Madam, - We are told that some of the Roma on the M50 have property back home. There is no place here for people who are not actually destitute looking for handouts. We can't let this attitude into the country. Where would it all end?
If this were condoned, everyone, no matter how well-paid, would feel entitled to get "dig-outs" from friends and strangers. We would abolish that pride in paddling your own canoe which is so vital to our sense of decency and self-respect.
It is great that a Fianna Fáil minister has the guts to speak out against this kind of thing. - Yours, etc,
TIM O'HALLORAN, Ferndale Road, Dublin 11.
Madam, - Irish taxpayers pay 0.55 per cent of the annual budget of the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, based in Vienna.
Since 1992, the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities ((HCNM) has had the task of taking up cases of alleged human rights violations of national minorities - such as Roma and Sinti - with the governments concerned, with a view to "promoting the early resolution of ethnic tensions that might endanger peace, stability or relations between OSCE-participating states".
The Roma at the M50 roundabout, and any other national minorities in Ireland from other European OSCE member-states (whether from within or without the EU) with similar complaints, should simply be told to take up their complaints (of discrimination, ill-treatment, etc) with the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, whose office is at Princessegracht 22, 2514 AP The Hague, The Netherlands.
Such approaches should be made from within their country of origin, as the High Commissioner travels to areas where the minorities in question are particularly sizeable. - Yours, etc,
JAMES MORTELL, Kilbreckstown, Stamullen, Co Meath.
Madam, - I wonder how many of the people offering food and money to the Roma group are also giving help to Irish-born disadvantaged. We have many homeless people, and children living in poverty. In many areas we have failed to integrate our own travelling communities, who speak our language.
When we look after our own and support groups such as St Vincent de Paul and Focus Ireland, then maybe we could start solving other countries' economic and social issues. - Yours, etc,
JOAN BARRY, Iona Drive, Dublin 9.