Sir, – In response to Justine McCarthy’s article “Searing summer may be telling us the race to halt global warming is lost”, August 22nd, I would first like to thank Justine for highlighting the urgency and direness of the current climate situation.
Thousands have died across Europe this summer from unprecedented heat, and thousands more have lost homes and livelihoods from fires.
We are right to prepare for further instances of extreme heat.
However, where I emphatically disagree is the fatalistic narrative that the race against climate change is lost.
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We have the solutions – researchers, scientists, engineers, economists, medical doctors – dedicate their lives to developing just, equitable solutions to the problems that humanity has created through greed and ignorance, and through severing the connection between humans and nature.
The problem is governance, and failure of governments internationally to listen to the science.
A brighter, greener, healthier future is possible, if those in power only choose the wellbeing and future of our people and our planet over profit. – Yours, etc,
ORLAGH GAYNOR,
Irish Doctors for the Environment,
Planetary Health Alliance,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.
Sir, – Colette McNamee (Letters, August 22nd) is right to question the publication by The Irish Times of articles which promote the kind of foreign travel which contributes to climate change.
However, one could use the same argument as I used in relation to Ryanair in a recent letter.
Where such privately owned businesses are concerned, whether it is selling seats on an aircraft or issues of a newspaper, presumably it ultimately comes down to attracting and keeping customers, who can choose to buy the product or not.
The Irish Times must have good reason to believe that such articles attract customers, rather than encouraging them to go elsewhere.
What I find harder to understand is how RTÉ, our publicly funded public service broadcaster, can justify regularly featuring slots on RTÉ Radio 1 and elsewhere, in which travel experts describe the latest “great value” options for holiday flights to here, there and everywhere.
Rarely is there any mention of the true cost of such flights, which will be paid by all forms of life on this precious planet, both now and far into the future, “here, there, and everywhere”.
Yes, I can choose to turn the radio off, but I still pay for the service one way or the other – no choice there. – Yours, etc,
KATHERINE QUIRKE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Migrants play important role
Sir, – Your editorial “The Irish Times view on building infrastructure: where will the workforce be found?” (August 18th) states that “around 80,000 additional construction workers would be needed to build the 300,000 houses targeted by the Government during its term and to retrofit the existing housing stock”, “a very significant 45 per cent increase” on the 177,000 people currently employed in the construction industry.
It seems highly unlikely that all these badly needed construction workers will be “home grown”.
Our health service is also very likely to continue to be heavily dependent on migrants – about 40 per cent of doctors and 50 per cent of nurses in Ireland are foreign-trained.
The same goes for our childcare, hotel and catering industries: they would cease to function properly without migrant workers.
Over the next two decades, the share of the population in Ireland aged 65 and over is projected to rise from one in seven to one in five. The replacement rate – the fertility rate required to maintain a stable population size in a given country – is generally regarded to be 2.1.
The fertility rate here in 2024 was 1.25. In 2024 many European countries reported their lowest birth rates in several decades, if not on record.
In Finland it was 1.25, the lowest since statistical compilation began there in 1776.
If the current trends continue, presuming European citizens want a sustainable future in terms of economics, services and quality of life, European states – including Ireland – may well find themselves increasingly competing for migrants.
Your Spain correspondent, Guy Hedgecoe, recently noted that the Bank of Spain reported last year that the country would need 24 million more migrants by 2053 to keep the welfare system on track.
Migrants tend to be young, and of working age. They tend to seek work, often provide essential services, and contribute to income tax revenues, which help fund states, including the increasingly expensive health services, welfare systems, and pensions of states with ageing populations, like Ireland.
In the cacophony around the topic of immigration, ignoring emotion, ideology and bias, the data suggest that we are going to need migrants, and we won’t be alone.
We won’t be able to “house the Irish” without migrants. – Yours, etc,
ROB SADLIER,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Charting a route for drones
Sir, – Noise and privacy are the two main concerns cited by the public in relation to drone deliveries (“Dublin residents air concerns about drone deliveries”, August 22nd).
It is claimed drones are as noisy as or even noisier than motor traffic and many people have expressed concern about camera-equipped drones flying above their gardens.
These seem like reasonable concerns which will not be allayed by comments from drone delivery companies.
A pragmatic way to address the concerns of affected residents would be to require that all drones fly above and follow the local road network when making their deliveries rather than moving “as the crow flies” from the drone depot to the delivery address as happens currently.
Drones would only be allowed to move from the road network when they are directly outside their customer’s home address, thereby not disturbing neighbours and locals.
Noise from drones would be the same distance from homes as motor traffic and cameras would not be flying over people’s gardens.
Such a rule may increase the delivery time a little and may increase the drone operator’s cost a bit too.
But the rule would protect citizens’ privacy and health, allow them to enjoy their hard-earned properties while providing a route by which drone operators could continue to operate and expand their network. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN REDDY,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Finger wagging
Sir, – Finn McRedmond states: “For my entire adult life, and then some, Michael D Higgins has been President” (“Ireland is turning into chief ‘finger wagger’ on the world stage,” August 21st).
It is my fervent hope that Ms McRedmond, now that she has, by her own admission, achieved maturity, may also obtain wisdom, humility and respect for the opinions of others, such as those of our wonderful president, Michael D Higgins. – Yours, etc,
KEN HANNIGAN,
Dunganstown,
Wicklow.
Changing seasons
Sir, – I spotted my first teenager in their school uniform this afternoon and it felt diametrically opposite to the feeling I get when I spot my first swallow of spring.
So much for the long summer holidays. – Yours, etc,
JOHN LOMBARD,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.
Ireland’s role on world stage
Sir, – Seán Phillips assures us that “outside of the Irish media”, comments by Irish politicians on geopolitical and international human rights issues “do not get as much as a word or a line in any international TV news station or newspaper” (Letters, August 22nd).
Has Mr Phillips forgotten US ambassador to Ireland and former US presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s memorable hyperbole, in response to the Irish Government plans to progress the Occupied Territories Bill, that “the Irish” had fallen “into a vat of Guinness” and were suffering from “diplomatic intoxication”?
Time and time again, “Ireland’s position in the world when it comes to politics” has been a gamechanging one, most notably as the first western country to ban the importation of South African produce, marking a sea change in the global solidarity campaign against the racist apartheid government.
US policymakers, and indeed Israel policymakers, maintain a keen eye on Irish political developments.
We have changed history before, and when our political leaders finally implement the will of the vast majority of the Irish people and impose sanctions on the Israeli state, we will do it again. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Over half a decade ago a young Bob Dylan penned a song about man’s inhumanity to man. It’s relevance for Israel and Gaza is still apt today.
In the final verse he asks “and how many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry, Yes and how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died”.
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. It’s that obvious. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CURRAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.
Sir, – Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza appears to be delivering a two-state solution: one for the living, one for the dead. – Yours, etc,
LIAM O’HARE,
Belfast,
Northern Ireland.
A defining moment
Sir, – I was amused to see Gary Doyle (Letters, August 22nd) refer to Aer Lingus as “our national airline”.
Since 2015 Aer Lingus has been wholly owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), a company whose stable also includes British Airways, Iberia and Veuling. IAG is a Spanish registered company that trades on the London Stock Exchange.
Much as it pains me to say it, the nearest thing that Ireland now has to a “national” airline is Ryanair. – Yours, etc,
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Dublin 4.
Newspaper trails
Sir, – I recall the story of the tourist in the wilds of Connemara who, when requesting an Irish Times, was asked by the shopkeeper if he wanted today’s or yesterday’s edition, and on replying “Why today’s, of course” he was told in no uncertain terms that he’d have to come back tomorrow so. – Yours, etc,
HUGH McDONNELL,
Glasnevin,
Dublin.
