Letters to the Editor: You can still have the life you want with COPD

EDITOR – To mark World Health Day on April 7th, I would like to inform your readers that COPD Support Ireland will host a free webinar entitled ‘Living Your Best Life with COPD’ for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

Perhaps more well-known as bronchitis or emphysema, there are an estimated 380,000 people living with the condition in Ireland. Its key symptoms are ongoing breathlessness and a persistent cough, with or without phlegm.

We know that for people with it, the world around them can very suddenly shrink. With this webinar, the aim is to show that, with simple lifestyle changes, you can still have the life you wish to live.

It will feature a number of contributions on different aspects of life, including maintaining mental fitness, reigniting your joy of cooking, and rediscovering the benefits of outdoor activity.

Speakers include well-known psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy, award-winning landscape gardener, David Shortall, and chef, author and TV presenter, Adrian Martin. The webinar will be introduced by Miss Ireland, Dr Ivanna McMahon.

The webinar takes place from midday to 1.30pm, and is completely free of charge.

To register, or for more information on living with COPD, visit www.copd.ie. Alternatively, you can call the COPD AdviceLine on Freefone 1800 832 146 to make an appointment to speak to a COPD specialist nurse or physiotherapist.

Joan Johnston,

COPD Support Ireland,

Dublin 18.

Time to get tough on our broadband networks

EDITOR – Once upon a time a monthly broadband subscription was for a full month. Now it’s as low as 27 days with some networks. 

Our networks are slowly chipping away at the number of days our ISP subscriptions last and increasing the number of times one has to renew. 27 x 12 equals 324, not 365. 

Therefore, that is an extra full month which has to be paid for.  ISP providers should not be allowed to sell broadband or telephones packages which are advertised per month because it is a misrepresentation to do so. 

Networks are also in the habit of changing contract terms unilaterally — in other words take it or leave it. 

Of course many can’t get out because they are locked into a biased contract, which claims to save them money, when in the long term it will take more. 

If that’s not all, most of our data allowances are in any case eaten away by massive ads which contain thousands of bytes of data, in addition to videos which play automatically. 

So you get less than a month and more and more junk mail to take even more money off of you in download costs. Our phones and laptops are inundated with junk mail which also slows the operation of our devices significantly.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the IT world has one agenda, and one agenda only, which is to make people pay more and more, while giving them less and less, to give them advertisements for selling purposes.  

It is time for our government to get tough on our wireless networks so we can bring down costs and improve our economy in the brave new digital world. 

A month is a month — not 27 days!

Maurice Fitzgerald,

Shanbally,

Cork.

Politicians have lost control

EDITOR – Our government’s past abrogation of its housing responsibility resulted in the financial collapse of developers and the subsequent handover of our national housing stock to Nama. 

Rather than hold this stock for a housing authority, our government of the day responded to wealth interests and dumped the stock at giveaway prices to vulture funds and REITS (real estate investment trusts), together with a sweet tax regime. The taxpayer picked up the losses! 

One could not make it up! Now we have the prospect of some 70% of school and college leavers having to face the emigrant ship due to the avarice of these greedy landlords and their exorbitant rents. 

To make housing matters worse, we have an inter-party government lifting the eviction ban which will deliver families onto the streets with no roofs over their heads. 

Why do we repeatedly elect such inept and incompetent politicians who have lost control of health and housing and the Civil Service, including our local planning departments. 

Time in which we elect a government which can exercise real control over their departments and be responsible to the electorate, not to lobbyists and wealthy vested interests.

Daniel Teegan,

Monkstown.

Why is town hall closed? 

EDITOR – What is happening with the Town Hall in Skibbereen? Does anyone know? 

The ‘square’ looks lovely after all the works around the monument and the footpaths etc. 

And the new work on the Town Hall looks very impressive, but the hall is closed and looks as if it’s going to remain that way for the summer. 

This is a wonderful theatre right in the middle of the town which would be perfect for shows, concerts, and more.

It is such a shame to see it locked up!

Jerry Kennelly, 

Skibbereen.