Sir, – Was there a code word for the flash picket on Friday morning? Maybe “Operation Transformation” would have been appropriate?
I have never seen so many Dubliners walking in the early morning sunshine. – Yours, etc,
SHANE O’NEILL,
Booterstown,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – RTÉ's Prime Time on Thursday featured a long discourse on the proposed changes to traffic layout in Dublin city centre. Cork city and the rest of rural Ireland have been deprived of public transport for the past week. Hospital patients, workers, students and the elderly have been left stranded. This blatant disregard is unacceptable and is reflective of our Government's disdain for matters that don't concern the capital. This attitude is truly beyond the Pale. – Yours, etc,
HUGH CRONIN,
Knockraha,
Co Cork.
Sir, – I am truly depressed to witness the lack of headline media coverage on the Bus Éireann dispute this week.
I was not particularly sympathetic to the plight of the bus drivers to start with, but the shocking disinterest of the Dublin-centric media and politicians has underlined the two-tier country we now live in.
There were no city buses running in Limerick, Cork and Galway this week, for example, but once Dublin buses were on the road, the media and politicians did not care. Shame on all for allowing the rest of the country to be forgotten, once again. – Yours, etc,
SARAH RYAN,
Raheen,
Limerick.
Sir, – Whatever about the rights and wrongs of the bus and train dispute in terms of industrial relations, they pale into insignificance compared to the threat of global warming. The basic mistake of Irish governments, from an environmental point of view, has been to cut back on public transport in favour of cars and motorways. Public transport is countryside-friendly, resource-efficient and, most crucially, frugal in terms of C02 emissions. Private transport, by and large, is not. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’BRIEN,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – The Minister for Transport says that he will not be intervening in the national bus dispute as it is not his job. It is hard to know what his job could be. He appears to have only one item on his agenda, which is to criminalise motorists who drive home from a restaurant having had only one glass of wine with a meal out. – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIC HARVEY,
An Cheathrú Rua,
Co na Gaillimhe.