Madam, - The Taoiseach's call for a great national conversation on what it means to be Irish, our steadfast values and a sense of duty and community, is timely indeed.
Last week the Irish Hospice Society launched a major report on palliative care services in Ireland. It highlighted massive gaps in palliative services for the dying and called for the provision of inpatient hospices for the care of the dying in the midlands, north-east and south-east.
In the same week a five-year palliative care plan in the south-east highlighted the critical need for an immediate investment of €6 million to bring services up to a "minimum level". It called for the immediate provision of six designated palliative care beds at Waterford Regional Hospital, in an area that has no hospice. Never has the need for the Government to lead the way regarding "duty" and "community" been so great. - Yours, etc,
JANE BAILEY, Dunmore East, Co Waterford.