Sir, – The Government’s determination to improve online child safety is welcome, but as Ireland considers both a digital identity wallet and the possibility of an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s, it is vital that we proceed with caution and proportionality.
Australia’s sweeping ban shows the risks: young people simply migrate to lesser known platforms, often with weaker safeguards, creating an endless “whack-a-mole” cycle. Ireland should learn from this rather than repeat it.
We must also acknowledge this country’s contribution to the problem. Years of underinvestment in school technology have left many second-level students relying on personal devices, usually smartphones paid for by parents, for research, homework and communication.
When one device carries the burden of schoolwork, social life and entertainment, it becomes far harder to draw neat lines between “educational use” and “social media use”, and bans inevitably collide with everyday learning needs.
RM Block
Protecting children online is essential, but simplistic solutions may create new problems without building the digital literacy and resilience that young people need.
Before Ireland rushes toward bans or expansive identity systems, we should prioritise evidence, education and a clear national conversation about the digital society we want to build. – Yours, etc,
DR ANN MARCUS-QUINN,
Associate Professor in
Technical Communication,
University of Limerick.
RTÉ and the Toy Show
Sir, – The production of The Late Late toy show on Friday night was excellent, as it is every year.
However, as an Irish children’s writer, I and, I’m sure, many others were dismayed by the limited selection of Irish-authored children’s books on the show. Given the few minutes allotted to the book section, to see Julia Donaldson’s latest publication reviewed was confounding.
I’m sure the British author of The Gruffalo has enough exposure, success and wealth that she doesn’t need to be reviewed on the most cherished annual show in Ireland for children and snatch the chance for an Irish children’s author to get some exposure and publicity for their work. – Yours, etc,
RUTH CROKE,
Inistioge,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – For whatever criticisms we may have of our national broadcaster, RTÉ, there is an extraordinary empathy and lack of commercialism around The Late Late Toy Show.
This programme makes me proud to be Irish in a multicultural Ireland; in an Ireland that is open to diversity, inclusivity and joy.
Well done RTÉ. – Yours, etc,
LYNNE TRACEY,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
The Eurovision boycott
Sir, – History will judge Ireland’s decision to withdraw from next year’s Eurovision Song Contest with clarity and, I believe, with kindness.
There will naturally be many perspectives on RTÉ’s choice, but as a sovereign nation we retain not only the right, but the responsibility, to act according to conscience – especially when the world’s gaze turns away from suffering that should move us all.
At a time when reports speak of more than 70,000 lives lost in Gaza, including over 18,000 children, the idea of immersing ourselves in a glittering musical spectacle feels impossible to reconcile with even the most basic sense of humanity.
The echoes of that extravaganza would not have been harmless; they would have returned to haunt us, a reminder that we looked away when the grief of others became too heavy to bear.
Ireland’s gesture may be small in the grand scheme of things. It will not stop aggression or violence, it will not reopen the schools or bring back the parents, sons and daughters whose names we will never know.
But it is something – a quiet but unwavering declaration that we recognise their suffering, that our empathy is not conditional, and that we refuse to celebrate while so many mourn.
In the end, our music, like our humanity, means nothing if it cannot make space for sorrow as well as joy. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir – Regarding the controversy over Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, I would like to propose a two-state solution – include Palestine. – Yours, etc,
MIKE FINEGAN,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Simon Blake writes in his letter to the editor: “RTÉ as a national broadcaster should be detached from politics” (December 6th).
It seems to me that it is one thing to be detached from politics and quite another to register a protest against the relentless killing and maiming of innocent people. – Yours, etc,
MARY DALY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin.
Sir, – I’m outraged at RTÉ’s decision to boycott next year’s contest as now I won’t be able to foster a longheld habit of self-righteously ignoring the vacuous nonsense. –Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.
Fifa scores an own goal
Sir, – Following on from Signor Infantino’s bestowing of the inaugural Fifa peace award on US president Donald Trump, we now await, with bated breath, Sepp Blatter’s successor announcing the corresponding awards in the categories covering the arts and sciences. – Yours, etc,
FRANK WALSH,
Coolballow,
Wexford.
Sir, – Now that Fifa has taken to awarding peace prizes, will future World Cups be organised by Nobel committees? – Yours, etc,
DR JAMES KEENAN,
Termonfeckin,
Co Louth.
Sir, – The recent inaugural award of the Fifa peace prize certainly trumps the honorary doctorate of amphibious letters that Kermit the frog received from Long Island University in its absurdity. – Yours, etc,
JOHN PAUL McCORMACK,
Knockfola,
Co Donegal.
Health insurance premium costs
Sir, – Here is why health insurance premiums are going up (“Nearly half population now reliant on private health insurance as claims soar”, December 5th).
People with underlying medical conditions use more health services than those without medical conditions. Similarly, older people use more health services than younger people, because they are more likely to have health problems.
For this reason, older people and those with underlying conditions are more likely to buy health insurance, because they are more likely to need it. Young and fully healthy people are less likely to buy it.
Over time, for the insurer, this means that insuring all their customers becomes more expensive.
The insurer will make efforts to incentivise young people and families to take out insurance, to mitigate that.
Nonetheless, premiums go up. This further deters young and healthy people from buying insurance.
In some countries, the government intervenes in the insurance market to prevent this negative spiral. One key way of doing this is by setting a rule that everybody has to buy insurance.
This is called the individual mandate. Premiums are subsidised for the less well-off, or free. The government may sell an insurance option directly to people.
This approach is called universal health insurance (UHI) and it is one of the two main ways of achieving universal health coverage. The other way is through taxation, where publicly funded health services are resourced sufficiently well to reduce the need for people to buy insurance in the first place.
In 2013, Dr James Reilly tried to implement UHI as minister for health. He failed. In 2017, the Sláintecare Report proposed moving over 10 years to tax-funded universal healthcare, reducing our reliance on private health insurance and private hospital care.
In 2025, Ireland still does not have universal healthcare. We operate a confusing and inefficient combination of the insurance and tax models, combining the disadvantages of both with the advantages of neither.
For example, half of our population now own private health insurance, as well as paying tax, as well as paying out-of-pocket for things like medicines or seeing a consultant privately.
This is a bad deal. – Yours, etc,
DR DOMHNALL
McGLACKEN-BYRNE,
Chair, Doctors For
Universal Healthcare,
Inchicore,
Dublin 8.
Christmas on the corridor
Sir, – In the run-up to Christmas, spare a thought for those in corridor care which is normalised in our hospitals now.
Patients are heading into a flu spike which may be the worst in a decade so we need to prepare for the critical lack of bedspaces in our hospitals. We need to fast track the filling of vacancies for doctors and nurses.
This is imperative given the consequences of corridor care, in particular the health and safety aspect for staff working in blocked corridors, to ensure minimum requirements of circulation spaces for safe movement of staff and patients.
Another consequence of corridor care is the utterly unacceptable issue of the lack of privacy and dignity, particularly for patients receiving life-changing information.
Surely we are better than this. – Yours, etc,
MARY HARTE,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Time to deliver on those promises
Sir, – Like the myth of Hy-Brasil – an island of perfection said to rise on the horizon and remain out of reach no matter how long one sails for it – we are being governed by promises that never arrive.
Ireland is now drowning in reviews, development plans and glossy brochures, yet infrastructure, health, housing, child supports, transport, and local services creak, stall and fail.
For tens of billions spent each year, what do we get? More consultations. More frameworks. More “roadmaps” to nowhere.
We as a country are grinding to a halt – not for lack of money or talent – but because our system has perfected the art of “planning” without delivering a single brick, bed or lane.
Ireland urgently needs delivery – and accountability. No more 10-year development plans that are launched and forgotten, with no repercussions. No more faceless “spokesperson for” or vague statements from the Government , the HSE or Tusla.
Ministers must own their promises. Institution and department heads must be named and answer for failures.
It’s time to demand responsibility. We need names. We need accountability. We need action that finally brings something real to our shore, because Hy-Brasil may be a myth, but these failures to deliver are not. – Yours, etc,
FRAN O’REILLY,
Co Clare.
Be careful what you wish for
Sir, – Numerous politicians and Government Ministers seem to have decided that “the system” and “vocal minorities” are to blame for the slow pace of development of critical infrastructure and housing.
There is little doubt improvements need to be made for the greater good but politicians are a key part of the very same system, especially at a local level. Too often, there has been a lack of backbone or local leadership on display, when push comes to shove.
I hope they realise that an overhauled system which does not bring people along with it on a project-by-project basis will end in tears, protest and delay on the ground, and the continued attraction of single-issue candidates at election time.
“Be careful what you wish for”. – Yours, etc,
JAMES McCARTHY,
Co Dublin.
Tunnel vision
Sir, – Norway is building an undersea tunnel 27km long for a predicted cost of about €2 billion.
The distance from Dublin city centre to Dublin Airport is about 15km. A tunnel, for cars and rail, connecting the two would solve a lot of the planning and objection issues.
We’ve got to think big. – Yours, etc,
DENNIS HAWKE,
Co Donegal.
Ireland and neutrality
Sir, – Your report today (December 5th) of drones on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s flight path into Dublin is very disturbing, along with your reports of “a spike in Russia shadow fleet activity off the west coast” at the time of the visit.
This unwanted interference in Ireland’s security shows we cannot trade on other actors being benign, or assume that our geography protects us.
Neutrality has served Ireland well. But today’s threats, with their increasingly complex technological and international dimensions, mean addressing those threats co-operatively.
And if neutrality is a moral statement, so also is being part of an alliance: you act to confront authoritarianism and aggression collectively and practically, and can underline the centrality of rule of law and guarantee of freedoms.
If examples are needed, think Norway or Canada, or others around the world.
Importantly, Ireland, as a modern state, needs properly to fulfil its primary moral obligation, to provide adequate protection from modern and amoral threats to all its citizens. – Yours, etc,
COLIN WOLFE,
Avoca,
Co Wicklow.
Bored abroad
Sir, – As a regular reader living in the US I’m wondering if other readers are getting just a little weary of the weekly pieces about moving to Ireland from abroad, together with the articles about Irish people living abroad.
The themes are getting very repetitive – “the weather is awful but the Irish are so friendly” and “one does miss home, the pub, the Tayto and the GAA, but the cost of living and accommodation drove us out”, and on and on.
On the other hand, well done to Keith Duggan’s excellent contributions on living in Trump’s America. – Yours, etc,
PEADAR NOONE,
North Carolina,
United States.
.angle time
Sir, – The annual task of untangling the Christmas tree lights becomes a doddle when you see the lit-up 66ft Norwegian Spruce in Trafalgar Square, London. – Yours, etc,
JOAN HOBSON CUNNINGHAM,
Co Dublin.
