As a member of the Church of Ireland, I found the spectacle of the funeral of Katy French in St Patrick's church in Enniskerry to be shocking.

I thought it was lacking in quiet dignity and reflection. It became a day for the minor glitterati, for our four wheel drive society.

Katy French was a child of this culture.

Many are sad about what happened to her. But this is surely not the example to be setting the young?

Did anyone talk about what we might learn from Katy's death? Of the type of life she lived which led to her sad early death?

Of the sort of society we have become and what we can do about this? Of the media hype of people like poor Katy?

I have just spent several months in Canada. It is not perfect, but I found it to be liberal country where there is optimism and energy.

Coming home, I find an almost ritualistic form of degeneration. Politics has become centred on a leader who has lost respect, surrounded by followers who lack the will to act. The health system needs reforming yet the health minister seems incapable of improving it.

In Canada, politicians and civil servants resign when shown to be incompetent or corrupt, here they brazen it out. We have political and financial corruption.

All poor examples to our youth, encouraging cynicism and pessimism. Encouraging dropping out on coke.

I have two children working in Toronto where they enjoy a good quality of life. It would surprise me if they return to the sort of society we have become.

Rubber-stamping road toll charges

The hearings on toll charges for the M50, under the auspices of the National Roads Authority, will but serve to rubber stamp this whole issue.

There is clear injustice in the Government's approach to the funding of the development of our motorway network.

It is also the thin edge of the wedge for tolling to come across the whole road network.

In years to come expect more payouts to buy out these new managing companies (as is happening with NTR) when the Government realise they have made more monumental blunders.

It seems we are powerless and must resign ourselves to picking up the tab for all the mistakes of our new oppressors.

In Spain and France and even in the UK you have options to drive on parallel, good-class highways without charge. `

When the people of Westmeath did this on the R148, to avoid the tolled M4, they were slapped with reduced speed limits and degrading of the road.

Wake up NRA and Government. This is your people you are hurting.

Unlike the water charges to schools you can hardly blame this one on the EU, Bertie, and in fact is it to the EU we have to take it to get this injustice properly heard.

Punishing the low-polluters

In this age of benchmarking, when the Government is supposed to be making the Civil Service more efficient, it announces plans to create a new road tax regime that is going to operate in parallel with the existing, engine capacity-based scheme.

Does this make any sense?

My 2006 car has its official CO2 figure clearly stated in section V7 of its vehicle registration cert.

Why can't this be put on the new scheme? Also, any car that has had an NCT will have its actual CO2 figure recorded.

Why not transfer these to the new scheme?

Eventually the capacity-based regime will die out.

As it is, people with low-polluting cars will see their trade-in values diminish,as they won't benefit from the new tax scheme; while people with old gas-guzzlers will see their vehicles increase in value as they will cost less to run than equivalent new models.

Also, under what scheme will second-hand imports be taxed on?

I suspect that this idea has not been thought through fully.

'Green' motor tax is a joke

Has nobody realised the CO2- based motor tax is a joke? It has nothing to do with engine efficiency or the environment.

Engine efficiency is all about using the smallest amount of fuel over a set distance. The motor tax is a flat-rate regardless of the amount of fuel used or CO2 produced over a distance.

This is the Government merely pretending to do something 'green'. This tax does nothing for the environment. The amount of CO2 released from a car is based more on how you drive then the size of the engine. The manufacturer performs the test to find out the emissions under EU-set lab conditions and not a real world environment. A little 1.1 which is driven hard releases a huge amount of emissions, far above that of the manufacturer's figure, and is also highly inefficient, which brings us on to taxing fuel.

Taxing fuel is the only way to logically implement an environmentally based tax system. The more inefficient your car, the more fuel you use, the more tax you pay. This will never happen for two reasons.

1. Public transport in this country is rubbish.

2. Average Joe would be affected by the tax more than the wealthy.

Also taxis, commercial vehicles, government vehicles and so on would be hit by the tax and that's a big no as it would upset too many people.

A word of warning to all those people out there that think the new system is great because they only have to pay a few hundred a year: the tax will increase if the revenue falls off.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Shame for axing the 'granny' ad

While not exactly a young whipper-snapper myself, I think the pulling of the Meteor TV advertisment, depicting a granny and a tea cosy, is ridiculous.

Political correctness gone mad, I believe, is the phrase. Is there no fun left in our compliant and hypocritical society?

The ad shows the granny giving as good as she gets in a contrived comical scene. It's not real life. Is this not understood by folk purporting to speak for those of pension age?

Where has lightheartedness gone? I know older people who love the spirit of the old lady in the ad, viewing it as a harmless bit of craic.

The real abuse of the aged comes not from a mildy amusing phone ad, but from the attitudes both on an official and societal level.

There is 'encouragement' from economists and others for older citizens to consider parting with huge chunks of their life savings and property in order to hurry up the 'inheritance' which relatives may feel a right to.

This while the granny and granddad are still hale and hearty. This pressure which the young and trendy 'entitlement generation' are invited to foster is causing great friction in society and genuine fear among the aged population.

ROBERT O'SULLIVAN,

Putting teenagers

on the right path

Is it time to sit up and give attention to the teenagers' cry for help and understanding?

(Irish Independent, December 13). The survey conducted by Ms Gurnee raised several alarms we cannot turn a deaf ear to. One in three binge-drink, one in six are lonely and depressed, one in 10 'might just give up' because they cannot cope any more. Surely these are revelations that need to be addressed sooner, not later.

The report suggests providing counselling and 'coping' courses for all Irish teenagers. Yes, there is a place for this. But more importantly, would one not agree that prevention is better than cure? We all know the early years of a child's life are formative years. We should then start to inculcate values of self-worth, one's identity, faith, etc to them before they step into the teenage years.

A survey was once conducted with 350 missionaries of various nationalities, aged 18 to 65. nine out of 10 indicated they had come to a faith in Jesus before they were 12 years old. The fact that today they are missionaries does not mean they are without any of the challenges faced by Irish teenagers, loneliness, depression and poor self-image. It gives us a hint that their faith in Jesus has given them coping skills to deal with life's challenges from youth to old age.

- WILFRID ROAD, DUBLIN 6W