Madam, - Next Tuesday is the UN International Day of the Family and I believe that it is important to reflect on the position of families in Ireland in the run-up to the general election.
The family has always been the cornerstone of Irish society but what has increasingly changed over the years is the diversity of family life in Ireland. As an organisation working for 35 years with one-parent families, we are very concerned that some of Ireland's most vulnerable families are being left behind once again in this election.
Economic progress and achievement ring hollow when one-parent families with young children are still four times more likely to live in consistent poverty and when the Constitution still affords rights and protection to only one type of family. Although we have had divorce in Ireland for 10 years, we have no means of hearing children's voices in family law cases and there is no transparency in this system which has profound effects on people's lives.
Unusually for a developed country, we do not have resources to support contact between children and their parents after separation - particularly important for fathers - and the importance of supporting quality parenting practices and relationships has not yet been realised.
Although there is a vast array of problems for people parenting on their own or in shared parenting situations, there are solutions available if the next government will respond to the challenge and make the welfare of some of the most marginalised families and children a key issue in the next programme for government.
We hope people will question election candidates on their intentions for families in Ireland and vote accordingly. - Yours, etc,
KAREN KIERNAN, Director, One Family, Cherish House, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.
Madam, - I refer to the list of candidates published in your edition of May 10th, and specifically to the colour-coding you have chosen to represent the various parties.
I accept there is competition for the colour green, but I would suggest that coding Sinn Féin as orange is stretching the amicability we witnessed on Tuesday a little too far. - Yours, etc,
JOHN CARDIFF, Newcastle, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - Since Garret FitzGerald's time, up to this week, I was an enthusiastic Fine Gael voter. I remember a real sense of disappointment when John Bruton's coalition was voted out of office.
I will not be voting for Enda Kenny's flavour of Fine Gael, however. The reason is my total disgust at his effrontery in giving a guarantee to the the Irish Catholicnewspaper that, if returned, his party will not legislate on the abortion issues highlighted by the "X" case.
Does Enda Kenny have any idea of what representative democracy means? Does he realise that those who are elected to office have the responsibility to govern on behalf of all the people and not just for one sectional interest, no matter how broad it is perceived to be? - Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA, Farrenboley Park, Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.
Madam, - Isn't Dermot Ahern a great fellow that, as a result of lobbying efforts made by him, that Ballapousta National School got its extension in the mid-1990s and that it was subsequently opened by him.
It obviously hasn't occurred to the Minister that the mere fact that a national school needs his assistance to secure funds for this type of necessary improvement reflects badly on the state of funding available to all educational institutions in this "prosperous" country of ours.
He goes on to say his latest efforts are aimed at securing more funds for an additional extension, needed due to population growth in this border area. Would that population growth be due in no small part to people who find it impossible to buy a house nearer to Dublin? Or is it that they find it impossible to find national schools at all in the wonderful new housing schemes financed by the Government, let alone places in them? - Yours, etc,
OWEN CASSIDY, Ashton, Blessington, Co Wicklow.