Sir -- 'I won't take a token cut in my pay: Ahern' -- Sunday Independent November 4, 2007. Some month ago the nurses were asking for a double digit pay increase. The Government's line was, firstly it was not affordable, pay rises had to be matched by increases in productivity and, secondly, such a pay rise would breach the PPF, the partnership agreement.

Now ministers are getting a double digit pay increase, no one is asking whether it is affordable and increases in productivity are seemingly not in the frame.

The real question people would like to ask is why are ministers not subject to these same constraints within the partnership agreements that affects the general population?

Conal Morgan,

Roosky,

Co Leitrim

Sir -- The Irish people, who stupidly voted for that sneering egomaniac of a Taoiseach, and his inept mob, deserve no better.

Without doubt, we are the most ignorant, sheep-like race of people on this planet.

To see unfortunate people dying for want of a hospital bed or proper medical treatment, hospitals being closed, nurses being let off, misdiagnosis of cancer scans etc., is a crime against humanity.

To think that this "gurrier Taoiseach" is now earning more than George Bush, the British Prime Minister, or the French President, for making a complete mess of running this little island, is unbelievable.

Why are the clergy not speaking out from every pulpit in the land, about this outrage? Then it wouldn't be the first time that the clergy turned a blind eye, when working people are being exploited by greedy opportunists.

And where do you leave David Beggs, and his mob, who are supposed to be looking after workers rights?

The workers of Ireland should withdraw their union subscriptions and kick the lot of them out of their soft well paid jobs.

The "crubeen" dictatorship is alive and well, under Ahern and the cabbage party.

Gerry Lloyd,

Co Kildare

Sir -- If these were cases of male breast cancer, the machines and systems would have been sorted out years ago!

Keith Nolan,

Carrick-on-Shannon,

Co Leitrim

Sir -- How many electricians does it take to change a light bulb? None really! I have an elderly aunt who can take the sixty watt out of the box and hey presto, change it in sixty seconds.

Our TEEU friends are surely extracting the urine. Asserting that an electrician must change a lightbulb is like claiming a surgeon should sharpen the scalpel or that a teacher should make a child's lunch! It's nuts.

Gerard Corrigan,

Castletroy,

Limerick

Sir -- We are on the brink of giving legal recognition to "same sex" relationships in Ireland. How nice. Always to the forefront to show how progressive we are.

But we can also conveniently abandon a vital section of society when there are relationship breakdowns, yet this is not a priority in the minds of those we elect to "cherish all equally."

There is a cruel existing reality outside of the new legislation to be introduced, within a year possibly.

A father may be banned from seeing his child under any pretext put before the family law courts, and a zealous young social worker may decide if he does get to visit with his child, it is often with the heartbreak that this meeting will be supervised.

Grandparents do not even rate this "concession" and are nowhere in Irish family law considered as blood relatives to their grandchildren.

They are invisible in the lives of their grandchildren unless they are allowed to be involved by their own children. They have no status in law.

The courts disregard concerned grannys and grandads who desire contact with their grandchildren but can be prevented, again under any pretext or vindictiveness. Our sense of priority is completely up in the air.

Why can we not address through legislation the pain suffered by thousands of Irish men and women who are treated as second class citizens deprived of being involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren?

Name and adress with editor

Sir -- I was astounded to read the letter from Deirdre Hayes of Limerick last Sunday concerning the hitherto unheard-of shadowy group, the DHDG (the Dead Hand of Dublin group), who apparently espouse an anti-Shannon agenda and pervade our government, semi state bodies and some newspapers.

Just to let Deirdre know that many of us here in Dublin have another name for these same people -- the Culchie Mafia.

Tom Egan,

Dublin 14