A nation that no longer meets its people’s needs

In the past week I have come to the conclusion that calling ourselves a First World country is perhaps an overstatement.

There are a number of factors that lead me to this conclusion.

We have a town and surrounding area with a population of 70,000 people that have been without water for a week.

The Irish League of Credit Unions survey advised us that there are still families using moneylenders to buy children’s schoolbooks.

The prospect of buying a house for the average young person or couple is an unrealisable dream.

We are happy to have homeless parents and children living in substandard temporary accommodation.

We are becoming a country where basic needs have become aspirations. Can we really claim to be a First World country?

Gerard Corrigan, Castletroy, Co. Limerick.

Make thugs work

Recent sickening news reports inspire me to speak out against the softy softly treatment meted out by our courts to some of the worst offenders imaginable.

One often hears that the punishment should fit the crime, but in practice our criminal justice system doesn’t reflect this commonsense view. I have liberal views on many issues but not on this one. Anyone who breaks into the home of a vulnerable elderly person to steal and then subjects him or her to a savage beating is entirely outside my circle of compassion. So are rapists and drug dealers.

Prison is not enough for such offenders. Judges should have the option, at least in cases where culprits have shown exceptional cruelty to their victims, to assign criminals to serve on chain gangs.

Long hours of breaking rocks or slashing away at ditches or other such useful and strenuous activities would better enable them to repay their debt to society than lounging around pool tables, prison yards, or watching TV. I know: The chain gang concept is deemed illiberal and an affront to progressive thinking.

But it is less offensive to civilised values than the sight of, for example, a terrified, traumatised woman on the six o’clock news recalling the night her sense of safety and security was shattered by a vile predator. John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.

Cowen’s neck

How mystifying that Brian Cowen, the leader of the cabinet of buffoons who led Ireland into a catastrophic financial meltdown, has been awarded an honorary doctorate by NUI. Cowen himself seemed a bit embarrassed byit all, but he turned up to accept it. His next award should be an honorary brass neck degree.

John O’Sullivan, Carrigaline, Co. Cork. …Great to know former taoiseach Brian Cowen regrets the loss of a quarter of a million jobs during the recession.

Well Brian, those 250,000 people also regret losing their positions of employment, helped by your incompetent decisions and administration. Thanks for the memories, Biffo.

Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford.

A gender gap fix

On the issue of gender pay equality at RTÉ, equal pay for equal work, especially in the public sector, must be implemented immediately.

Looking at the astronomical level of salaries paid to some programme presenters and newsreaders in RTÉ, may I suggest that in bringing about gender equality in Montrose, male staff earnings be reduced to the level of the female staff, which would still be most generous.

I know of no RTÉ senior employee that is of more value to society than our nurses, gardaí, firefighters, teachers or ambulance drivers.

I regard the level of remuneration of many RTÉ staff as an affront to the many tens of thousands of employees, public and private, who strive to make ends meet. It is immoral and indefensible. Tom Cooper, Templeogue, Dublin 6w.

Hurling in trouble

Maybe Davy Fitzgerald and Michael Duignan might have an opinion on a conversation I heard recently. Two hurling experts were of the opinion that hurling was thriving.

I disagree. In Connacht, there is one hurling team, Galway. With no opposition, Galway have to play in Leinster. As matter of fact, they are Leinster champions.

In Ulster, there’s no team ever capable of getting to the AllIreland semi-finals.

In Munster, I think we have three or four teams that could win an All-Ireland.

I would say there are only about six teams who could be champions in the next five years. Tom Mason, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin.

Trump allergy...

In 1976 the American people elected a Democrat as president. A peanut farmer from Georgia.

Forty years later, in 2016, the wheel came full circle. The American people elected a Republican as president. A nut.

John Naylor, Walkinstown, Dublin.