
PJ MATHEWS,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.
Sir, – Switzerland, with nearly nine million people, is very well run.
There are seven ministers in the Swiss government. – Yours, etc,
TONY FEENEY,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I note a court action has begun (News, January 29th) seeking to have the attendance at Cabinet of super-juniors declared unconstitutional.
It should be borne in mind that also attending at Cabinet are the Chief Whip, the Secretary to the Government and the Attorney General. The attendance by these individuals is not in question and it seems therefore there can be attendance at Cabinet outside the 15 Government Ministers that is mandated by the Constitution. In addition, the Cabinet is required to be briefed by experts, such as where there is a health or national security emergency. Assuming all this to be the case, then it is matter for the Government to determine who may or may not attend Cabinet.
I suspect the high-chairs are here to stay. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WALSH,
Skerries,
Co Dublin.
Aftermath of Storm Éowyn
Sir, – I have been reading the various articles on the desperate plight of many people effected by Storm Éowyn over the past week. The storm, with winds in excess of 150 km/h, would have been classified as a category three hurricane had it occurred in the Caribbean.
I was born and raised in that part of the world where hurricanes are a yearly threat to property and life. As a consequence, planning for the hurricane season is taken seriously. This includes the establishment of a hurricane committee which meets several times a year and includes representatives from the police, medical and emergency services, etc. Public buildings, schools and other facilities are designated as emergency shelters for residents who lose electricity or are unable to remain in their homes.
As the hurricane season in the Caribbean occurs in the summer months, the committee meets extensively in the spring to ensure that all of the steps are taken to ensure that the country is prepared for the oncoming hurricane season.
I have lived in Ireland for over 30 years and it is clear to me that the winter storms impacting Ireland are becoming more frequent and violent and storms like Éowyn could become the new norm.
Now is the time for Ireland to follow the practice in the Caribbean and to establish a storm committee along similar lines to the hurricane committees in the Caribbean nations. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN WILKINSON,
Danesfort,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – I was considering replacing my gas hob with electric, disposing of my wood burner stove and installing a heat-pump system.
With “storms the new norm”, and still in the dark a week later, those plans have been discarded, for good.
JAMES H MILLIKEN,
Carndonagh,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – A couple of months is a very long time in politics. How the climate has changed since a very wise Simon Harris called the snap general election for November 29th last, instead of waiting until early spring. There is no question that Storm Éowyn would have had a huge say on the make-up of the 34th Dáil. The west would certainly have been awake! – Yours, etc,
AIDAN RODDY,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – After all the electricity outages, it would take a brave soul to suggest to their partner that they could perhaps share a candlelight dinner this coming Valentine’s Day. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CURRAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.
Public servants and remote work
Sir, – Over the past year or so, you have had a number of pieces on the post-Covid shift in employees being asked to do more of their work in the workplace. It struck me that the coverage always had to do with employers and staff in the private sector and I did wonder what is happening in the public sector.
I also recall from your coverage that some of the employees interviewed by you made a point of saying that they saw the facility to work part of the time from home not as an entitlement but as a privilege.
We have now heard from the dog that didn’t bark. We learn that staff in the Department of Social Protection, which one might think provides one of the more public-facing services, are currently required to work a minimum of one day per week in the office and are to be asked to increase that to a minimum of two from February (“Civil Service rows back from remote work”, News, January 31st). You and I might think that this is hardly a major imposition. But Fórsa has vowed to fight the proposed change and has told members that they were “now entering into a serious dispute”.
This will be a good test of the new government’s commitment to public sector reform. If a gradual return to pre-Covid working conditions is seen to be grounds for a “serious dispute”, we should probably not be holding our breath for any real reform.
Only a year ago public sector trade unions secured pay increases of 10.25 per cent over 2½ years. In welcoming the deal, Paschal Donohoe said the agreement would provide a pathway to changes in working practices (“Donohoe welcomes ‘fair and affordable’ €3.6 billion pay deal”, News, January 27th).
At the time I was suspicious of his use of the term “pathway”. Not for the first time the salary increases were paid immediately but the commitment to reform was a little nebulous. But now the new Minister for Public Expenditure and (lest we forget) Reform has an early opportunity to show what we are to get for our money. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – The Department of Social Protection says that it is “reasonable” to ask employees to come in more to the office. Are they laughing in our faces after we found out that the right to request remote working is just that, a right to request, and nothing else? – Yours, etc,
LIAM DORAN,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
Seanad elections
Sir, – On reading the Seanad Election results, the mind boggles. An NUI Senator to get elected must have a quota of 9029 to get elected, a Trinity Senator 4450 votes , and the Vocational Cultural and Educational panel quota is a mere 191 votes. On the face of it, the NUI quota looks reasonable, the Trinity quota slightly democratic, and the Cultural and Educational panel quota like something from a banana republic.
For the next Seanad election, the third-level constituency will include graduates of all third-level institutions. This could be an electorate of hundreds of thousands, further diluting the value of their vote in comparison to the vocational panels.
Then there are the 11 Taoiseach’s nominees, and the original intention for these was to give representation to minorities in the State, not failed general election candidates.
All this raises the question as to the democratic validity of the Seanad. If our politicians truly believe in democracy, they would reform Seanad elections and allow all citizens of voting age to take part in future Seanad elections. – Yours, etc,
J VINCENT CARROLL,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Dublin Airport and bus shelters
Sir, – Last Sunday, at about 2pm, I arrived home to Terminal 2.
Like many others, mostly visitors, I went to the Aircoach bus stop.
The bus was delayed and we stood with no shelter for nearly an hour in the driving and very cold rain.
I note Dublin Airport recently celebrated 85 years in operation. Is it not nearly time they built a proper bus shelter to welcome and protect their customers from our winter weather? – Yours, etc,
DEREK MULROONEY,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Holocaust Memorial Day
Sir, – Finn McRedmond writes about a growing displeasure at having to explain the comments of our President to fellow journalists based in Britain (“I am tired of explaining Michael D Higgins’s words to incredulous English people”, Opinion & Analysis, January 30th).
President Higgins speaks for the vast majority of Irish people on such matters. It is also a matter of pride that he is the very antithesis of those public figures found elsewhere in a “changing world” who peddle discrimination and disinformation for their own authoritarian ends.
Finally, the fact that our President has attracted the ire of the Tory right-wing press and their editorial writers is surely a sign that he must be doing something right. – Yours, etc,
ADAM LONG,
Ballina,
Co Tipperary.
Sir, – According to the 2025 National Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration booklet, “The commemoration serves as a reminder of the dangers of racism and discrimination and provides lessons from the past that are relevant to today”.
Those who criticise the President for “politicising” the event are in reality demanding that we don’t learn lessons from the past and that we try and silence those who do. – Yours, etc,
SEAN KEAVNEY,
Dublin 15.
The real cost of bank bailouts
Sir, – Please stop reporting the State’s recovery levels from the bank bailouts by ignoring the time value of money over the intervening years. This was risk capital provided at a time of huge financial stress and it should have been rewarded as such. Stating recovery levels on a non-time weighted basis and with no regard to any opportunity costs incurred by the State is a nonsense and very considerably understates the real cost of the bailouts. We may have had little to no choice but to bail out the banks but let’s not misrepresent the real cost of doing so. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL McCABE,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
British postal service
Sir, – On January 30th, I received a Christmas card posted in the greater London area in mid-December. For some time, friends in the UK have been complaining to me about the state of their postal service. The chaotic state of the British postal service appears to be the consequence of the privatisation of the Royal Mail in 2013. This surely is a warning to keep An Post in State ownership. – Yours, etc,
J ANTHONY GAUGHAN,
President,
Irish PEN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
