Lack of increase in fostering allowance a disgrace

EDITOR – Having listened with interest to Liveline on RTÉ this week and the discussion on fostering, I must concur with those parents upset that there was no increase in the fostering allowance.

They have now had no increase in several years, despite seeing almost every other carer’s allowance getting some small addition most years.

At a time when Tusla is constantly looking for more foster carers, this is not a great advertisement for the role. One of my close relations is a foster carer and there was a palpable sense of upset when I spoke to her after the details of the Budget came through last week.

As the callers ‘to Joe’ said, it is not about the money. And it is not a payment for fostering, it is a contribution towards fostering.

My relation has had to pay out of her own pocket for several therapies for their foster children because of long waiting lists, amounting to thousands of euro every year for over a decade. But she never hesitated in getting those services for the children in her care. Foster children cannot wait for services when they have already suffered huge trauma.

Our government should do better – it must do better. Last week’s lack of recognition for our foster carers was a disgrace.

Let’s hope the ministers concerned can be big enough to see their mistakes and correct this oversight.

Susan Crowe,

Ballincollig.

Even Donald Trump predicted energy crisis

EDITOR  – Our main electricity seller recently put up prices by a big percentage. They promise to assist vulnerable, personal customers with payment plans.

This will hit small and medium-sized businesses and shops hard, too, and they may increase prices or cut back on opening hours.

A former chief executive of a UK electricity company said similar increases in the UK can’t be justified. These companies hope people will get used to it or resigned to it.

They say it’s because of the war in Ukraine when Russia invaded it in February 2022 and so the cost of oil and gas from Russia has increased.

It was a mistake for countries like Germany to become too dependent on Russia for supplies. I am not a supporter of his, but even former US president Donald Trump warned against this dependence two years ago.

Our country used to be self-sufficient in generating electricity. We have some river-dam hydro-electric stations doing a great job generating it. We need some more. Clean energy at its best and reliable.

Our government will give extra payments this winter 2022 to those in need to meet the higher costs of electricity and gas. High percentage Increases which may possibly stay in place and not be reduced.

Hopefully a reduction in the future. If there are genuinely unjustifiable prices again in next few months, collective strong protests may be needed. Organised public protests in 2014 and 2015 stopped the introduction of water charges and 100,000 people attended a water charge protest in Dublin in 2014.

High rents were happening long before the war in Ukraine and hit medium incomes – and vulnerable, low-income renters and it can lead to homelessness and emergency accommodation paid by the councils or the government.

Huge pressure on these renters continues. I read of one couple in their 20s who are emigrating to Canada for a better life with hopes they can buy a forever home without being put through financial penury.

Mary Sullivan,

Cork.

Only one choice is no real choice at all

EDITOR  – The ongoing three-year review of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act, is most lamentable. There is a complete absence of media scrutiny. Similarly, there is no avenue to include consideration of the views of those horrified by the desperation, cruelty and ultimately the unsustainability of our country, due to our birth-rate having fallen below replacement level.

The process fails to value the concerns and voices of those most affected, those who are tormented by regrets, and those disturbed by what they have witnessed.

Another issue is that the HSE’s so-called MyOptions helpline. Despite its name, this agency merely acts as a portal for only one option – abortion. One choice is no choice.

Should anyone step forward to maintain a presence outside of clinics involved, merely to offer an alternative choice and supportive help, they can expect to face ‘safe access zone’ legislation, designed to exclude any practical help. Of course, their presence might also provoke a reconsideration of government policy and so cast doubt on the pretence that abortion is healthcare.

The exclusion, deception, and double-speak surrounding this whole issue is astounding. Our innate desire to build a better world needs to include everyone. To claim as a right something that we deny to others is a form of violence. For the state to enshrine this in its laws is systemic injustice.

This situation can only continue to exist, if those of us who see the injustice and the incoherent rhetoric that surrounds it, can be relied upon to turn a blind eye.

Gearóid Duffy,

Lee Road,

Cork.