Sir, – In his article "Rugby is an emergency, homeless kids can wait" (Opinion & Analysis, July 11th), Fintan O'Toole uses incorrect logic in suggesting that, because a government makes slow progress in the area of homelessness, it is somehow obliged to make equally slow progress in other completely disconnected areas. This is a non sequitur. If quick legislation on a rugby issue should be abandoned because homelessness legislation hasn't been sorted out, should we also abandon road safety legislation or employment legislation for the same reason? I think not.
The activity of government encompasses many different threads moving in parallel at different speeds.
Applying Fintan O’Toole’s logic to newspapers, should they write only about homelessness, abandoning all articles about sports, the arts and all other issues until the homelessness problem is solved? If this were the case, newspaper sales would fall to the extent that journalists would quickly find themselves unemployed. – Yours, etc,
MARY MORRISSEY,
Castletownbere, Co Cork.