Sir, – The review of Universal Social Charge tax relief and whether there could be a better way of targeting State funding referenced in The Irish Times (“Should medical card holders still get a break on tax?” September 23rd) merits an informed debate.
Since 2008, cutbacks have seen governments spend more than €800 million less on supports for patients in meeting dental costs under the State-funded medical card and PRSI schemes. The consequences for the oral health of medical card patients have been just as harmful as dentists predicted.
Patients are having to wait longer and to travel further for dental appointments and the collapse of the (severely curtailed) dental scheme for medical card patients means their dental health has suffered enormously.
That is among the main reasons why the Irish Dental Association is advocating that the Med 2 tax relief scheme is overhauled in Budget 2026 to expand the range of treatments covered and to increase the rate of tax relief allowed to patients to improve access to dental care.
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There is clearly a limited appetite for the State to spend more on the two dental schemes – in which case we would argue they should look instead at reducing the cost for patients by providing tax relief against dental bills.
This can only allow more patients to see their dentist and thereby improve their oral health which is so vital to overall general health. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN HOURIHAN,
Chief Executive,
Irish Dental Association,
Sandyford,
Dublin 18.
Rowdy behaviour at the Ryder Cup
Sir, – I was always of the belief that golf was a sport where etiquette was paramount among players and spectators alike. How wrong I was when I tuned in to the Ryder Cup over the weekend. It was akin to watching Millwall in the last century, albeit without the violence. The icing on the cake was the MC leading a raucous chant of “f**k you Rory”.
What a sad example this sets for children watching. – Yours, etc,
JOE McKENNA,
Douglas,
Cork.
Sir, – I find it intolerable to hear abuse being shouted at golfers. They are all competitors at the top of their sport and provide us with wonderful entertainment for the days of the Ryder Cup.
When this event comes to Adare Manor, I would love to see large boards indicating that spectators shouting abuse at players will be ejected from the course and this being followed through by security. – Yours, etc,
JEAN MAGEE,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Well done, Shane Lowry, not only did you ensure that the Ryder Cup stayed in Europe but you also provided a new and novel routine to the choreographers of Riverdance. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny City.
Sir, – As an avid sports fan I declare I was riled at the flyover of Airforce One and the inevitable appearance of US president Donald Trump in Bethpage Golf Club, but I was apoplectic at the front page photo of same in your Sports Weekend supplement.
Just as well your newspaper folds easily in half as that allowed me to read Philip Reid’s article. Phew. – Yours, etc,
ANNE NAUGHTON,
Multyfarnham,
Co Westmeath.
Sir, – I was shocked to see Donald Trump grace the front page of the sports section of The Irish Times on Saturday morning (September 27th).
Please make sure that it’s Shane Lowry on the next edition. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE McAVINNEY,
Rathangan,
Co Kildare.
McDowell, Steen and presidency
Sir, – Michael McDowell (for whom I have a great deal of respect) is quoted as saying he was very uneasy about sharing a platform with Maria Steen last year when they sought to successfully oppose the amendments proposed by the government.
I’m so glad he got over his uneasiness – they both did the State some service by their work.
I’m sure the Senator worked with lots of people over the years in whose company he felt uneasy.
He is also quoted as saying that Ms Steen is a divisive person. That’s really a bit rich coming from one of the more divisive figures in Irish politics in recent decades. His very divisiveness brought excitement to the body politic.
Now that we are left with a presidential election with three candidates – good people, but to me uninspiring with all due respects – I can’t help wondering what a contest we would have had if Michael McDowell and Maria Steen’s names had been on the ballot paper.
I know who’d be getting my numbers 1 and 2. – Yours, etc,
PAT HANRATTY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – A reader questioned The Irish Times decision to pass remark on Maria Steen’s handbag (“Handbagged”, Letter of the Day, September 27th). Certain designer handbags are pass-remarkable as status symbols and anybody carrying one knows that.
Furthermore, this wasn’t a mere choice of wardrobe accessories.
By Maria Steen’s own admission (“I was painted as a pantomime villainess,” September 27th), it was a deliberate choice that she made, linking it to exposing the hypocrisy of the left, whom she unfairly generalised as not loving the poor and hating the rich.
In that context, wearing such a handbag starts to come across as an unnerving display of comfort in demonstrating one’s privilege and wealth in a calculated way, on a very public stage.
Passing remark seems understandable. – Yours, etc,
MARIA MOY,
Lough Eske,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Maria Steen says comments on her handbag choice are misogynistic and would not be used against a male wearing a high-end watch or driving a large SUV.
If such a male were to deliberately flaunt such accessories to illustrate how “the left despise the rich”, I would expect a similar reaction. – Yours, etc,
RORY E MacFLYNN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Voting rights denied
Sir, – As my wife and I are out of the country on October 24th, the day of the presidential election, we applied for a postal vote, only to be told that a postal vote was available only if you were a student or working.
That rule is very discriminatory, because as we are neither students nor absent through work, we have been denied a very basic right and responsibility. – Yours, etc,
VIVIAN GOOD,
Comer Road,
Kilkenny.
Bike sheds and the budget
Sir, – Mary Lou McDonald claims that “the bike shed scandal is back” (“Plan for hospital bike shed costing up to ¤100,000 is ‘unacceptable’, says Sinn Féin leader”, September 27th). This is prompted by news that a planned bike shed in the national maternity hospital might cost up to €100,000.
Discussion of this bike shed and the one in Leinster House reminded me of C Northcote Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, also called “the bike shed effect”. According to this law, groups of people tend to give disproportionate weight to relatively trivial issues.
The famous example is of a committee planning a nuclear reactor building: a few experts understand the design of the reactor core and the discussion on this concludes quickly, but everyone can grasp (and express an opinion on) the construction of the bike shed for the reactor building, leading to a disproportionate amount of time spent discussing it.
Something to think about as we approach October and a budget package expected to be about €9.4 billion. – Yours, etc,
TOM POWER,
Clontarf,
Dublin.
Sir, – In the context of the forthcoming budget, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has recently stated that “the priority will be on new builds, and to try to target all the resources to new builds”.
Why? Is the plan to cover even more of the country in concrete and to add to the already intolerable urban sprawl by building endless estates of three-bedroom houses?
A reconsideration in the budget of the potential of second-hand houses, the incentivisation of “living above the shop” initiatives and real action on the problem of derelict properties could surely help ease the housing crisis and revitalise the country’s towns and city centres. – Yours, etc,
GRACE NEVILLE,
Sunday’s Well,
Cork.
Cartoon characters
Sir, – Martyn Turner’s cartoons continue to tell us more about the consequences of the American president’s erratic and venomous actions in a fractious and dangerous world than many pages of newsprint.
His cartoon (September 27th), portraying the impoverished UN with Putin and Netanyahu walking down a broken escalator with the veto hidden under the stairs, is designed not only to make us laugh, but I’m guessing, to prevent us from tearing our hair out.
Keep it up Martyn. You are more needed than ever. – Yours, etc,
MARION WALSH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
What’s in a name?
Sir, – I delighted in Emer McLysaght’s naming her robot hoover “Helen” (September 26th). My own cleaning device is called Noel. Is it particularly Irish to do this sort of thing?
Growing up in Athlone in the 1970s all the dogs on our street were referred to by their names plus surnames. We had the very popular Jet Kelly, a beautiful black fluffy mid-sized dog. He sat in the middle of the road and only reluctantly moved to his house when the rare car was attempting to pass.
Sammy O’Farrell, a great golden Labrador, lived a long life. I’m not sure if he was owned by the O’Farrells, but that was where he spent his time. He was spoiled by Winnie.
Blue Deegan kept to himself and was a little cross. He didn’t hang out with the others. I avoided passing his house on the bend.
Shylo Reid was a snappy thing. He lived in the detached house at the top of the green.
Our own dog was a collie bought at a fair in Cahersiveen. Sive was flighty and friendly but came to an unfortunate yet inevitable end when she bit the vet’s daughter, Deborah.
Anyway, thanks Emer for the reminder of simpler happy times fadó. – Yours, etc,
ÁINE CUSACK,
Valentia Island,
Co Kerry.
Calling the US out on Gaza
Sir, – Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the UN Assembly rightly called out and condemned the government of Israel for its brutal and vicious campaign of war and genocide in Gaza.
But why did he stay silent and say nothing about the role of Israel’s principal ally and enabler without whose ongoing military support and financial backing this appalling campaign would not happen or go on to the relentless extent it has?
Do our close economic and political ties with the United States supersede our humanitarian and moral responsibilities towards the Palestinian people and prevent the Taoiseach from saying anything publicly to offend the US administration?
As well as calling out Israel at the UN Assembly it would have been helpful and appropriate for the Taoiseach to also call for all military and financial aid to Israel to be frozen or discontinued, at least until there is a permanent ceasefire in place. – Yours, etc,
JOHN FANNING,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Banville interview
Sir, – Is “they started it” really the best defence John Banville can muster for what the United Nations calls genocide by Israel (“John Banville: ‘You cannot censor me. They would try it now with all this wokeist nonsense’,” September 28th)?
Does his “they” include the hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children killed, maimed, and expelled? – Yours, etc,
EOGHAN CLOGHER,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.
Remembering Martin Mansergh
Sir, – I was utterly shocked to hear of the untimely death of Dr Martin Mansergh – I had a long talk with him only as recently as Sunday, September 21st, and he was in fine form.
I knew him primarily from history writing and from his father, Prof Nicholas Mansergh, a distinguished historian of Ireland, the British Commonwealth, and India, who in 1974 entertained this gawky PhD student to dinner at St John’s College, Cambridge, where Nicholas was Master.
Much later, in 2014, Martin and I crossed paths, again in Cambridge. I was a visiting fellow at Sidney Sussex College, and was asked to chair a seminar session with a paper by Martin.
I’m afraid I was a bit cheekier than I should have been, repeating a comment made about him as “mad as a box of frogs” in relation to an impassioned media interview defending Charles Haughey.
Martin took it well, though. As the scion of a minor Anglo-Irish gentry family, his support for Fianna Fáil (and Haughey) through thick, thin and thinner seemed incongruous; but I suspect that Haughey found his background congenial.
And he was a formidable asset; a speechwriter and backroom political operator par excellence.
In March 2019, Martin launched a book of essays edited by Dr Ida Milne and myself, Protestant and Irish: The minority’s search for place in independent Ireland, doing so in a characteristically kindly and erudite speech.
No more appropriate person could have been asked – Martin had a place in independent Ireland, embodying the sense of service and duty that were often the impelling reasons people from his background were prepared to use their talents for the public good in the new(ish) Irish State.
I shall miss him. We shall miss him. May he be at peace. – Yours, etc,
IAN D’ALTON,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Apposites attract
Sir, – How very apposite that a missive to your august publication regarding Shakespeare on the Leaving Certificate curriculum should be penned by a Dr John Doherty, Stratford-upon-Avon. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DELANEY,
Co Dublin.
