Is more focus needed on our own civil servants?

EDITOR – Unfortunately since the foundation of the State, government ministers have failed/refused to ‘challenge’ senior civil servants.

Shortly before Christmas we were informed the Ukrainian ambassador was requested to advise Ukrainians intending to seek protection in Ireland over the Christmas/New Year period that limited services would be available as civil servants would be availing of holidays over the Christmas/New Year period.

So regardless of the fact there is a war raging in Ukraine, bombing and shelling on daily basis, the priority of Irish civil servants seemingly was Christmas holidays.

Shortly after taking up the post of Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin commended staff of the passport office for their excellent work.

This, despite the fact that radio shows and newspapers were bombarded by people complaining of the very poor service provided.

So, in the mind of ministers the priority seems to be to keep the civil servants ‘sweet’.

There is, then, the HSE and its repeated failure (over decades) to provide the people of Ireland with a health service that they need and are entitled to have.

Yet no minister seems prepared to direct civil servants to carry out the work they are paid to perform.  Why?

 Perhaps more focus on the civil service from the media would be in order?

Michael Moriarty,

 Rochestown, Cork.

Don’t forget the wild dogs of the Irish countryside

EDITOR – I listened with interest to a discussion on RTÉ’s Liveline about the depredation caused by out-of-control dogs. Callers told of how their own dogs were attacked and even killed by larger dogs. Others recalled beloved pets that dogs had savaged to death, and we heard demands for more dog wardens to tackle the problem.

I waited in vain to hear any reference to the havoc wrought by fox-hunts, whose packs of hounds run riot across farm boundaries, smashing down fences, scattering cattle and flocks of sheep, and ripping up fields of winter corn.

There’s not much dog control when a pack enters a farmyard to rip a poor pet cat to shreds in front of crying children, with farmers frantically trying to shoo them off.

I can emphasise as much as Joe Duffy with those people whose little dogs were attacked by large ones, but please spare a thought for that wild dog of the countryside, the fox, that can be legally chased for miles until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to the pack to be eviscerated. If the unfortunate animal seeks refuge underground it is dug out and tossed to the hounds.

The fox has a central nervous system like any domestic dog. It feels pain when the skin is being ripped from its bones, even if the refined ladies and gentlemen of the hunt enjoy the spectacle

If we’re serious about controlling canines and also protecting them, we should ban a practice that involves setting up to thirty dogs on a smaller dog for ‘sport.’

John Fitzgerald,

Callan, Co Kilkenny.

Charity monies must be going to the right places 

EDITOR – I have been a hard working tax-paying West Cork citizen for over 36 years and I am always happy to help people in need. I despise people who say ‘Ireland is full’ when it comes to recent people who have been placed in Ireland due to unfortunate circumstances in their countries. 

I think I speak for many when I ask, where is the money going with a number of charities around Cork and West Cork? I seem to remember (in great fairness to them) Bantry Hospice circulating a leaflet telling people exactly where the money was going and we know about SVDP & NCBI ... but what about the other shops that have been going for quite a while? The ones that are serving the people of West Cork. Can they account for what’s going in and what’s going out? Who is actually auditing these establishments?

I’d like these establishments to know that I and a group of others have decided to take it upon ourselves to investigate the paper trail and to make sure that the money is going to the right places and everything is accounted for. 

Hannah O’Connell, 

Bandon.

Heath workers forgotten

EDITOR – Overcrowding in our hospitals has reached dangerous levels. We even had reports of a teenager dying after spending many hours on a trolley. 

This government will not get to grips with all of this. It is just two years since we hailed our healthcare workers as heroes and lit candles for them in doorways throughout the country. Yet they seem to be forgotten by a government who don’t seem to care. 

Noel Harrington, 

Kinsale.