President Connolly is one of 17 women

EDITOR – This week, Catherine Connolly has become Ireland’s tenth president and the third woman to hold the position of Irish Head of State.We offer our warmest congratulations to our new President and wish her great success as she represents us all as Head of State over the next seven years.

President Connolly joins 16 other women who are Heads of State across the world, including five who area also Heads of Government. Only two other EU states, Malta and Slovenia, have women Heads of State. Her courageous and tenacious political journey from councillor, mayor, Teachta Dála, Leas Ceann Comhairle, to President over 25 years is hugely inspiring. We hope that the path she has forged encourages other women from all walks of life to bring their voices and lived experience to politics.

President Connolly spoke in her inauguration speech of building a new republic, of being a catalyst for change, where people have the courage and determination to use their voices to shape a country to be proud of. We believe that the full inclusion of women’s voices and women’s lived experience in all aspects of political power will be crucial to achieving this new republic and we will intensify our work to equip and support more women to bring their voices and lived experience to politics.

Aldagh McDonogh,

Women for Election.

Flooding risk at Dunmanway Lake

EDITOR –  Many years ago the OPW Constructed a flood defence on the Dunmanway town side of the Bandon river and they installed two non-return valves so the lake could exit into the river.

In heavy rain the river will rise, thus shutting these valves and then the lake water is trapped. In 2016 the OPW allocated funding to Cork County Council to supply a suitable pump. The funds were used to rent or buy two diesel pumps which they placed on top of the banking and have to be started manually by a council employee. This can take up to two hours as I have timed it in the past. The two pumps are not fit for purpose.

On one occasion, when the lake was at a dangerously high level and the rain had stopped, the two diesel pumps were left running for two days. These two pumps did not reduce the level of the lake until such time as the river went low enough to let the non-return valves open. It was only then that the level of the lake went down.

The correct pump to install there is a submersible pump placed into the deep water on the town side of the banking. When the water would rise to a certain level, the pump would start automatically and pump the water over the banking into the Bandon river. To stop the street from flooding, major works took place and they diverted the flood water into the lake further up the town by the funeral home and also heavy rainfall comes down beside the Macroom road and enters the lake on the town side of the banking.

The two housing estates  on the Macroom side, one recently built, adds to the flooding problem. There is one particular housing estate where the residents have to drive on the road over the lake to get to their houses. This road was constantly being flooded. The council rose the road at big cost, which didn’t solve the flooding as the road was again flooded recently by as much as 12 inches. On the last two occasions of heavy rainfall, when no one came to start the pumps I rang the emergency phone number in the county hall; they said they would look after it but no one came. I phoned again to no avail.

I have contacted several county councillers, TDs, and ministers in the past about the Dunmanway lake problem with no result. This is a flooding waiting to happen.

Con O’Leary, Dunmanway.

Inequality in our secondary schools

EDITOR -  Article 40.1 of the Constitution provides that all citizens must be held equal before the law and that the State cannot discriminate unjustly or arbitrarily. It follows from this that the State cannot actively sustain or potentiate inequality concerning the rights of its citizens.

The right to education is one of the most formative and fundamentally important rights that a citizen can have. At this moment in time the state is participating in (and indeed making possible) a system where more money is spent on a child who attends a private secondary school than is spent on a child who attends a public secondary school.

This state expenditure actively and deliberately sustains and potentiates inequality in our society and may well be unconstitutional.

It is only a matter of time before this anachronism in our secondary school system is tested in the superior courts.

Michael Deasy,

Bandon.