Asian hornet’s nest
Sir, – The discovery of an Asian hornet’s nest in Cork City (“More sightings of Asian hornets confirmed as response intensifies”, Home News, August 29th) serves as another reminder of how vulnerable our honeybees are and how desperately they are in need of real protection across the island.
Bees do so much more than supply us with honey. They perform an incredibly vital role as pollinators of crops and native plants and comprise an indispensable part of our biodiversity.
More than a third of our 98 bee species are facing extinction. Habitat loss and a lamentable decline in the prevalence of wildflowers are among the drivers of this depressing trend.
We can help them by making our gardens amenable to their needs, so that honeybees and bumblebees won’t be short of food.
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No less a man than Albert Einstein opined: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years left to live.”
While that might be overstating the threat, it stresses the importance of this great benefactor.
Apart from citizens improving the bee’s plight, we need political action, and successive governments have shown how little affection they have for our rapidly diminishing biodiversity.
The success of the National Parks and Wildlife Service in locating the nest in that sycamore tree cannot detract from the fact that the service itself requires a huge boost in funding and manpower to do its job effectively.
While the rangers and other staff do sterling work, the political establishment needs to offer strong long-term support to the life-enhancing and life-preserving eco agenda.
As a campaigner against practices that threaten wildlife and its habitat, I have found that politicians rarely put the wellbeing of any species before their own political careers. Privately many of them will say (in a whisper) that hare coursing and the snaring of badgers (both supposedly protected mammals) are abhorrent, but few of them will take a public stance on these issues due to the risk of losing a few votes, especially in marginal constituencies.
In November 2022, the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss called for a referendum on having the Rights of Nature enshrined in the Constitution. Politicians across the political divide made sympathetic noises and nodded their approval ... but nothing has happened.
Political careers obviously trump the rights of nature.
I’d like to think that TDs and Senators care deeply about our precious, severely threatened, and irreplaceable wildlife heritage, and about our vanishing biodiversity.
But I think it’s more likely that they’ll continue to dodge any difficult decisions on these issues ... for fear of stirring up a hornet’s nest. Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.
Trees or power cuts?
Sir, – As someone who lost electrical power for, luckily, only one-and-half days earlier this year, when Storm Eówyn hit with an icy blast, I would disagree with Penelope Goodare (Letters, August 29th) that living with the occasional power-cut during ice-cold and snowy weather, rather than cutting some trees or at least reducing them in height, to avoid them falling on power lines, is an acceptable compromise.
No electrical power means, for many modern households, no central heating, no cooker, no lights and no way of powering medical equipment.
It wasn’t fun while the power was off after Storm Eówyn and some households didn’t get power back for over 2 weeks.
No fun at all for those unlucky people.
Cutting every tree within 30 metres of power lines would indeed be overkill, but reducing the height of trees so they can’t fall on power lines would be more appropriate than completely felling them.
There are also many fields nowhere near power lines, where there are no trees whatsoever on the ditches and these are places where perhaps there should be mandatory planting of native trees to help maintain nature and wildlife habitats. Many ditches have been stripped of all trees by farmers over the years.
Perhaps also, as part of planning permissions granted to dwellings, there should be mandatory planting of small trees, maybe even fruit trees, in the gardens of these new dwellings which have a garden, to help our bird population. Tree planting doesn’t always have to be strictly commercial.
We certainly need more trees in Ireland, but we don’t need them falling on power lines in inclement weather, when it can so easily be avoided. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
Greenway access
Sir, – The beautiful photo in The Irish Times of August 28th of people on an open section of the Connemara Greenway (“A 15-year muddle: the long and winding road to building a greenway through Connemara”) demonstrates in visual form why access to the countryside for walkers and other recreational users is so important.
Such access is good for our physical and mental wellbeing as well as being vital for our tourist industry. Given the importance of safe off-road access it is shameful that the Connemara Greenway is incomplete after 15 years.
Most parts of the country don’t have safe, off road access in their areas unlike the situation in other countries and, indeed, Ireland, in the past.
Worse than that, many traditional access points have been closed in recent years and this continues to happen despite the roll out of some greenways.
Three examples of recently closed access which were greatly used are the paths at the Cliffs of Moher, the Bray-Greystones Cliff Walk and Castletown in Celbridge, Co Kildare. The Cliffs of Moher paths had over 400,000 users annually, while the Bray-Greystones Walk had something like 350,000 users. These are not selling points for promoting Ireland as a tourist destination for walkers.
When are our legislators going to grasp the nettle and produce legislation to protect and extend off road access for walkers and others while, at the same time, allowing farmers and other land users like forestry workers get on with their work. It’s been done in other countries so why not here? – Yours, etc,
ROBERT DOWDS,
Chairperson of Keep Ireland Open,
Clondalkin,
Co Dublin.
Geosadán meaning
Sir, – Following on from Frank McNally (An Irishman’s Diary, August 21st), Dónal Casey raises an interesting matter from his native north Kerry and the usage there of geosadán for the dreaded weed ragworts.
Geosadán is included in Niall Ó Donaill’s Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla where its meaning in English is given as (a) soft thistle, (b) thin, withered, stalk (of thistle, ragweed), or a thin, weedy or vain person etc.
Edward Dwelly’s Illustrated (Scots) Gaelic-English Dictionary gives geosadán in English as being primarily linked to the word gaoisnean, in turn meaning a thin slender person and thereafter as meaning shaft, an arrow or a stalk.
Unlike most other Irish words, geosadán did not reach the learned pages of Fr Dineen’s Foclóir Gaeilge agus Béarla, however, it may be connected with his geospal meaning (as used in Connaught) a lean child.
Like the weed itself, the word used in north Kerry has been much travelled. – Yours, etc,
AUSTIN Ó BRIAIN,
An Daingean,
Co Ciarraí.
Time to help people downsize
Sir, – Ireland’s housing debate focuses heavily on supply, yet far less on how existing stock is used. The 2022 Census shows over 425,000 people now live alone, and about 80 per cent occupy houses – usually multi-bedroom homes far larger than they need.
Housing needs change as people age, and many single-person households might prefer smaller, more manageable dwellings.
Similar to the Part V planning requirement, a new requirement might be that every new development, or new phase of an existing one, should include 10–15 per cent standalone one-bedroom units.
These should be prioritised for local people downsizing, enabling them to stay in familiar surroundings while freeing up larger homes for families. Rules on ownership and occupancy would need careful definition, but the principle is simple: high-quality, long-term rentals for older independent people in familiar surrounds.
This is a practical way to use our housing stock more efficiently while creating more affordable, sustainable communities. – Yours, etc,
FRANK CLOHOSEY,
Donnybrook,
Douglas,
Co Cork.
No bidding wars in France
Sir, – We are selling our property in France in order to buy a retirement home in Ireland – the contrast in the property process is shocking!
In France, if a buyer offers the published asking price, the vendor is obliged to accept it under French legislation. This is also true in most European countries. Sellers cannot hold out for higher bids and full disclosure of defects is mandatory. A “notaire” ensures transparency and accountability during the process. In Ireland by contrast, the offer process is chaotic.
Even when buyers in Ireland meet the advertised asking price, bidding wars frequently push the final sale tens of thousands above it. Buyers spend heavily on surveys, legal fees and mortgage approvals, only to face uncertainty and no protection. There are no binding timelines and no statutory duty of disclosure.
This is unacceptable. Irish legislation and reform on property transactions need to be fixed urgently to protect buyers and restore fairness to the Irish housing market. – Yours, etc,
MARIE MORGAN WELS,
Strasbourg,
France.
Smug EV drivers
A chara, – The recent discussion in the Letters page on the pros and cons of electric SUVs has omitted a fundamental point. Might I suggest that any smug electric-vehicle drivers familiarise themselves with the inhumane exploitation and environmental destruction inherent in mining cobalt – an essential component in rechargeable batteries. – Is mise,
DARREN O’BRIEN,
Smithfield Market,
Co Dublin.
Basic Income for the Arts
Sir, – I am not an artist, I don’t have that talent, but I have worked with and advocated for artists for the greater part of my working life. I have seen how hard artists work in order to simply survive while bringing their many and varied talents/ gifts to audiences across this country and right across the globe. I have also seen the difference that something as simple as the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) can make.
The artists lucky enough to receive the BIA (which is extended to February pending review), could, and did, dedicate more time to their creative practice, they composed more, practised/ rehearsed more, wrote more and felt valued. Those who didn’t receive the BIA, didn’t stop creating but had less time to do so and lived in the hope that the pilot scheme would succeed and would be rolled out to all eligible artists at the end of the current initiative.
Creative artists contribute hugely to this country both artistically and financially but they do so, a great deal of the time, at their own expense. Freelance artists are rarely paid a realistic fee for their work and yet without them doing so the lights would go out in most of the arts centres across the country.
Ireland’s writers, actors, musicians, visual artists, etc. are renowned across the world and bring honour to the country! It is now time for the Government to honour the artistic base from which this super talent has grown by awarding all eligible artists a basic income. The financial implications are small for the state but enormous for the artists. – Yours, etc,
KARINA LUNDSTRÖM,
Lundström Arts Management,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
AI in the classroom
Sir, – Emmet Ryan rightly highlights the challenge to teachers assessing project work for the Leaving Certificate when generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT can deliver a top-scoring project “in 30 seconds or so”. (“Can the Leaving Certificate be AI-proofed?”, Business, August 29th).
Maybe I am missing something here, but could the teacher not quickly run the projects through AI to check if AI has been used and to what extent? Indeed, at the risk of antagonising teachers’ unions, surely AI could mark projects without troubling the teacher?
Also, in view of the importance of AI to future job performance, surely we need a Leaving Cert course in AI, where, rather than being penalised, students would be graded on how successfully and extensively they adopt the technology? – Yours, etc,
RONNIE SIMPSON,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
An original Swiftie
Sir, – On skimming Finn McRedmond’s latest reflections on major cultural phenomena of the age (“Everything Taylor Swift does - even her engagement announcement - must be understood through one lens: fear”, Opinion & Analysis, August 28th), I thought to myself, with regret, that I am old enough to expect that a long piece on Swift in The Irish Times would have been about Jonathan. Oh will, sic transit ... – Yours, etc,
JOE McLOUGHLIN,
Bonnyrigg,
Midlothian,
Scotland.
