Letters: Brexit is a loss-maker for the UK, but Ryanair is flying high

Analysts suggest the UK economy is now 5.5% less than pre-2021.

The only growth area seems to be in duty-free sales on ferries and “planes to and from the EU”. Ryanair and IAG must be laughing at the, unintended, irony.

David Ryan

Drumree, Co Meath

If landlords were listened to, we wouldn’t have this crisis

Paul Murphy’s recent call for landlord TDs to recuse themselves from voting on rental legislation is the latest attempt to strip landlords of any say in legislation directly affecting them.

Had legislators like Murphy listened to landlords over the course of many years, we would not be in a situation where there is a race to exit the market. Indeed, most landlords will tell you (including a soon-to-be former one like myself) that overly excessive rules and regulations and the largely pointless taxation of landlords makes the effort of being one no longer worth it.

Stripping them of a voice will succeed in only one thing, driving more landlords out of the market and increasing homelessness – a problem which landlords have done more than any other sector of society to prevent.

Name and address with the Editor

Give us solutions to climate change, not a list of problems

While listening to a current-affairs radio programme recently, the following question was asked of a climate change expert: “If all the glaciers and ice caps in the world were to melt, how much would the sea level rise by?”

The answer shocked me. I was expecting him to say “about three or four metres”. To my horror, the answer was 70 metres. That’s 10 metres higher than Liberty Hall in Dublin.

But all of those scientists keep telling us the consequences of climate change, but they never come up with an answer themselves to solve the problem.

It’s always the Joe Soaps that have to prevent climate change.

“Stop burning turf, stop using your car, reduce your herd size” and so on. These scientists are being paid to solve problems, not just telling us how bad things are going to get “if we don’t toe the line”.

They can send rockets to Mars and spend billions of dollars doing so. With all the technology available to scientists nowadays and all the automated intelligence where cars can drive themselves, surely it can’t be rocket science to desalinate sea water, if sea levels are rising too much, and pump it to desert countries that have no water.

Martin Heneghan

Dublin 3

Bilderberg-type approach to ending war is what’s needed

It seems to me that the Ukraine crisis will certainly not be resolved by megaphone or handbags-at-dawn philosophy.

Wasn’t it not in 1990 – after a meeting of the highly influential and secretive Bilderberg Group, held in Versailles – that former French president Valery Giscard D’Estaing, David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski were tasked with taking a late-night flight to Moscow to ask then Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev to allow free and open elections in Poland which was the precursor to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gorbachev had embraced the Antonio Gramsci principles of giving the masses so much freedom that eventually they will be crying out for control.

This year, as far as I am aware, the Bilderbergers will be meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.

Given that the future of Europe and ultimately the world is at stake, surely high-powered delegates from Russia and Ukraine should also be invited, where a ceasefire and compromise could be thrashed out under the Chatham House rules.

John Finegan

Bailieborough, Co Cavan

Why we should welcome the coronation of King Charles

The forthcoming coronation of King Charles next Saturday has caused some stir here in Ireland.

Some of us frown at the idea of accepting an invitation to such an event.

We must remember, however, that it’s only manners to welcome good news to our neighbours.

After all, the future king already has the keys to our back door, so it would be no harm to greet him with a cup of tea if he drops in for visit some day.

Leo Gormley

Dundalk, Co Louth