Where is all our road tax going? It's not on the roads!

EDITOR – do the people of West Cork pay the road tax on their vehicles? I’m sure they do and also pay out insurance and hold a driving licence. But the condition of our rural roads and streets in our towns leaves a lot to be desired.

They are full of potholes and have very rough surfaces. This is causing the motorist a great deal of money due to the necessity of repairing punctures, buying new tyres and re-alignment of steering Perhaps the local County Council should ask the government where the road tax money is going.

It certainly isn’t being spent on the upkeep of our rural roads. In this age of transparency, we need to know where road tax money is ending up. Installing bicycle lanes in cities and towns is costing a lot of money. Very few people use bicycle lanes, and with our Irish weather, would you blame them? The money should be directed into maintaining our roads and streets.

Regarding the state of rural roads, we are becoming the poor relation of other European countries where they have expert road builders and maintained theirs to a high standard. We can only hope that the standard of our infrastructure in Ireland will improve in the future.

Eileen Nolan,
Bantry.

Fine Gael is in tatters with Leo Varadkar gone

EDITOR – The Fine Gael party is in tatters with Leo Varadkar gone and another 10 members not going forward for election. With the loss of the recent referendums it was the nail in the coffin for the party. There’s overcrowding in our hospitals and the elderly having to wait days on end for a bed. Refugees living in tents. We are losing the cream of our doctors and nurses to emigration and the cost of living is out of control. Property prices are sky high.

Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.

Please stop blaming the farmers for climate change

EDITOR – How are farmers the cause of climate change? Farmers are a part of climate change by producing methane which is produced by livestock during digestion due to enteric fermentation and is released via belches.

Carbon dioxide is released through the management of croplands and grasslands by ploughing and through the use of fossil fuels in agricultural production. Although farmers are not the only ones that are affecting the atmosphere.

There are a lot of others causes of climate change, such as scientists and factory owners.

When I say ‘scientists’ what I refer to is the launching ofrockets into the atmosphere causing more pollution in the sky. And when I say ‘factory owners’, although they are making a lot of money, they are polluting the air with all of the fossil fuels being used.

There are a lot of different causes of climate change in the world such as power plants, landfill, deforestation, overfishing etc, but still farmers get a lot of the blame. And there is also a lot of people saying that we should just get rid of farming, but if we were to do that, we would have no source of food.

So stop blaming farmers for climate change.

Micheal Ward (14),
Student,
Schull Community College.

Do the blinkered Brussels bureaucrats know or care?

EDITOR – The intellectuals of Brussels and their flexible Irish MEPs with one eye on the urban vote in the upcoming European elections, have cynically thrown rural Europe to the wolves. They either do not know or care about the consequences of setting aside 20% of the land of Europe for rewilding and wetting. Being a farmer for many years, I can tell them that even a 5% reduction in the supply of milk will cause milk to shoot up in price. Food is going to become scarce or either have to be imported from abroad from unreliable countries. Can we please save Europe from the blinkered bureaucrats in the office blocks of Brussels.

Michael Hallissey,
Mayfield,
Bandon.

After four bloody months, Israel's goal is in sight

EDITOR – The International Monetary Fund is to provide Egypt with a loan for handling a potential deluge of Palestinian refugees that Israel seeks to ethnically cleanse from Gaza. The Israeli army has continued its daily airstrikes on civilian site. Food trucks are prevented from entering Gaza. Israel is deliberately starving the Palestinians so they will flee their homeland as soon as there is an opening at the border.

All of these measures are aimed at one objective alone, the complete eradication of the Palestinian population. After a bloody four month-long military genocide campaign, Israel’s goal is clearly in sight.

It will take a monumental effort for countries with conscience and morality to stop this plan of Palestinian ethnic cleansing from going forward.

Daniel Teegan,
Union Hall.