Sir, – As programme for government talks begin, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) and youth work organisations urge negotiators to prioritise youth and youth work commitments. Research by Red C for the NYCI shows the public believes politicians are out of touch with young people’s challenges: 67 per cent believe politicians do not consider the impacts of their policies on young people and 72 per cent agree there is a lack of awareness about youth work services among politicians.
Addressing these issues will reconnect representatives with young people and affirm political commitment to youth work.
Youth work provides vital support and opportunities for young people, building resilience, leadership and wellbeing, and builds solidarity in communities where it is needed most. Yet, in the face of growing demand, the sector faces underfunding, recruitment difficulties and rising costs. The next government must increase investment to restore funding to pre-austerity levels and provide pay parity for youth workers.
We call for the establishment of a ministry for youth, a cabinet subcommittee for youth, and an Oireachtas committee for youth to ensure these priorities are met.
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Youth work is not an optional extra, it is essential to our communities. – Yours, etc,
MARY CUNNINGHAM, National Youth Council of Ireland;
MONINNE GRIFFITH, BelongTo;
RACHEL KELLY, Finglas Youth Resource Centre;
AMY HOURIE, Girls Friendly Society;
MAEDHBH NÍ DHÓNAILL, Ógras;
SIMON HENRY, Church of Ireland Youth Department (CIYD);
GARRY McHUGH, Young Irish Film Makers;
PATRICK BURKE, Youth Work Ireland;
HELEN WALMSLEY, Voluntary Service International;
CONOR HICKEY, Crosscare;
CARMEL O CONNOR, Talk About Youth Project;
IAN POWER, Spunout.
JACK McGINN, Irish Second-Level Students’ Union;
ALLIN GRAY, Irish Association of Youth Orchestras;
ROGER WARNOCK, Young Social Innovators;
LORRAINE McHUGH, Irish Girl Guides;
LORETTA NÍ CHURRAIGHÍN, Feachtas Óg-Ghluaiseacht Gaeilge;
MICHAEL POWER, Involve;
DAVID BACKHOUSE, YMCA Ireland;
SEAN SHEEHAN, Scouting Ireland;
MICK FERRON, Sphere 17 Regional Youth Service;
SEÁN CAMPBELL, Foróige
The after-effects of the Greens
A Chara, – I am a 60-something cyclist (and car owner) who has been traversing Dublin city, mainly by bike, for more than 30 years. In that time, the safety of my cycling routes has vastly increased.
From road sharing with dense, fume-filled traffic, my daily trips gradually became safer and safer, as cycling was slowly segregated. The NCT definitely helped with air quality.
December 12th was a perfect night for cycling; no wind, no rain and although cold, very manageable with decent gear.
I’ve just returned home following a trip from Fairview to Crumlin for a music session, as is my want. Thirty minutes each way; a doddle on the e-bike and faster than taking the car.
From a cycling perspective, the northside now completely outshines the other place. On my way in and out of town I had the new, completely segregated cycle lanes. In the other place, I had the pretend lanes; sometimes narrow slips of road protected by bollards but more often theoretical painted lanes on which cars parked with apparent impunity. That part of the journey had the usual unpleasant fly-bys of speeding traffic.
By contrast, the only real danger on the new cycle lanes was the menace of the meandering phone zombies, oblivious to any world beyond their screens and ear buds.
Comhaontas Glas, you may be gone for the moment, but you’re not forgotten. Not by this cyclist at least. Go raibh maith agat. – Is mise,
CONOR LEONARD,
Dublin 3.
Grief at Christmas
Sir, – Christmas has arrived once more. A wonderful and happy joyful time of the year. As indeed it should be. May I just write a few thoughts about my Christmas?
Christmas with grief. I feel quite lost. People are so good. I feel angry at times. My lovely wife loved Christmas. The beautiful Christmas tree is missing. I have the crib up. My heart is broken to bits. It doesn’t get any better with time. I sound like a broken record but that is the way it is.
What helps? People. Community. The lovely people in our drama group and our church choir. My friends at work. I read and purchase more books than I can keep up with. Will it ever ease? No. One has to learn to live with grief as best one can.
I’m writing down the truth in the hope it may help myself and others. Happy Christmas to all. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Mc DEVITT,
Glenties,
Co Donegal.
Architects and building capacity
Sir, – We note concerns expressed by some commentators with respect to capacity in the economy to address housing, civic and infrastructural needs (“If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue business as usual, the next government will quickly be in trouble”, Opinion, December 7th).
Potential government parties would do well to note that instrumental in this process is the reform of commissioning and procurement structures for building projects to be inclusive of small agile firms of architects.
There is a wealth of potential and experience in small design practices to be harnessed for the provision of homes and supporting civic, educational, social and health facilities.
Many of the country’s best designers are currently excluded through the application of unduly restrictive financial turnover parameters and labyrinthine and onerous bid mechanisms, closing off work to all but the largest “economic operators”.
Irish architecture practices of a particular ilk are celebrated for their work throughout the world but a broad base of knowledge remains untapped here at home.
Smaller practices are ideally placed to respond to existing conditions, to design in carbon neutral and positive terms, to recognise limits, to engage with people and places, and to address issues of planning and environmental regulation in a conscientious and granular manner, from the bottom up.
Agile practices have standing capacity right now and the flexibility to draw on recent graduates to increase output as necessary.
It is time for those who hope to lead us to open the door to those with fresh insight and the appetite to transform our built environments responding to local need. The challenges currently facing us are opportunities if we start now.
We would like the recent award of the RIAI Gold Medal to Inchicore National School (“Magical classrooms at Dublin national school win Ireland’s top prize for architecture”, December 4th) to be a call to all involved in commissioning buildings to introduce inclusive structures to facilitate small practices to be eligible for and to take on public work of this kind.
This is so important for sustaining and improving the quality of our towns and cities and building future capacity. – Yours, etc,
MARCUS DONAGHY and WILL DIMOND,
Donaghy and Dimond Architects,
Dublin 8.
One-off rural housing
Sir, – Michael McDowell (“Living in rural Ireland shouldn’t be an impossible dream”, December 11th) argues that more people should be allowed to build one-off houses in rural Ireland.
Is he not aware that up to 45 per cent of total planning permissions were for such houses in recent years, a development which the Planning Regulator has said conflicts with the Government’s stated aims of sustainable development?
Most of the one-off houses built are urban generated, in that their owners commute to towns or cities for work. Many one-off houses are built in areas with inadequate infrastructure and large sums of public money must be spent to provide services to them.
The one-off houses are very generously subsidised by urban taxpayers. A paper published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform shows that subsidies of up to €100,000 are available to those building one-off houses in rural areas.
Those subsidies enable the owners of the one-off houses to have homes that are twice the size of average urban houses.
All rural households are car dependent and many have two or more cars. The motorists who live in rural areas commute long distances to work, leading to high carbon emissions, which makes walking and cycling on many rural roads unpleasant and dangerous.
Michael McDowell thinks that allowing the building of more one-off houses in rural Ireland will revitalise villages and small towns.
While new houses in their hinterlands proliferate, many villages and small towns are dying because the occupiers of the urban generated houses who work in larger towns shop and buy services in those towns.
Most of the one-off houses use septic tanks which cause significant pollution. Local authorities are required to inspect septic tanks, but only about 1,000 of the 500,000 septic tanks are inspected annually. In 2020 54 per cent of inspected tanks failed but only 34 legal actions were taken against the owners of failed tanks. Only one inspection was carried out in each county of Kerry, Sligo and Longford.
Michael McDowell need have no fear that the building of one-off houses will be curtailed. When the Green Party in the outgoing Government pointed to the unsustainability of one-off houses, they were sharply rebuffed by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil whose long-settled policy is to support and subsidise urban generated houses in rural Ireland. – Yours, etc,
SEAN BYRNE,
Dublin 13.
Offshore wind resources
A chara, Mark White’s article on wind energy states that “Ireland stands at a crossroads” regarding its future energy needs and that “the choices we make now will determine our future” (“Ireland can be a net exporter of green electricity to Europe but only if we act now”, December 10th).
He is indeed correct that Ireland is at a crossroads regarding wind energy, but the biggest choice will be who will own and manage offshore wind resources.
We can take the road that Norway did when discovering oil reserves in the 1960s, when they took the brave but responsible decision that the state would own and manage these resources, which were, of course, those of the Norwegian people. Or we can take the road the UK chose, which let commercial companies exploit their North Sea oil reserves.
Fast forward to the present where Norway has excellent public services and a huge sovereign wealth fund, and the UK has crumbling public services and mountainous debt.
If seven times the electricity Ireland needs can be harnessed from offshore wind power, then why does the Irish Government not urgently task a dedicated State company to own and manage this?
Who owns and manages our offshore electricity resources is obviously of huge national importance, and effective government ownership would mean secure energy for the future alongside huge revenues to support future generations.
Or will private interests take ownership and dictate, as has happened in areas like housing and healthcare? – Is mise,
DAMIEN BENNETT,
Belfast.
The humble Brussels sprout
Sir, – I must write in defence of the humble Brussels sprout.
Patrick Freyne (“Wake up, people: Here’s what the mainstream media don’t want you to know about Christmas”, December 12th) writes that they lower the tone of Christmas dinner with their “incessant bullsh*t”, and are only palatable because of being drowned in butter or bacon.
This is in contrast to, I suppose, the goose fat roast potatoes, the honey and butter glazed carrots, the buttery stuffing, the meat juice gravy, the cheesy cauliflower, the creamy mushrooms, or the actual Christmas ham that takes up the rest of the plate?
Woe is the Christmas dinner not drowned in some sort of fat or other, and I must ask Mr Freyne to retract his own “incessant bullsh*t” on this matter.
As an aside, my (and that of my two year old) favourite sprout recipe is halved, blanched in salted water for five minutes, drained and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, then roasted with chopped halloumi pieces until slightly crispy. Serve with a blackberry balsamic drizzle, and watch them disappear. – Yours, etc,
DR MARIA O’BRIEN,
Bayside,
Dublin.
Dart difficulties on Friday 13th
Sir, – Irish Rail told us through various media that there would be delays and disruption to the Dart service on Friday the 13th (ominous in itself) due to operational/signalling difficulties. The Iarnród Éireann/Transport for Ireland app wasn’t much help, its information bearing little resemblance to reality.
The superstition surrounding Friday the 13th apparently relates to Judas having been the 13th and final arrival at the Last Supper, having been delayed presumably by operational/ signalling difficulties. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL KEEGAN,
Booterstown.
RTÉ staff vouchers
Sir, – I see that despite having to be bailed out yet again by the taxpayer, RTÉ intends to spend €1.75 million of taxpayers’ money on tax-free vouchers as Christmas presents for staff (“RTÉ estimates €1.75 million cost to distribute non-taxable vouchers to staff”, December 12th).
Clearly RTÉ management and accountancy have learned nothing and the “governance” mentality which led to RTÉ needing a bailout has not changed.
Minister for Communications Catherine Martin needs to knock this expenditure on the head while she is still serving as Minister.
The taxpayer did not bail out RTÉ so it could waste taxpayers’ bailout money on gifts for staff. RTÉ management should be ashamed of themselves. Are they benefiting from the voucher scheme themselves? – Yours, etc,
DAVID (aka EBENEZER) DORAN,
Co Carlow.