Letters to the Editor, July 17th: On school summer holidays, regulating the property market and a man of letters

Irish Times

6 days ago

Sir, – I read with interest the recent discussion on the length of school summer holidays and the suggestion that they should be shortened to better accommodate working parents.
While the challenges faced by families during the summer months are very real, I believe we are asking the wrong question.
Yes, most families now rely on two incomes to stay afloat. Yes, summer camps are expensive, inconsistent, and often logistically unworkable.
But does that mean we should surrender our children's precious time off to the ever-increasing demands of the adult working world and the bottomless greed of corporations, who want to extract ever more from their employees?
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Must we prepare young kids now for the drudgery of a lifetime of 20-25 days of precious annual leave by denying them the joy of long summer breaks while they are young?
Rather than cutting short the only real break children get in the year, maybe we should be asking why our workplaces and public policies haven't sufficiently evolved to support modern family life.
If the corporate world depends on the working parents who drive their enormous profits, then it's time it stepped up – through expanded summer leave programmes, more flexible hours, or even onsite childcare or camps.
And if the State does indeed recognise the importance of education and also downtime (and downtime can be educational), it should also recognise the value of accessible, enriching and affordable summer supports and programs – perhaps delivered through schools and public institutions. The working parents contribute enough taxes.
The current system leaves parents dreading and then merely enduring the summer holidays, instead of anticipating carefree and unstructured times which present opportunities for family interaction, new types of learning, not to mention a decent blast of fresh air before the onset of winter. The solution is not to take more from our children but to demand more from the systems that loudly claim to support families, and whose pockets are certainly deep enough to do a little more.
Let children enjoy their long summers. They'll be part of the workforce soon enough – and for long enough. – Yours, etc,
GERARD REYNOLDS,
Ballyboden,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Breda O' Brien makes some interesting observations regarding school principal workload: '
Only bottle recycling keeps schools open,
' (July 12th).
Leading teaching and learning – the job they applied for and are qualified for – is now jostling for position in an overcrowded space.
Principals are bowled off their feet by the tsunami of being financial controller, accountant, HR manager, IT consultant, building project manager, security consultant – and more besides.
This is also reflected in the work day of the current school secretary.
In providing vital support to all of the above, the school secretary role is one of PA, administrator, data controller, payroll, accounts. The quaint role of a bit of filing, photocopying and answering the phone is dim and distant.
We set up every new teacher and SNA on to the Department of Education payroll system. We submit thousands of pay claims every week for substitute teachers and SNAs.
We oversee and arrange any amount of appointments by visiting professionals to the school. We order, organise and distribute the school book scheme. We make complex data returns to various Department of Education sectors. We pay bus escorts and cleaners and make the associated Revenue returns.
We liaise with the Department of Health regarding child vaccinations and health screenings. We sign passport applications for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
We deal with the Department of Social Protection regarding Social Welfare claims and more recently the behemoth that is the school meals programme.
In other words, we do public service work, all day long. We are public servants in all but name.
Yet, we are denied access to the public service pension scheme, uniquely within the school setting.
Is it any wonder that school secretaries, along with caretaker colleagues, have voted 98 per cent in favour of strike action?
We are not asking for anything that our teacher and SNA colleagues don't already rightly have. We are not asking for anything that other school secretaries doing identical jobs don't already have (Education and Training Board school secretaries have public servant status.)
We love our jobs but will not be returning to work in September. We deserve recognition for our public service work, carried out for decades in this country, providing for the delivery of education to the children of this State. – Yours, etc,
GINA BYRNE,
Birdhill,
Co Tipperary.
Regulating the property market
Sir – Our esteemed Government is reducing the regulations of new apartments and adding more regulations to the rental market. These actions have all been done before and the results speak for themselves. It is well known that insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting different results.
As an estate agent I used to assume politicians just don't understand the property market and that is why they are unable to take the necessary corrective measures to fix it. Sadly, I have now come to the realisation that they do indeed understand it.
They know in a market such as ours, where demand exceeds supply, continuing and indeed accelerating Government foreign direct investment (FDI) policy is literally 'pouring petrol' on the overheating property fire. They are, therefore aware there is zero chance of them being able to solve the current housing crisis. Hence, insane property market interference makes sense – because their only option is to pretend they are doing 'the right thing'.
If you can fool people into believing that you can build apartments quicker than you can land aeroplanes, the only fly in the ointment I can see is the small article in the Constitution, the one about protecting the 'family'.
I might be simple, but even I can see an FDI policy that creates massive corporate immigration, causing a housing crisis, which in turn creates lower paid forced emigration – displaces both the immigrants and emigrants from their immediate families.
Perhaps only the Constitution can save us from all this insanity. – Yours, etc,
NICK CRAWFORD,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – I share the overall concern expressed by John McCartney about the Help to Buy scheme, that demand-side intervention in the housing market appears to increase house prices without necessarily increasing supply of housing ('
Help to Buy is seen as free money but it just results in higher house prices and more tax
,' July 9th).
I don't share his dismissal of increased supply as the most important part of improving affordability.
Dr McCartney offers three more significant elements of house price inflation than supply: planning, professional services fees (exacerbated by lack of competition), and financial sector incentives.
I'm not a property market economist. But I did recently buy a house (not using the Help to Buy scheme). Professional fees for both sides (solicitors, estate agent, surveyor, etc) accounted for less than 5 per cent of the purchase price.
I had a wide range of choice among which to shop around for these professional services; more competition may well reduce these costs, but it's hard to see any realistic reduction having much impact on the overall purchase price.
Moreover, as someone who educates the next generation of solicitors, it's hard to see what type of regulation could encourage more law graduates to work as conveyancing solicitors in private practice, rather than for corporate firms – especially if we expect them to make less money from conveyancing. It is already difficult for smaller firms to attract talented law graduates, without expecting them to cut their fees for the services they provide.
Professional fees paid by developers to corporate firms are a different matter – perhaps these need to fall to reduce the costs of new housing developments.
But, Dr McCartney doesn't think we need very many new developments, and it's hard to see how corporate firms' pricing structures affect the second-hand conveyancing market. 'Incentives for the financial sector' seems to imply that the taxpayer money currently given to private home purchasers to hand over to developers and banks, should instead be given to banks so they will lend more money to developers.
Perhaps Dr McCartney can explain what he means in more detail.
In any event, it's hard to see the point of encouraging banks to lend more to developers, unless that allows developers to build more housing, which Dr McCartney doesn't believe is necessary.
Planning reforms are therefore the strongest example given by Dr McCartney. I certainly think it should be easier to build housing at all segments of the market, in all locations around the country, than our planning laws currently allow.
Indeed, there is a strong case that 'legalise housing' should be the political clarion call of my generation.
But again, it doesn't make sense to change laws that currently limit the amount of housing that can be built, unless at least part of the goal is to build more housing. –Yours, etc,
DR ALAN EUSTACE ,
Assistant Professor of Private Law,
School of Law,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.
Still talking rubbish
Sir, – Laura O'Mara is asking :Why can we not clean up when leaving a beach during this beautiful weather (Letters, July 15th)?
In the mid-1970s I sent a similar letter to this newspaper with the exact same question, after having spent most of a day on a beach.
And likewise suggested how easy it was to avoid the problem. – Yours, etc,
KAREN HIGGINS,
Mallow,
Co Cork.
Man on a mission
Sir, – Thank you for Joe Humphreys's informative and interesting article on Irish missionaries ('
What did you do if you were young, Irish and idealistic 60 years ago? Join the missions
,' July 14th).
He makes reference to the benign influence of a pioneering Loreto nun on the Kenyan environmentalist, Wangari Maathai; how Bono became an activist as a result of the work of two Spiritan priests and how children's rights were advanced in East Africa by the fearless campaigning of a Mercy sister.
Reflecting on the work of Sr Colombiere Kelly; Fr Jack and Fr Aengus Finucane and Sr Mary Killeen and their promotion of Kingdom values, I am reminded of something the late Pope Paul VI stated in his Encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi:
'The modern world listens more readily to witnesses than it does to preachers.' – Yours, etc,
FR LAURENCE CULLEN,
Geevagh,
Co Sligo.
Medical bodies and Gaza
Sir, – The recent letter from Chris Fitzpatrick concerning attacks on medical staff and infrastructure in Gaza eloquently sets the context for our letter.
We are a group of medical graduates, University of Galway, 1984, who have come together to do what we can to support Gaza, with a focus on the medical aspects.
A month ago we wrote to some of the leading medical organisations in this country. We asked that they would not only issue statements of condemnation of attacks on healthcare workers by the Israel Defense Forces, but that they would also contact equivalent organisations in Israel requesting statements of their position in this regard.
We also asked them to consider severing any academic or formal ties which they have with such organisations. We pointed out that condemnation on its own has achieved nothing.
The Israeli Medical Organisation (IMA) website carries a statement by the World Medical Organisation on a recent Iranian attack on the Soroka medical facility in southern Israel. With absolutely no sense of irony, it quotes the WMA as saying '… any strike on a hospital violates international law'.
This appears to be the only condemnation of such violence cited by the IMA – they are silent on the deliberate targeting of Gazan healthcare facilities and staff by their own military.
We received responses from The Irish Hospital Consultants Association and The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland but not from The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland or the Irish Medical Organisation.
We acknowledge first of all that these organisations have made strong condemnatory statements on the healthcare and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland engages in practical assistance; also that as we are not collectively members or graduates of the various bodies there was no obligation on any of them to provide a response to us.
We write today however to express our dismay that none of the organisations has taken up our suggestion of confronting the IMA or other Israeli medical institutions about their silence. We acknowledge that such action is not necessarily simple and that from their perspective there may be financial and administrative factors to consider.
However, this is overwhelmingly an ethical/moral issue and we believe it is incumbent on our leading medical and higher educational organisations to show leadership.
Therefore, we repeat our call to them to take practical steps to make it clear to their Israeli equivalents that silence in the face of genocide and war crimes has consequences.
Trinity College Dublin is the only Irish academic organisation to have taken such steps and we urge our colleagues in leadership roles in Irish medicine to follow their example. – Yours, etc,
DR ANN MARIE CONNOLLY,
DR MARGARET CONNOLLY,
DR ALEXANDRA DUNCAN,
DR SUSAN FINNERTY,
DR SIOBHAN GRAHAM,
(And five others),
Stillorgan,
Dublin.
Sir, – A week ago , your newspaper was good enough to publish my letter which posed the question:'Could anyone please furnish an instance where anyone has criticised Israel without being accused of being anti-Semitic?'
I thank the former minister for justice, Alan Shatter, for yesterday in front of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, answering the question. ('
Sharp exchanges as Shatter compares trade ban Bill to 1930s Germany
,'July 16th). – Yours, etc,
JOHN CRONIN,
Terenure,
Dublin 6.
Man of letters
Sir, – A very regular letter writer to your august columns was Pádraig McCarthy whom I had the privilege to know. One day I was complimenting him on how many letters he had published and he took me by the arm to say ' you should see how many don't get published'.
Pádraig was a very regular correspondent, usually on moral issues.
What most of your readers will not know was that he was a retired Catholic priest and that he has recently passed away.
His letters were always gentle and succinct. Just as he was himself. A good friend, may he rest in peace. – Yours, etc,
JOHN RYAN,
Sandyford,
Dublin 18.