Universal healthcare
Sir, – A few days ago, The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, published an editorial titled “Ireland – Europe’s outlier in primary healthcare” (Lancet Regional Health Europe, March 2025). The authors note that despite its prosperity, Ireland remains the only country in Europe without universal primary healthcare. Fifty-eight per cent of our population must pay out of pocket to see a GP – an impossible sum for many.
As doctors, we see the consequences of this daily. One in four people delays seeking care because they cannot afford it. Meanwhile, hospitals and emergency departments bear the weight of delayed treatment. Access to specialist care is often dictated by insurance status rather than medical need. GP shortages are also worsening; even those who can pay privately struggle to find a doctor. Any path to universal primary care must strengthen general practice, ensuring it is properly resourced.
Beyond the ethical case for universal healthcare, there is a fiscal one. GP care is far more cost-effective than hospital treatment, yet instead of prioritising it, we allow hospitals to absorb the fallout. We can no longer afford to delay universal primary care.
The Lancet concludes: “The real question is not whether the country can afford it, but whether its leaders have the political will to make it happen. It is time for decisive action to create a healthcare system that serves all citizens equally.”
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We concur. It is humbling that one of the world’s leading medical journals must remind us of the obvious: Ireland is an outlier. Despite some progress under Sláintecare, universal healthcare remains a distant goal. Ultimately, the issue is not one of resources, but of political resolve. – Yours, etc,
Dr RALPH HURLEY O’DWYER,
On behalf of Doctors for Universal Healthcare,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Disability services
Sir, – The news that a boy with autism has taken a legal case against the Minister for Education over the provision of transport to allow him attend school once again (“Boy (10) takes action over failure to provide school transport”, Home News, March 6th) shines a light on the State’s appalling treatment of children with disabilities.
Irish children with disabilities are being denied access to mainstream schools by the State’s refusal to provide sufficient places. The already lengthy waiting list for access to special classes in mainstream schools is hugely understated due to children with disabilities without an autism diagnosis being denied a place. These children, who already face huge challenges, are becoming further isolated by this discriminatory practice, the root cause of which is the refusal of the State to provide appropriate resources to allow children with disabilities to participate fully in society.
It appears undeniable that senior officials in both the Department of Education and Department of Health view provision of basic services to those with disabilities not as a human right but as an act of charity that users should be grateful for. The idea that health or education services would be denied based on race or gender would rightly be viewed as contemptible, yet senior officials in both health and education continually apply this approach to those with disabilities.
In education as well as health, parents of kids with disabilities are continuously forced into lengthy and costly legal actions to secure basic health and education services for their child. When the High Court does its job and rules in their favour, there are never any consequences for senior health and education officials.
A human rights-based approach to both health and education is essential. Whether a child has a disability should no more have an impact on the provision of health and education service than race or gender. Politicians, media and regulatory bodies need to stop hiding and abdicating responsibility to parents and the High Court.
Emoting about the Irish State’s refusal to provide health and education services to those with disabilities is not enough Politicians, media and regulatory bodies need to challenge senior health and education facilities and publicly call for severe sanction for them when they fail to provide services as a result of a disability. – Yours, etc,
RUARY MARTIN,
Sandyford,
Dublin 18.
Keir Starmer and Europe
Sir,- With so much political, economic and military uncertainty prevailing on the international front, we in Ireland should console ourselves with the fact that Keir Starmer’s Labour Party holds the reins of power in the UK. A Conservative government in Westminster right now, led by someone of a similar ilk to Boris Johnson, would only compound the escalating problems by providing more support in western Europe for Donald Trump’s nightmarish policies. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL CULLEN,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
Gaza aid deliveries
Sir, – With the Gaza ceasefire deal hanging in the balance, Israel’s decision to halt “the entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip” is a blatant violation of international law that the international community cannot and must not tolerate.
Christian Aid has heard from local partners in Gaza how this ban is already pushing people to the brink. Just as Ramadan begins, a holy month where people of the Muslim faith fast from sunrise to sunset, partners have reported a sharp 25 per cent increase in food prices. As fuel dwindles, food such as meat, frozen fish and dairy products that require cool storage have begun to disappear.
Coupled together this has directly impacted humanitarian programmes making the distribution of hot meals in Gaza, a cornerstone of our local partner-led response, far more challenging and compounds the plight of vulnerable families who rely on these aid efforts to survive.
It is also reported that if the ban on goods and supplies entering Gaza is not lifted, at least 80 community kitchens could soon run out of stock, with those remaining having no choice but to cut down on the number of meals they can provide.
Our partners in Gaza worry that without the fuel needed to power hospitals and water pumps we will see an increase in preventable deaths as well as the risk of disease outbreaks such as cholera.
The block on tents and tarpaulin deliveries also means no shelter for people who have returned to their destroyed or severely damaged homes, leaving people increasingly vulnerable and exposed to the elements.
This latest suspension has severely disrupted humanitarian services and delayed urgent relief efforts, posing the risk of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe if aid deliveries are not resumed as soon as possible. The world must not sit idly by as Palestinians in Gaza are once more deprived of goods and supplies essential to life.
The international community, Ireland included, must demand that Israel reverse this ban immediately so that food and life-saving supplies can be trucked in by road – the quickest, most efficient and cost-effective means of aid delivery. – Yours, etc,
ROSAMOND BENNETT,
Chief Executive,
Christian Aid Ireland,
Dublin 2.
Neutrality in a changing world
Sir, – Seamus McKenna’s letter on March 7th raises a couple of interesting points. He describes Ireland just before the second World War as a newly independent colony. When was Ireland ever a colony? It was one of the constituent nations comprising the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A united Ireland, by the way. Over the centuries, Ireland had experienced various waves of settlement from outside – but, for that matter, so had Britain.
Mr McKenna goes on to say, and I quote: “Also remember that nobody knew at the outset who the victors in the second World War were going to be.” Nobody indeed, but who enters any conflict on the basis of picking the winning side, and backing that one? A more usual course would be to assess the justness of the cause being fought over. As many brave Irishmen did, in both world wars, including my Uncle Tom in the Great War. – Yours, etc,
PAUL GRIFFIN,
St Helens,
Merseyside,
England.
Teacher shortages
Sir, – I was always taught not to “rob from Peter to pay Paul”. Now I see that the Department of Education is planning to do just that, taking primary teachers to teach in secondary schools because there are too few secondary teachers (“Primary teachers could work at second level to tackle staff shortages”, Home News, March 7th). However, there are also too few primary teachers. The only solution I can think of is to pay all teachers more money, to attract more into the sector. In other words, pay both Peter and Paul. – Yours, etc
BILL KEE,
Skerries,
Co Dublin.
Legal challenges
Sir, – I note that more taxpayers’ money is being wasted on foot of the Government having to appeal the ill-considered High Court action brought by the State-funded Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in December of 2023 (“Court of Appeal urged to overturn basic needs for asylum seekers decision”, March 6th). At the time, the IHREC acknowledged that the government was doing its best to accommodate international protection applicants in the midst of a housing crisis but they still went ahead with a pointless court case and the legal costs that go with it.
As a former civil servant, I despise the actions of Elon Musk in the US at present as regards his gutting of large tracts of federal government. However, any state-funded body should look at value for taxpayers’ money before taking costly legal actions. – Yours etc,
MICHAEL FLYNN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.
EU military spending
Sir, – The need to seriously spend in order to at least approach guaranteeing its security seems to have finally dawned on the leadership of the European Union (“EU leaders back huge increase in defence spending”, Home News, March 7th).
Be that as it may, there is, I would argue, an even more serious obligation on the union and that pertains to “reading the tea leaves” and acting accordingly in a resolute manner.
Russia annexed Crimea on March 18th, 2014, with no significant reaction from the EU. The growing possibility over the past two years of Donald Trump regaining the White House and what that could potentially mean to the EU seems to have been left to the gamble that “his bark is worse than his bite”.
These two instances alone have left the EU bobbing around like a cork in water. There is a lot of “getting real” to be done besides spending on tanks and guns. – Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny City.
Wartime disinformation
Sir, – Your correspondent Daniel McLaughlin, in his excellent reporting (“Moscow praises US and criticises Ukraine’s backers”, World News, March 7th.) from Kyiv, informs us that Moscow accuses France and other European countries, presumably Ireland among them, of prolonging the war in Ukraine. His report gives us an opportunity to appraise the lies and complete misinformation emanating from the Kremlin.
Contrary to what the Kremlin spokesman would have us believe, it was the war criminal Putin who, unprovoked, started this war, who continues this war and who if his invading armies left Ukraine could stop this war right now, today.
Despite the Russian lies and disinformation, European Union countries are through their support for Ukraine and its people defending a sovereign democratic country’s right to existence, to defend itself from the aggression. I find it deeply troubling that the Trump administration in the US has, by stopping military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, effectively sided with the aggressor Putin. Thankfully Europe has overwhelmingly continued its support for Ukraine and are stepping up as defenders of European democracy. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL MARTIN,
Clonsilla,
Dublin 15.
