Sir, – It is nearly 300 years since Jonathan Swift put forward his modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden on their parents or country. The latest proposal from the ESRI turns Swift's objective on its head by seeking to prevent the parents from becoming a burden on their children or country ("Elderly rights groups criticise ESRI housing report", March 8th). In fairness, the ESRI has stopped short of recommending that the children should eat their parents. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Santry, Dublin 9.
Sir, – I have searched the ESRI report Housing and Ireland's Older Population in vain for the incentive of a free, made-to-measure coffin or an attractive funeral grant for us "empty nesters" so that we might be encouraged to downsize our homes and with that, most likely, our ambition to stay alive. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL GANNON,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – Now that the powers that be have told us that one of the solutions to solving the housing crisis is to have older people move to a smaller house, surely another imaginative Irish solution would be to have a Mass said to make the problem go away. – Yours, etc,
FERGAL GAUGHRAN,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.