Letters to the Editor, June 4th: On housing, rugby refereeing and bad sportsmanship

Irish Times

2 days ago

Sir, – I note the article by N
icholas Mansergh, 'Ireland is overdependent on apartment development,' (
Business, June 2nd), where he states that an apartment of 80sqm costs an €150,000-€190,000 to build compared to a terraced house of same floor area.
Here in Turkiye (Turkey) where I live for part of the year, the standard residential provision is a 12-storey apartment block, with two penthouses on top, comprising 50 two-bed apartments in total. It is difficult to find a house anywhere.
How is it the case that the Turks can produce these developments cheaply and efficiently while we in Ireland cannot? I might also point out that Turkish modern apartments are of excellent design and quality.
There is something wrong. How can, say, an apartment in a 50-unit block in Ireland cost in excess ¤150,000 more than a terrace house in a similar area?
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Such an apartment shares the same site with adjacent apartments. It also shares floors, roofs, structural uprights, water and sewage systems and electrical systems with other adjacent apartments which logically should lead to lower costs for each individual unit. In general, materials for apartments and terraced houses cost the same.
In Ireland it seems that there is over-regulation and over-specification regarding apartment construction.
Indeed, Tánaiste Simon Harris recently indicated that he is open to seeing if these can be eased.
The Irish have a historical bias against apartments and almost every proposed development is met by planning objections. The costs and time delays to apartment developers adds to the overall cost of construction.
Large apartment developments require large construction companies and since the demise of the Celtic Tiger, these appear to no more. A solution may be to bring in large foreign companies from outside.
Mr Mansergh makes the extraordinary claim that apartments are not suitable for owner occupiers and may not be viable in the future. Really?
The rest of the world does not think so. – Yours, etc,
TIMOTHY RYAN,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – I completely agree with Nicholas Mansergh that Ireland is over-dependent on apartment development while unduly focused on private investment funds to satisfy our housing needs.
While the rapid expansion of apartment buildings in the 1990s in Dublin, led by major Irish builders, produced much-needed apartment accommodation for workers and students, at that time private buyers were also incentivised to purchase.
Since then while apartment blocks were built, few individual units were advertised for sale. Entire blocks were purchased by investment funds and this continues to be the case.
There are many unintended consequences: workers are forced to rent at very high rates (as investors seek a return); few apartments are being sold to owner occupiers, few family homes are being built that might be purchased by tenants who want to a home to raise a family.
If we continue to focus on investment-led office and apartment blocks, we are left with few contractors and skilled staff to build much needed family homes.
In order to explore this issue further, it would be helpful to compare the number of new builds by city and county councils. For instance, have some counties – like Galway – generated more domestic family units in suburbs and village communities than others. If so what are the factors that actively contribute to such developments?
A regional 'best practice model' would help the Government to further explore and resolve our housing needs. – Yours, etc,
Dr EVELYN MAHON,
Fellow Emerita,
School of Social Work and Social Policy,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2 .
Sir, – Your columnist Pat Leahy's article ('Housing emergency? It's not even treated as mildly urgent', May 31st) makes for depressing reading.
There is zero chance, just several months into a new administration, of the Government meeting its promised 300,000 completed units during its term.
The simple truth is that the biggest societal challenge within Ireland today is going to become more serious and more socially alienating over the short- to medium-term future.
The likelihood of amplified social unrest is very high, driven by frustration and anger at a continuing failure to address what has been a known problem for over a decade now.
The current approach to fixing the problem is clearly suboptimal. It is time for the Taoiseach to show real leadership and steer through the necessary emergency legislation that rapidly removes the identifiable roadblocks, be they infrastructural, planning, financial, tax-based etc.
Such legislation was passed in 2020 in the public interest in response to Covid 19.
It is past time to recognise our housing crisis as the social challenge that has and will increasingly have an impact on every aspect of our society, in an ever-increasing negative way.
More of the same approach to addressing this crisis will commit us to certain failure and a likely dual outcome of increased emigration and domestic social upheaval. – Yours, etc,
GERRY PRIZEMAN,
Clontarf,
Dublin.
Leaving Certificate results
Sir, – This is the week that the Leaving Cert starts in Ireland. Here in France the equivalent state exam, the Baccalauréat, starts next week. In both countries the exams will end in the third week in June.
And then something very odd happens. Here in France, students will get their results within two weeks, and this has been the norm for generations. But in Ireland, students have to wait a staggering two months.
This delay has always been the case in Ireland, but it is also very unfair on students. Stress and uncertainty could be avoided, particularly by students being able to plan and prepare for the future during the summer, as opposed to rushing and panicking in the last week in August. Can we not do better ?
Make 'beatha an scoláire aoibhinn arís'. Make student life joyful again. – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN Mac GUILL,
Clichy,
France.
Sir , – Can I respectfully request The Irish Times and other print and broadcast media outlets to desist from their daily analysis of the Leaving Certificate examinations?
This annual exercise of detailed exam postmortems is not only futile, but puts added stress on students and their parents/guardians. – Yours, etc,
Dr PADRAIG McGARTY,
Mohill,
Co Leitrim.
Tsar play
Sir, – In reference to your editorial
'To tsar or not to tsar
' (May 31st), you quoted the secretary general of the relevant department as saying such a person is not needed and also pointed to the fact that a tsar could in fact be a person appointed by government to resolve a particular issue.
First of all, let me say that the reaction of the secretary general is typical. Secretary generals never want to cede power. Secondly, numerous politicians and ministers over the years realise that their departments and civil servants are incapable of resolving particular issues and delivering the required change.
As a result, they establish agencies to do so and oft times put in place specific legislation to allow them to resolve issues and effect change.
Even so, the departments resist the efforts of agencies to deliver their legislative responsibilities. They do not like the fact that their minister can actually refer to the chair of an agency rather than them.
More times than not, the chief executive is caught in the middle, keeping the balance and bearing the responsibility between chair, board and department. In most cases, the department wins such struggles.
I had the benefit of managing such tensions for many years as chief executive of the Heritage Council. My experience tells me that with the legislative responsibilities given by government to agencies (tsar or no tsar) at least the agency has a clear idea what it has to do and very often does just that. Certainly, to date as far as housing is concerned no department has come anywhere near. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL STARRETT,
Kilkenny.
Defence Forces and pay issue
Sir, – M
artin Wall's article ('Expert group raised Air Corps staffing concerns in 2021, June 2nd)
outlines the recommendations made by the joint Department of Defence/Defence Forces Group in 2021 to dissuade military air traffic controllers from leaving the Air Corps for the better paid private sector. His article also states that this 2021 report was not acted on, which now raises the prospect in 2025 of Air Corps management having to restrict its decades long 24/7 air-traffic control services.
For clarity, I'm adding here that it is various Civil Service departments who control pay and conditions and not Air Corps management in this instance. So, the obvious question is why has this deteriorating situation been allowed to drag on?
Mr Wall's comment that the 2021 report was not acted on provides a partial answer.
The full answer needs the question to be asked, which is: which department/person rejected the group's recommendations and what reasons were given at the time? Was it based on technical or financial advice or something else?
The Civil Service sometimes acts in an arcane way but this is one simple answer that doesn't need the imprimatur of the Minister of Defence.
Of course, the Minister himself has the power to put an end to this needless morale sapping of the Air Corps capabilities.
It's a situation crying out for political action and not mere words anymore. – Yours, etc,
Comdt FRANK RUSSELL (ret'd)
Blanchardstown,
Dublin 15.
National Anthem
Sir, – I noticed that prior to the Dublin v Armagh senior football championship fixture in Croke Park on Sunday, an announcement was made over the public address system to players and spectators to respect in full the national anthem.
It reflects positively on all concerned that the message was complied with.
Perhaps someone in authority in Croke Park had read Kevin O'Regan's letter of May 30th in the Irish Times letters page: Our international rugby and soccer teams stand proudly to attention at all times during the playing of our anthem, so why not GAA players? – Yours, etc,
RICHARD POWER,
Ballymacarbry,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – A correspondent compares the pride and passion displayed by Ireland rugby players in their singing of the national anthem compared to GAA players.
My observation, since I depend a lot on lip-reading, is that not all the Ireland rugby players know all the words and their obvious guessing makes me cringe. It must be stressful for them too on a day which is already exacting enough.
I think the anthem, sung only for home games, should be dropped. Ireland's Call, whatever its defects, has at least the unifying advantage of representing all the provinces, and is easy to learn. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'DONOGHUE,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Nuclear energy
Sir, – Dr Anne Baily (Letters, June 2nd) suggests nuclear energy as a means to help Ireland meet its climate targets. While the urgency is undeniable, the proposed solution deserves closer scrutiny.
Replacing fossil fuels (which we now know have caused profound harm) with nuclear technology (that we already know is deeply hazardous and problematic for a very long time) is hardly an improvement.
It risks exchanging one legacy of environmental damage for another.
Climate breakdown cannot be solved purely through technological fixes, or by sidestepping the more difficult task of changing the systems and lifestyles that fuel greenhouse gas emissions as well as a host of broader environmental crises.
The real challenge is to rethink how we live, consume and use energy.
Renewables, energy efficiency and community-based solutions already offer safer, faster and more democratic ways forward. Ireland should invest in those, rather than repeating old mistakes under a new name. – Yours, etc,
HANS ZOMER,
Chief Executive Officer,
Global Action Plan,
Dublin.
Calling foul on rugby antics
Sir, – As usual Owen Doyle (
'Persistent acceptance of foul play is a dreadful reflection on rugby',
June 3rd) is exactly right. What was once a beautiful game has been allowed to degenerate, on and off the field.
The forward-dominated assaults on the goal line, with the endless penalty advantages, the ping-pong kicking, the boorish behaviour of some players and the ignorant and abusive antics of sections of supporters are killing the game.
I feel sorry for referees attempting to deal with the ever-changing and often inconsistent laws, and players trying to pull the wool over their eyes, but that does not disguise the fact, as Doyle points out, that some are simply not up to the task, and nor, it seems, are many of the administrators, who are guilty of neglect. – Yours, etc,
BILL REDMOND,
Edinburgh,
Scotland.
Sir, – As an avid soccer fan I have been admonished, patronised and chastised by rugby-supporting friends about the moral superiority surrounding the conduct of rugby players on the field of play.
The antics of Jaden Hendrikse at Kings Park, Durban, on Saturday nailed this myth once and for all.
Not alone did Hendrikse enact a fabricated 'cramp' episode to inconvenience an opponent, he added a 'wink' as his coup de grace.
Gerry Thornley bemoans the failure to maintain the values of respect shown by this episode ('Sharks shameful antics betrayed moral code that makes rugby special', Tuesday, June 3rd).
Perhaps, the moral code attributed to rugby now resides 'with O'Leary in the grave'. – Yours, etc,
JOHN NAUGHTON,
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
Bigger picture
Sir, – We are hearing again about the Calor Gas-sponsored housewife of the year competition that took place annually from 1967 to 1995.
When I hear negative comments about this event I think it's important to keep the bigger picture in mind and not get drawn into presentism and to remember that you cannot judge the morning by the rules of the afternoon. – Yours, etc,
MARY DALY,
Dublin.