We must have better ways of ending public sector strife
REGARDING the nurses’ strike, it is amazing how every problem in this country leads to that organisation or business going on strike!
As if things are not delayed enough in the health system with waiting list lengths of up to two years or more.
This is a total disgrace as the more strikes the nurses hold this just adds to the disruption and delays that already exist which surely costs the State more money anyway.
I am a private-sector childcare worker and every time I hear of workers in the public sector planning a proposed strike, I often wonder to myself what would happen if all childcare workers had to go on regular strikes, causing the pre-school/creche to close for a number of days.
What would the parents to the children attending these childcare centres say and do?
It is time for strikes to end and for the Government to think of all the priorities where the State money can be pumped into and to get their act together. SHEREEN DENT, Killeagh, Co. Cork.
Stop being silly, Leo
LEO Varadkar smiling on the podium when the EU’s Donald Tusk insulted the voters of the UK with his ‘hell’ remark about Brexit shows our Taoiseach is bereft of political decorum. A statesman he will never be.
Too much mirth even when the eyes of the world are upon him in that moment when he needed to remain at least stony-faced.
But his administration does not do serious politics. Silly laughter and forced humour his government sees as the best medicine.
Grow up, Mr Varadkar, because with all of your fawning, we the people carry on our citizens’ shoulders a large degree of red-faced embarrassment.
The British voted to leave the EU. This does not mean a plan thereafter demanded by the EU was part of their vote. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork.
Don’t lionise gin
HOWEVER it may be flavoured doesn’t alter the fact that gin, which is seeing rising sales, is only drunk for the effect it gives. Why not drink orange juice or lemonade if all that is wanted is a pleasant drink?
Gin was named mother’s ruin for good reason – it ruined this mother’s life and the lives of my children and husband.
To the people who say chocolate is also addictive, I’d point out it doesn’t make you violent or run up debt. I haven’t had a drink for 33 years and people often ask: ‘Do you miss it?’ Yes, every day, but I won’t let it beat me.
Name and address supplied. ...I WAS touched by television presenter Adrian Chiles’s honesty about his drinking. My husband died five years ago from liver disease caused by alcoholism.
He started drinking from an early age and functioned well at work and home until the balance tipped. His symptoms and end were ghastly.
Name and address supplied.
Old tech will never fail
WHAT a truly wonderful facility is the World Wide Web: I can communicate with my family and friends around the globe, answer any question, buy and sell, and do my banking in a matter of seconds.
Such clever technology has gone into making all this possible. So, I was bereft when my computer failed. I rang the customer help line and was advised to ‘restore the factory settings of the router’.
‘How can I possibly do that?’ I asked. I was directed to a small hole on the back of the device and was told to unbend a paperclip and poke the end into the aperture. All this brilliant technology, the culmination of years of research, development and dedication, but my key to accessing it? A paperclip!
BRIAN SYLVESTER, by email.