Letters: Housing crisis is nearing boiling point – and it's a threat to the economy

Irish Independent

08-05-2025

I believe we are dealing with a ticking time bomb in this country – the possibility of a whole generation of pensioners renting in the future is unsustainable.
We are nearing boiling point. We have the highest levels of youth outward emigration since 2015. We are losing gardaí, teachers and healthcare workers.
I believe the housing crisis is a key threat to our economy.
John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Is Israel treated differently to Russia because it buys weapons from the EU?
It is reported that the Tánaiste has 'issued condemnation of Israel's plan to seize Gaza' ('Simon Harris among six EU foreign ministers to issue condemnation of Israel's plan to seize Gaza', May 7).
What do the six EU leaders hope to achieve by such condemnation?
It is clear Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no interest in listening to any 'complaint/concerns' relating to the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza or the West Bank. What is needed is action, just like the EU took against Russia.
So why double standards? Could it be because many EU states are selling military equipment to Israel?
Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Co Cork
Contrasting photos from the Vatican were excellent and evocative of scripture
I would like to congratulate you for the excellent contrasting photos from the Vatican (Irish Independent, May 8).
We see the red-robed cardinals assembled under the artistic work of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Sistine Chapel.
In contrast, we have the kneeling pilgrim clad in a hooded hessian robe and sandals and clasping his staff.
You have to consider which is most in keeping with the teaching of Christ – those within the Sistine Chapel or the pilgrim outside.
The Gospel of Mark 6:8-9 quotes: 'He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts – but to wear sandals and not put on two coats.'
Regarding the pilgrim, as an electrician I wondered why he had chos­en bands of green/yellow insulating tape for earth wire to add to his staff.
Paddy Murray, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath
A new front is opening up in the centuries-old world of warring over religion
As an age-old religious war comprising pseudo post-Christianity and radical Islam versus radical Judaism rumbles on, a new religious war is breaking out.
Fundamentalist Islam and nationalist Hinduism have entered the ring. On behalf of which side will the acute sensitivities of the Irish media and populist commentators proselytise?
Eugene Tannam, Firhouse, Dublin 24
Skirts, skorts and shorts camogie 'controversy' was bound to wake up the wags
One wonders if one is allowed to wear a skort on the Dort.
Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9
As VE Day is remembered, rising racism is putting us on same path as the Nazis
Amid the 80th anniversary commemorations of the official end of the war in Europe, it's sobering to think that racism, which was at the heart of the evil regime the Allies defeated, has made a comeback.
It is metaphorically crawling its way out of the ruins of the Berlin Bunker to ensnare new generations of Europeans.
I listened recently to an old interview with an Irishman who was among the first Allied soldiers to enter the Nazi death camp of Bergen-Belsen.
Nothing he had experienced in the war up to that point had prepared him for what he saw and felt when he passed through the gates of a man-made hell.
He had lost friends on the battlefield, had numerous brushes with death and had seen the ugliness of war up close, but this left him stunned and disbelieving.
We should never forget that the horrific scenes of mass murder, torture and the classification of entire ethnic groups as sub-human only became possible because people had allowed themselves to fall under the spell of racism.
It started with name-calling, the casting of racial slurs and the dehum­anising of people.
In Britain, the VE Day (Victory in Europe) events are lavish and colourful and the relatives of those who served in the war or gave their lives are rightly proud of their sacrifice.
How sad to see, though, in Britain and Ireland, that people are using the national flag to promote hatred of 'others', such as refugees and asylum-seekers, with cries of 'Our nation first' or 'Get them out'.
Eighty years have passed since the Nazis ran up the white flag. Unfortunately, unreasoning hatred of people on grounds of creed, skin colour or ethnicity still thrives.
Will any of us live to celebrate VR Day – Victory over Racism?
John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny
Remembering the Irish who fought alongside the British to save our world
On the 80th anniversary of VE Day, it is to be remembered that Ireland was neutral, but Irish men fought with the Allies in Europe.
One of them was John O'Neill, who emigrated from Bere Island, Co Cork, to England in the 1930s.
He and his comrades fought through WWII until he was killed in action in late 1944. He is buried in the military cemetery near Overloon in the Netherlands.
The late RTÉ journalist Cathal O'Shannon joined the RAF when war began. He went on to make the award-winning TV documentary Even the Olives are Bleeding in 1976 on the Irish in the Spanish Civil War.
I would like to give a mention also to the Allied army and civilian engineers who ensured military vehicles, tanks and troops moved quickly into Europe after D-Day on June 6, 1944.
The war in the Pacific was not yet over. Dr Aidan MacCarthy, from Castletownbere, Co Cork, joined the war as an RAF doctor. He survived Dunkirk in 1940 and was next sent to Asia. They were attacked and captured by the Japanese. He survived brutal POW camps and the atom bomb on Nagasaki in August 1945.
He said faith and lots and lots of luck helped him survive.