Sir, – Today’s Irish Times features Rental Tenancies Board (RTB) investigations of bad landlords (“Policing Dublin’s rental market: ‘I paid about €400 to share a bed-bug infested room with four others”, June 28th).
This prompted me to write to tell the story of a good landlord who is now selling up, and his four tenants who face homelessness, due to the actions of an overzealous environmental health officer and over the top regulations.
This landlord owns one property in Rathgar divided into four units and was bought to provide him with an income in retirement. He charges significantly less than current market rents, for example, €660 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, and every Christmas gives the tenants wine and chocolates. He is registered with the RTB and pays taxes on his rents.
His problem arose when an existing tenant became eligible for the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and unlike many landlords, he was happy to sign the relevant forms to get her HAP.
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A few months after this, an Environmental Health Officer called and issued an improvement notice to the landlord – a seven-page document stating he had broken this and that regulation and must put things to rights or face conviction and fines and possible imprisonment of a term not exceeding six months.
Not surprisingly, the landlord decided to sell, not having the money to spend on doing work which appeared to be unnecessary!
The house will not be bought by an investor as the existing rents are modest and cannot be raised much under current law. The house will be bought for personal use; the four tenants will have to leave and face the near impossible task of finding new accommodation.
Isn’t it time for some common sense? When regulations are over the top, it’s easy to break them. These tenants are happy with their accommodation and with their landlord, unlike the people featured in your article.
Can any reader suggest how this sad situation can be resolved? – Yours, etc,
ENID O’DOWD,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Budapest Pride Parade
Sir, – After the huge effort he put in to making it happen, it was heart-warming to see that Hungary president Victor Orbán’s Budapest Pride parade was a tremendous success with tens of thousands of people marching through Hungary’s capital on Saturday.
He is clearly a keen student of Tom Sawyer, who, when tasked with the dreary chore of whitewashing his aunt’s fence, discovered that to make people want to do a certain thing, you simply need to make it difficult for them to do so. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN O’REILLY,
Sutton,
Dublin, 13.
Israeli military operations
Sir, – Your article (“Israeli military operations in Gaza ‘well over the top’, ex CIA chief says,” June 28th) reported that the former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, criticised both Israel and the Trump and Biden administrations over the bombardment of Gaza.
The “news” was not that he expressed these concerns but how he did so, using such moderate language that he served only to reinforce the extent to which the United States and its key European allies are in thrall to Israel. There was no surprise that he deflected questions of genocide as being for others to decide – it would have been newsworthy had he done otherwise.
It was his other comments that were revelatory.
Brennan described the killing of anywhere from 60,000 to in excess of 100,000 Palestinians as over the top, which begs the question of what would represent an acceptable number of killings?
Even more alarmingly, the former CIA chief also said the number of children and women killed by Israel over the last 21 months was “unnecessary”. I cannot imagine how someone in his position would determine what necessary amounts to when the slaughter of innocent children and women is being considered.
These remarks represent evidence, not of a capacity for institutional America to be critical of Israel but of what Bob Fisk described as “the craven genuflection of the American elite toward Israel”. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN DRURY,
Strand Road,
Dublin 4.
An alien in New York?
Sir, –Keith Duggan’s article (“The capital of capitalism: New York’s old brigade plot how to stop the rise of Zohran Mamdani,” June 28th) speaks volumes about who many New Yorkers view as their perceived danger, namely Zohran Mamdani.
The weaponisation of his positions predominantly focused on trying to lower costs and aspirations, of daring to try to make the vast majority of people’s lives easier would be laughable if the consequences not so serious.
The smear campaign being primed to bring Mamdani down range from super PACs to the city newspapers. They are in favour of returning Eric Adams to City Hall.
The fact that Adams has been indicted on bribery charges, among other things, tells you all that you need to know about what many New Yorkers and Americans see as radical – not allowing income inequality to deepen and daring to present any alternative viewpoints on the Middle East conflicts (freedom of speech appears selectively applied).
This autumn’s election outcome will reveal how many New Yorkers and ultimately Americans are willing to accept a status quo that works for a selective few. – Yours etc,
GEMMA HOGAN,
New York.
Beaches and dogs
Sir, – The letter (June 27th) detailing how an older swimmer being virtually assaulted by a dog walker at Sandycove is just the latest in a pattern of offensive behaviour by some dog owners.
Dublin has more than 30,000 dogs and about one-third are unlicensed. Those unfettered animals are fouling our best recreation spots.
Along with people’s safety we must consider public health. Dogs can carry dangerous infestations of roundworms and toxicara canis. Local authorities are gradually limiting access by dogs to bathing places where barefoot children can be made ill by dog faeces.
However, those initiatives will only work if there is enforcement and the fine for dog fouling is now just €150. The necessary changes must include a ban on dogs in all bathing resorts and nature reserves, backed up by fines of €1,000.
Dogs on beaches is the new smoking in pubs. It should be banned. – Yours, etc,
CELINE REILLY,
DIARMUID Ó GRÁDA,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.
Boxed off
Sir, – While reading and listening about the housing crisis, I am always curious as to how it is that adult children living at home with their parents always end up in the box room. – Yours, etc,
MARY DALY,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin.
Childcare in summer
Sir, – Liz Carolan (“I’m paying €757 to keep my child busy for 3.6 hours a day. Summer childcare maths doesn’t add up,” June 30th), outlined the issues facing parents of school-aged children when it comes to childcare during the summer months.
As a parent of three children, I know only too well of the difficulty in arranging and paying for various private summer camps , whilst my wife and I juggle work commitments to ensure the children are brought to and from the clubs.
I am lucky that I can afford to pay these additional costs without the household budget coming under strain. What about other not so fortunate families? It must be a constant source of anxiety for many parents.
With all the talk of cost of living supports and two-tier child benefit etc. why is it is that we allow our national schools to lie dormant for two months every year whilst parents scramble to access privately run clubs?
Each parish in the country has national schools locked up from the end of June until classes resume in early September. Is it not obvious that local councils should be funded to run a summer programme of daily clubs and activities that can be accessed by local families for a reasonable fee?
Not only would this fully utilise the country’s infrastructure, but it could also provide summer employment for older secondary schoolchildren and help them learn about civic responsibility in their locality.
Surely, if the Government wanted to make a real impact to improve the cost of raising children in Ireland this is an obvious and relatively easy “win” for them? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT FOLEY,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Calling the tune
Sir, – Your correspondent (Letters, June 30th) talking about Neil Young and Van Morrison not playing their most famous songs reminds me of a notorious concert by Cat Stevens in 2009.
As witnessed by the late, great Gerry Ryan, Stevens played an “experimental” set to an increasingly restive audience.
Eventually, according to Gerry, one concertgoer could stand it no longer and shouted out “Sing Peace Train, ya b*****xs. – Yours, etc.
BRENDAN COFFEY,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary.
Truth and reconciliation
Sir, – Freya McClements article, (“Long-standing quest for truth by bereaved Omagh families collides with reality” June 28th) can hardly come as a surprise to anyone.
This is the same experience encountered by victims, survivors and everyone who has been unfortunate enough to be adversely affected by the Troubles and their legacy over the past 59 years.
As the chairman of the Omagh Inquiry said, “We are where we are”, and we have been here many times before.
We have been assured by former senior officers within the RUC that there are RUC “murder boxes”, as they are called with nothing inside but a single sheet of paper stating the name, address and details of the where, when and how the victim died.
Whether information was deliberately suppressed by the officers involved or they were overwhelmed by their caseloads, we will never know in many cases because they have died in the meantime.
In regard to other “official” documents, several retired civil servants have expressed frustration at being unable to find documents from the 1980s and 1990s, even ones they themselves originated.
On the UK government side there is a belief that the majority of the relevant documents have been released under the general 10 and 20 year rule, but the difficulty is unearthing them!
On the Irish Government side there is a worry that documents, particularly Defence Forces records, no longer exist. Maybe it is time for both governments to open their books, they cannot hide behind “national security” when everyone knows it is the prospect of embarrassment and shame that are the real reasons. We need the two governments to move on from this position.
When the Truth Recovery Process began its very modest attempt to find new ways of looking for the truth from former combatants, we succeeded in finding six people willing to provide information to victims through a mediation process.
All of these volunteers were involved in the first period of the Troubles. This more or less coincided with internment, when over half of all the deaths and serious injuries occurred.
In return for conditional amnesties, these participants were willing to disclose all the information they had, meet victims and survivors through a mediation process, if the latter so wished and participate in a thorough verification process.
Inevitably, none of them were young. Three have since died and another has dementia. Like many older people the remaining two are not in the best of health.
If official records are lost and the people who wrote them are no longer with us to test their veracity, where does that leave us?
Particularly where investigations led to people being wrongly convicted whose only way of clearing themselves would have been to turn informer?
The proposal we made six years ago and have submitted to various official bodies and politicians remains on the table. We know that some significant political figures consider it worthy of serious consideration.
We appreciate that many victims and survivors do not wish to go down this road and we accept that is their prerogative. Indeed, when members of the Kenova Team approached us on behalf of relatives of one victim and we located people with the relevant information who were willing to meet with them, the offer was declined.
It is a difficult choice for anyone to make after so many years, whatever their role in these awful events. It seems that most people would prefer to pass up the opportunity to know what happened, or why, or engage in any act of reconciliation that might be possible before the moment passes. This does not augur well for the future. – Yours, etc,
PADRAIG YEATES, Secretary,
HARRY DONAGHY, Northern Chair, Truth Recovery Process,
JOHN GREEN, Southern Chair, Truth Recovery Process.
Portmarnock,
Dublin.
The end of something
Sir, – MJ Tomlin (Letters, June 28th) bemoans the use of the word “arse” in the Crosaire and asks where do we go from here? It’s a race to the bottom, presumably. – Yours, etc,
EOGHAN MAC CORMAIC,
Galway.
Sir,- MJ Tomlin is “shocked” by Fidelia’s use of the word “arse”(sic) in a recent Crosaire clue.
Methinks your letter writer is behind the times. – Yours. etc.
PAUL DELANEY,
Dublin.
Sir, – Regarding the standards of The Irish Times and the Crosaire clue which included the word “arse”. I suggest that the follow up word would be “elbow”. – Yours, etc,
CARMEL KELLY.
Malahide,
Dublin.
