Sir — I am writing to you in regard to my daughter and son in law who are looking to buy a family home.
hey are both first-time buyers but are not interested in buying a new home. They want to buy a second-hand home in a town somewhere in the midlands in Ireland — but will be exempt from applying for a first-time buyer’s grant.
Why is it, when we are trying to keep rural Ireland alive, they will be excluded from being able to apply for something that they would be able to do once in their lives?
Rural Ireland is dying on its feet and we should be encouraging people young and old to buy old buildings to do up and not let them all fall to rack and ruin and become these vacant dwellings that we see all over the country.
Indeed they should be encouraged to buy them to regenerate towns and villages all over Ireland. Then perhaps it would encourage businesses to reopen that have all have had to close over recent years. It would also give employment to local building trade.
I call on the Government, the Minister for Housing and the Minister for the Environment to please take this opportunity to address this issue and include it in the current talks for first-time buyers.
Elaine Bryan,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
Sensible rents would ease the problem too
Sir — How is it that so many people feel that the ideal solution to this need is to purchase a house? Do we really need a house all to ourselves?
Would most of us not be happy to have a place of our own, be that owned by us or the council, the State or a co-op, individual landlords or even investment firms? The big question is how do I pay the rent.
If the legislators introduced a solid rule to keep rents at an affordable rate would I be happy?
The many advantages of renting are surely that the upkeep does not add an extra burden on each one of us.
With more densely populated areas, it would be up to the local residents to form a community, to look out for each other and share spaces where young and old can come together. Am I talking Utopia?
Liz Finucane,
Ennis, Co Clare
We already pay to drive on our roads
Sir — Each Sunday I turn to Colm McCarthy’s column in the Sunday Independent, as I regard him as a sound and level-headed commentator, and his approach appeals to a non-party political person such as myself.
However I take issue with his piece last Sunday headlined ‘We need to consider paying to drive on our urban roads’.
As I read this I am looking out the window at the tax disc on our car — for which we had to pay a hefty price to our local authority who maintain our roads.
We also pay property tax and have to pay a private company to collect our refuse. Now we are being asked to pay for water.
Why? To understand this go back to 1977 when in a naked grab for popularity and power Fianna Fáil abolished domestic rates. Everyone saw this as a great relief (Oh, innocence), not realising what the consequences would be.
In innocence I ask: “Would it be possible to bring back domestic rates?”
Brendan Casserly,
Bishopstown, Cork
Send in the turkey to gobble up Eurovision
Sir — Having watched the unadulterated rubbish purporting to be music that qualified for last night’s Eurovision Song Contest, should we either ignore it in the future — or else send Dustin the Turkey again next year to show exactly what we think of them?
Michael O’Connell,
Cleveragh, Listowel, Co Kerry
Fulham Lilywhites and relegation blues
Sir — Your contributor Prof James McDermott in last week’s Sport section stated that Fulham FC had never won a trophy in their 142-year history.
Hold on a moment, Prof.
Fulham won the Second Division and Third Division title twice. They were also twice Southern League Champions, were one of the three Inter Toto Cup winners in 2002 — and in the first 50 or so years of the last century they won the London Challenge Cup, not once, not twice, but three times.
All in all, shocking omissions by Mr McDermott — and him a Fulham season ticket holder and a university professor too.
Tosh Moher,
Glasnevin, Dublin
Each of us is bound by a collective past
Sir — I wish to pay homage to the poignant piece penned last Sunday by Roslyn Dee.
Shamefully I haven’t been back to my beloved south Derry for some considerable time.
I too have Beresford’s battered book on my shelf. I too recall clearly the black flags, the burnt-out Ulster buses and the rest.
I always proudly claim to be from the land of Heaney and Hughes. But now acknowledge that JT McCracken is an intricate part of that land, of our collective past, and that he too should never be forgotten. May they rest in peace.
James McKenna,
Co Wexford
Knockin’ on heaven’s door in the pub
Sir — I greatly enjoyed Declan Lynch’s heartfelt tribute to Bob Dylan in last Sunday’s paper.
I was fortunate to get a particularly Irish Dylan education.
My uncle was a Dylan fanatic and we would listen to Dylan records from the 1960s and 1970s on his old record player.
But from about 1986 our joint education gained a more “live” feel to it, thanks to the residency of the legendary Fleadh Cowboys in Kenny’s pub. Every Tuesday night Pete Cummins (co-founder of the Fleadh Cowboys with Johnny Moynihan) would give his own unique interpretation of at least two songs from Dylan’s back catalogue.
Asked about his musical influences Pete (who once toured with the Minnesota minstrel) gave his simple philosophy: “Dylan, Dylan and f**king Dylan”.
Mark Lawler,
Kilmainham, Dublin 8
A name-change that just protects the elite
Sir — Minister Simon Harris is taking the late Gay Byrne’s “one for everybody in the a udience” giveaway to the extreme by bestowing the title of Technological University on almost every Institute of Technology in the country.
Just as when a host of regional technical colleges were upgraded to ITs in the 1990s, this ‘old wine in new bottles’ ruse keeps the university elite exactly that — elite.
Since that last artificial elevation, Waterford IT has consistently performed to university standard — recognised as the leading institute in Ireland this millennium. Its reward? Instead of promotion to the top flight, Waterford is consigned to a tier of third-lev el mediocrity.
Full university status is meant to close the socio-economic gap between the haves and the have-nots. The minister is not so much spreading the wealth as distributing the crumbs.
Handing out ‘technological’ titles like confetti devalues a designation which, in truth, is much less than the real thing — that being the undiluted university status every Irish city enjoys except Waterford.
This smacks of political patronage and parish pumpism at its most cynical and damaging.
Richard Finnegan,
Dunmore East, Co Waterford
