Herding the migrants to camps leads to contempt
WHILE I sympathise with the people of Syria, I don’t understand why we are not sending in our defence forces to sort out the situation at source.
No one wants to leave the country they are born in. The better life should be in the country you were born and reared in.
I am quite sure there are tradesmen in Syria that would love to work in their own country, no more than there are Irish tradesmen in other countries that would love to come back to Ireland to rebuild and make a living in their own land.
Every country in Europe, I am sure, has defence forces, so why not use them to create something good? Passing people from pillar to post won’t work.
We all need stability. Throwing a few scraps from the table and herding them like sheep into complexes and camps leads to contempt.
Maybe I am naive and am open to criticism but I think decisions made in haste will always come back to bite us.
LORETTO KING, via email. HERE we go again, more jobs for the boys. On Thursday evening’s Six One News on RTÉ, Frances Fitzgerald was interviewed by Bryan Dobson on the subject of the refugees we are taking.
During the interview Ms Fitzgerald said that they were going to fasttrack the processing of the refugees. To facilitate this the Office of Refugee Applications Commissioner had 100 staff, 50 of whom were lawyers.
As a taxpayer, I have to ask the question: why do we need 50 lawyers for this? Would it not be more efficient to have 50 well-trained, wellbriefed civil servants?
You do not need a law degree to ask refugees simple questions about their background and the reason they left their homeland. What are these 50 lawyers going to cost the State as opposed to 50 civil servants?
As to the refugees themselves, the UK has the right idea: take them from refugee camps in Turkey or some other country in the region.
Those who are now in Europe are safe, so let us make it a priority to deal with the refugee camps near Syria. If it was up to me I would contact the UK authorities and ask them to do the processing work for us in the Middle East. Then all we have to do is provide accommodation.
This would save us a fortune in administration costs, money which would be better spent on the refugees we receive.
It is not rocket science: taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on another useless quango.
JOHN FAIR, Castlebar, Co. Mayo. NOW we have the likes of Merkel and Co. telling us we have to take in a certain number of refugees or risk their displeasure.
Of course some of our more entranced Government toadies think this is a great idea. We are knee-deep with problems of our own and now we have to pay more for the sins of other nations (the US and Middle Eastern states).
With all of the problems we have at home, giving €60million to other countries seems a tad stupid. Let us see the likes of the Emirates and their neighbours help out first.
To my mind, charity begins at home.
Why is our Navy in the midst of this when the Middle Eastern navies are still in dock?
Also it is totally stupid sailing 200km to drop off these boat passengers when they were picked up 50km to 60km offshore. Why not drop them back at the nearest dock of their Middle Eastern neighbours?
The time for charity is long gone. We as a country cannot afford this and its time our elected representatives did more than play to the popular gallery. To them I say earn the respect of your electorate and grow up. Let us have a referendum now to decide as a people what we want.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED.
Shell shocked?
I FIND it extraordinary that RTÉ viewers and some readers were offended by foul language used on the reality TV show, Recruits, which charts the first harrowing few weeks of the young men and women who sign up to join the Irish Defence Forces.
There seems to be no problem with gratuitous bad language used on many TV programmes, so why do people have an issue with its inclusion here?
After all, I would argue that the one place shouting and offensive language can be used is in military training.
Why? Because asking a soldier politely to please attack the enemy when they can would probably not work too well in battle.
Often you have to shout to be heard. Driving home a command with a few choice words will help motivate recruits.
Not obeying a direct command quickly because some soldier disagreed with a command or reacted too slowly can cost lives in action. If you are easily shocked by recruit training you are hardly going to toughen up when you encounter real action.
If you can’t take discipline and everything that goes with it you are probably better off staying at home and making tea cakes.
JOHN FINN, Ballincollig, Co. Cork.
Enda’s so arrogant
THE Taoiseach Enda Kenny said on RTÉ the other morning that the choice at the next election is between ‘stability and chaos’, that is to say, Fine Gael and Labour for stability and any other combination for chaos.
Really? When Labour and Fine Gael lost their majority on our councils in the last local elections, there was no chaos.
The Household Charge was reduced by 15 per cent even though it left us still paying almost twice what Finance Minister Michael Noonan pays for a larger property in a similar urban setting in Limerick city.
The remaining Fine Gael and Labour councillors on our council objected to the 15 per cent reduction so maybe the electorate have enough of Enda’s version of stability.
Fianna Fáil – just like Fine Gael when in power – thought only they could run the country. What arrogance.
DENIS DENNEHY, Dublin.