Where was Paschal as2019 hospital’s cost soared?
ALL the focus has been on Simon Harris in the past week over the soaring cost of the National Children’s Hospital.
What baffles me is how Paschal Donohoe seems to have escaped any serious scrutiny.
A senior civil servant from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), which is headed by Mr Donohoe, sits on the board of the Children’s Hospital and would have known long ago about the cost overruns.
It is the duty of DPER to keep a rein on public sector spending, yet no action was taken and Mr Donohoe never brought the mounting overrun to the attention of the Dáil.
I would have liked to have heard an apology from him this week rather than the Health Minister, whose role in this scandal is secondary, I would have thought.
Mr Donohoe owes the taxpayers of Ireland an apology and an explanation. Deirdre Keogh, Malahide, Co. Dublin. …THE debacle over the cost of the Children’s Hospital will not be erased or forgotten even though Simon Harris made a meritless apology in the Dáil. His staged performance achieved very little.
If Mr Harris genuinely wanted to demonstrate full responsibility for his obvious shortcomings, he would have done the decent thing and resigned.
Taxpayers will now be billed for the most expensive hospital ever built. Vincent O’Connell, New Ross, Co. Wexford. No more flags WE ARE fast approaching a unique day in the life of Ireland, because the day itself and its icon, St Patrick, binds us together. It is one of the few events which is recognised and uniquely unites all sections right across our island in celebration.
I believe that in order to achieve full inclusion and extend respect to our Northern brethren, who do not give allegience to the Tricolour, we in the South must offer understanding and generosity.
My suggestion is that this special Irish day should be free of the national flag. Our Government could and should give good example by leading the way in achieving this outcome. It would send out a spectacular welcoming signal, across the island, if all State buildings and all official parades were to become void of flag-flying on March 17.
Denis O’Higgins, Monaghan. Brexit’s silver lining AS THE likelihood of a no-deal Brexit increases, the fallout economically for Ireland, the UK and the EU will be enormous.
But the damage done by a hard border could be repaired.
Despite the reluctance of the DUP dinosaurs to countenance the unification of our island, the best way forward would be to integrate North and South.
This, no doubt, would be viewed across the water as the break-up of the UK, but here it would be the restoration of the one rule of law for our island.
That would be the silver lining in the threatening storm clouds.
Denis Bruce, Limerick. As nature intended I’VE just seen some beautiful pictures taken by a Belfast based wildlife photographer, each showing a reddish-brown Irish hare, relaxed and undisturbed in our verdant countryside, untouched by human interference.
That’s where hares belong, in their own grassy habitat, as nature intended; not wriggling and struggling in a net placed by a coursing snatcher; or in captivity being manhandled by humans; or running for its life from two dogs for the amusement of gawkers and gamblers; or stretched out dead, ‘dispatched’ after sustaining bone breakage or other injuries on a coursing field.
The hare has no voice, unlike the well-heeled coursing lobby and the politicians who refuse to legislate against a ‘sport’ that shames our nation. It’s up to humans to take a stand on its behalf so that some day this jewel of our wildlife heritage will be able to live out its short, humble life... free from the scourge of live hare coursing. John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny. Ask a silly question... ‘WHY IS Kate Beckinsale so titillated by toyboys?’ you ask (MoS, February 10).
Could it possibly be because they are young and handsome?
Diane Hickey, Tipperary. Storm in a teacup IT’S interesting to read that Liam Neeson’s new movie enjoyed a hugely successful opening weekend in the US (MoS, February 10).
It seems that the whole foolish ‘racism’ controversy that engulfed him was a storm in a teacup as far as most ordinary moviegoers are concerned.
Aidan Duggan, by email. Keep it private THE very public conflict between Meghan Markle and her father (MoS, February 10) demeans them both. Family rows should not be conducted for all the world to watch.
Mary Woods, Dublin 15.