Letters to the Editor: Older folk should make way for youth

EDITOR – The recent changes which have been made to pension reform by the government may not be sensible and have damaging long-term consequences.

Increasing the age at which a person retires to 70 is all the proof we need that more and more young people are going to find it harder to get jobs in this country and be driven out of the country.

All because the older generation do not want to quit until they find it impossible to go on, or drop dead on the job.

Giving very aged workers added incentives through the PRSI system to keep on working seems to be a policy of trying to keep people working for as long as possible and added costs involved for all workers.

This is contrary to what other counties do in encouraging people to leave the workplace early to make room for others and reduce costs.

Successive governments have given little or no emphasis on early retirement incentives, but instead bowing to those who feel they should work until they are on the verge of nursing home care.

Just because it is claimed that people are living longer should not mean that they work longer. There seems to be a great apathy in this country towards retirement in what is essentially a live to work culture which is out of control.

The older or grey generation has most of the country’s wealth, property, and assets, they don’t need any more.

There should be no stigma attached to retiring early and it should be incentivised to bring badly new blood into the system. One has to wonder indeed why the grey generation wants to work so very late in life to staggering 70 years of age and whether greed and conceit are the driving factors? Given the progression in this country to work later and later in life, it won’t be long before the working age is 100 and how long will it be then before the young generation have to stand by waiting for an opportunity.

Maurice Fitzgerald,

Shanbally,

Co Cork.

Toilet facilities at Pairc Uí Rinn not match-fit

EDITOR  – I am a transition year student at Sacred Heart Secondary school in Clonakilty.

I am writing to you about the terrible toilet facilities in Pairc Uí Rinn. I have been to Pairc Uí Rinn many times going to Cork GAA games and overall I really enjoy my experience.

The one place I feel the stadium falls down is their toilet facilities. They are behind a shop, always have a long queue (especially in the women’s) and are never clean.

Whenever I go in there is never any toilet paper or hand soap. I think this is a real shame because it taints the whole match experience. The addition of a few more cubicles, regular cleaning and restocking could really improve this.

I understand that it is not the main stadium in Cork anymore due to the rebuilding of Pairc Uí Chaoimh but in some ways I believe it is a better place to watch a match.

The atmosphere alone due to the smaller stadium makes the match more exciting. We have seen this in the senior football match against Kerry that took place in May this year. If that match had been played in Pairc Uí Chaoimh, the atmosphere and the player’s ambition would have been dead before halftime.

Thank you for your time and I hope you agree with the points I have made.

Erin Hurley

Clonakilty.

God save Larry the Downing St cat

EDITOR  – The most interesting personality at the moment in 10 Downing Street is Larry the cat. Chief mouser in his 11th year in the job.

He will be aged 16 this year and has served under 5 PMs and all of them Tory party leaders – David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and new PM Rishi Sunak.

Liz Truss served the shortest time as PM and also sets a unique record for meeting a Queen and King of England in those 45 to 50 days.

Elizabeth II, amazingly a day or two before she died, welcoming her in to new job as PM and King Charles III seeing her out.

When Charles first officially met her as King, he said ‘dear, oh dear’. He must have sensed something in the wind that she wouldn’t last long.

A big political and moral issue for them that is causing debate in Westminster is she going to accept over £100,000 in annual pension even though she has served a very short time as PM after being removed by her own party.

At the time of writing, her decision is not known yet. As for Larry. No sign of retiring him yet.

May he live long and prosper.

Mary Sullivan,

Cork.