Even with salary cap the RTÉ bailout is scandalous
IT’S all fine and dandy for the Minister for Media Catherine Martin to say that she welcomes RTÉ’s plan to cap salaries for all RTÉ employees at €250,000, which is the salary of Kevin Bakhurst the director general.
I am rather curious as to how this salary cap is going to work. The fact that no one at RTÉ will earn as much as the DG to me falls under the rubric of pure unadulterated grandstanding.
It’s to my mind a sweetener in getting the Irish public to buy into the conversion and transmogrification of this entity.
It seems to me that Mr Bakhurst has had to do a Faustian deal so as to get funding from the Government.
My personal opinion is that this is going to be a hard sell for the marquee players in RTÉ.
I still think that in this cost of living crisis milieu, that some of these RTÉ employees are getting paid far too much.
The optics of the Government giving its imprimatur to a €56m bailout to this institution is to my mind nothing short of scandalous.
The State is struggling to build houses for the ever-increasing numbers of people who find themselves homeless.
Paradoxically, the Government can ride into town waving taxpayers’ money at an institution that behaved in a profligate and egotistical manner.
I sometimes think that real madness in individuals is relatively rare but at times it appears to be a prerequisite for some governments.
John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
Honour great women
THE awarding of the Freedom of the City to climate environmentalist Greta Thunberg earlier this year, should be seen as just a first step in correcting the gender discrepancy associated with recipients of this honour.
Perhaps Dublin City Council’s Protocol Committee might consider introducing a retrospective nomination process whereby those women who served Ireland and her citizens, acting on selfless motives, might be considered for the Freedom of the City award.
We in this country have been very fortunate with the calibre of our citizens who, on the premise of volunteer participation, gave sterling service to assist the poor, the sick and the marginalised and who are worthy of recognition by the State.
Dr Kathleen Lynn is one who would surely fall into this category. Dr Lynn was Chief Medical Officer of the Irish Citizens’ Army during the 1916 Rising and was the first female doctor to work at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear hospital when she was appointed in 1910. Subsequently, Dr Lynn went on to establish the volunteer St Ultan’s Children’s Hospital (MoS, November 12).
Dr Lynn was a distinguished medical graduate, a feminist, a suffragette, a trade unionist, a politician and a comforter of the poor.
With her lifelong partner Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, she worked in the soup kitchens in Liberty Hall during the 1913 Dublin Lockout.
Both Dr Lynn and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen left a rich tapestry of cultural influence on Irish society.
Tom Cooper, Templeogue, Dublin.
Remember the past
THE glaring difference between the bombing of Cambodia and the bombing of Gaza is that the former was kept secret from the US Congress, the American people and the world. It was obviously not kept so secret from the Cambodians.
The bombardment of Gaza is boasted about by Israeli leaders receiving overt encouragement and material support from the US and other Western powers.
Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and Benjamin Netanyahu should be reminded that the horrific carpet bombing of Cambodia for years produced only one seminal political outcome: Cambodia’s takeover by the infamous Khmer Rouge which committed to a complete societal revolution, based on Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology.
Whether the end result justifies the means is a moot question. What the posited annihilation of Hamas would yield is not a frivolous question.
Gerry Coughlan, Kilnamanagh, Dublin.
Save some energy
TÁNAISTE Micheál Martin is such a busy globe-trotter in his saving-the-world role, we wonder if he can save enough energy to maintain an election when the time comes.
Robert Sullivan, Bantry, Co Cork.