Madam, - I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments of Kate Holmquist's article "A society that's caring less" in last Saturday's Weekend Review.
I was interested to read that Prof Robert Putnam of Harvard is advising the Taoiseach on "social capital". The best action Mr Ahern might take if he is interested in promoting social capital would be to end his coalition with the Progressive Democrats. No one party has so significantly undermined the social capital of this country in recent years.
John Minihan's recent suggestion in this newspaper that schools should be turned into private childcare facilities after school hours is just one of many examples of the party's "progressive" policies. If the Taoiseach is genuine about creating a society that cares about its citizens he will stop doing business with a political party that puts the needs of the economy before everything else. - Yours, etc,
LENA DEEVY,
Alexandra Road,
St Luke's,
Cork.
****
Madam, - Mary Raftery (Opinion, June 1st) is concerned at the lack of an inspectorate of any kind for residential centres for people with intellectual disabilities. I would like to inform your readership that the Faculty of Intellectual Disabilities of The Irish College of Psychiatrists highlighted this concern in its 2004 strategy document "A Proposed Model for the Delivery of a Mental Health Service to people with Intellectual Disabilities".
Consultant psychiatrists providing a mental health service to people attending the intellectual disability services have repeatedly expressed serious concerns about the lack of a mental health inspectorate in these services, and it is one of the main recommendations of our report. - Yours, etc,
Dr KATHLEEN GANTER,
Chairman,
Irish College of Psychiatrists,
Dublin 2.
****
Madam, - What advice would Mary Harney give to a person who has to fork out an average of €45,000 a year to a nursing home to look after his or her old and infirmed loved ones?
Shop around? - Yours, etc,
PAUL DELANEY,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.