Crumbling sewer pipes
Sir, – The decrepit state of Dublin’s water infrastructure has been well documented in recent years, with Uisce Éireann launching a major pipe-remediation programme to stem the 30 per cent of treated water that leaks away.
But there is another network of piping infrastructure beneath the city and its suburbs that receives far less media coverage, although it is equally degraded and injurious to public health.
With the proliferation of house extensions and the construction of in-fill houses in suburban gardens, the earthenware sewer pipes laid under streets and gardens between 1900 and 1960 must now handle foul-waste capacities far in excess of those for which they were designed.
The material itself is brittle and through a combination of age, nearby excavation, and overhead building, many of these foul drains are broken or collapsing. This results in partial or complete blockage and infestation with vermin. Residents report overflow of manholes in gardens, overflowing toilets in houses and rats appearing in toilets, each of which represents a major risk to public health.
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Where foul drains run under public streets or lands, Uisce Éireann may get involved in the repair and replacement of collapsed pipes but where they run under the gardens of private houses, all residents of the road or terrace are together responsible for maintenance and repairs. With so many parties involved, co-ordinating the repairs between all residents of the line is prohibitive so individual residents may have their own section patched. However, with multiple breaks individual patches may deliver no meaningful improvement.
In rural areas, where housing has developed with sceptic tanks, the Department of Housing & Environment provides grant funding to incentivise the creation of group sewerage schemes to regularise sewerage into mains for proper treatment.
However, no such incentive schemes are offered in urban or suburban areas, where higher population densities mean the risks to public health are even greater.
Nobody would argue against incentivising better private sanitation to protect the public and environmental health of our countryside but shouldn’t the same principle apply in more densely populated settings? – Your etc,
Cllr JOHN HURLEY
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
Tackling educational disadvantage
Sir, – It is with a certain flair and finesse that Dr Brian Fleming and Prof Judith Harford throw down the gauntlet to Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, on two issues that they see the Minister should address without delay – educational disadvantage and the teacher supply crisis ("Two issues the new Minister should address without delay”, Education, February 25th).
Taking just the first of these issues, the UCD duo give an astute assessment of the limitations of the DEIS plan as a response to educational disadvantage.
Following her recent appointment, Ms McEntee identified educational disadvantage as one of her priorities. This is very much welcome and she should be consoled that a lot of the ground work has already been done to assist her in this area.
Back in 2002, there was considerable interest in and enthusiasm about the Educational Disadvantage Committee (EDC) when it was established. During its three-year life, the committee produced four written submissions to the Minister for Education as well as a report from the forum. The submissions covered a variety of topics, including how educational disadvantage might be identified and defined for the purpose of targeting resources.
In fact, Dr Fleming, Prof Harford and another eminent educationalist, Prof Emeritus Áine Hyland, wrote a paper a few years ago reflecting on 100 years of educational policy in Ireland in which they adeptly described the missed opportunities associated with the EDC and its reports in tandem with the introduction of the DEIS plan.
Fleming, Harford and Hyland state that, at senior levels in the Department of Education, the existence of an expert group on educational disadvantage with statutory authority was not viewed with enthusiasm. This became absolutely clear when an announcement by the Government came in 2008 that a formal statutory committee was no longer required to advise on education and disadvantage.
The work of the EDC was not recognised in any formal way. Almost none of the report’s recommendations were implemented, and educational disadvantage was quietly taken off the agenda of the Department of Education.
If the new Minister for Education really wishes to prioritise educational disadvantage then it is time for her to do her homework and excavate the reports and the recommendations from the EDC. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. – Yours, etc,
JOHN McHUGH
Principal, Ardscoil Rís,
Griffith Avenue,
Dublin 9.
Ukraine’s minerals
Sir, – Not only has Russia invaded Ukraine taking huge swathes of land but now Trump wants to sign a deal to rob Ukraine of its natural resources including coal and rare earth metals.
The proposed deal by Trump will only serve to compound Ukraine’s losses and destroy the country for future generations to come.
Trump has no allegiance to Ukraine; the absence of any security guarantees makes the deal worthless. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD COFFEY
Terenure,
Dublin 6.
Trump’s America
Sir, – So Michael McDowell thinks the grotesque reality of Trump’s ambitions has exceeded the worst predictions (”Could Trump run as Vance’s running mate?” Opinion, February 26th).
I beg to disagree.
Within weeks of coming to office Trump has effectively ended a three-year unwinnable war involving a major nuclear power that has cost a million lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
The idea that he’s enabling Putin’s ambitions elsewhere in eastern Europe is risible nonsense – it’s taken him three years of feeding the bodies of Russian and North Korean soldiers into the meat grinder to just achieve near stalemate in a single region of one country.
And even Trump’s very threat of him coming to office has forced Hamas to release hostages, alive and dead, in the Middle East.
He’s also finally persuaded Europe, via Nato, to meet their agreed responsibilities to finance their own defence – something successive US presidents have consistently failed to do.
Domestically he has virtually sealed off the flood of illegal migrants across the Mexican border, deported armed and dangerous criminals, and is now engaged in a comprehensive defenestration of his country’s bloated federal government.
All this has been achieved in less than six weeks and the contrast with the inept Biden administration is stark.
Trump was elected on a promise to look after America’s interests first and he’s carrying out that promise to voters. You never know, it might even catch on with politicians over here. – Yours etc
KEN ANDREW
Cobh,
Co Cork.
Dáil speaking rights
Sir, – Tariffs loom large with the resulting possibility of an economic downturn, a war rages in Ukraine and instability remains in the middle-east.
Domestically, our health service and issues of homelessness continue to present challenges while in the midst of this, the opposition continues to whine about Dáil speaking rights.
They are starting to give Nero a good name. – Yours, etc,
NEVILLE SCARGILL
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Government TDs get to ask as many questions as they like at their private parliamentary meetings every week! They can make contributions that are not time restricted, on any topic they care to identify.
In addition, they have unfettered access to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and all of the Government Ministers, which may provide them with information that may never be available to other members of the Dáil.
How are they being penalised by the allocation of speaking rights? – Yours, etc,
DIARMUID O’CINNEIDE
Garryowen,
Limerick.
Reviving the Irish language
Sir, – In the1950s and 1960s, hundreds of family members from the Connemara Gaeltacht had to emigrate to England and the US to seek employment. Most did not have a word of English. A woman working in the buffet at Ceannt Station, Galway, during this time told me how sad it was to see them all heading off on the train while their relations and friends stood on the platform waving them off with tears in their eyes, maybe never to see them again.
Maybe the battle to save the Irish language died in those years. Patrick Pearse declared “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam, A country without a language is a country without a soul.” Has Ireland lost its soul? Have we traded Ireland’s soul for 30 pieces of silver?
Nowadays there are all sorts of government grants and funding to promote the Irish language, creating jobs in the process. In Gaeltacht areas most of these high-end jobs are not given to the native Irish speakers, they are given to those with “Book Irish” coming from outside the Gaeltacht areas.
These Connemara areas were treated with a sheer lack of urgency during and after the devastation of the recent Storm Éowyn. This is evidence of how little value we place on our real native speakers who live in this beautiful area which frequently takes the brunt of wild gales during winter months.
A country’s language survives because the ordinary “Seán agus Shelia” love it, and love to speak it. It has nothing to do with funding or lack of funding. After all, the Danes have held on to the Danish language without funding. – Yours etc,
NUALA NOLAN
Bowling Green,
Galway.
A cabin in the garden
Sir, – This Government appears to be panicking in the face of the recent revelation about inaccurate housing completion numbers for 2024.
So, to keep us all guessing and distracted, a kite is flown about sheds in the garden. This may be a useful temporary initiative but is not a serious response to an emergency.
There is an effective intervention that is yet to be implemented; the short-term lets regulation. If implemented, up to 12,000 accommodation units could be released for long-term lets or to the residential housing market. Its implementation has been delayed for a number of years, most recently by the European Union in its requirement to harmonise short-term lettings regulation across the EU. As I understand it, this obstacle has now been removed. Instead of flying kites, the Government could show us some proof of its intention to resolve the housing crisis by implementing this legalisation with immediate effect. – Yours, etc,
AILBHE MURRAY
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
Death of Bik McFarlane
Sir, – The tributes paid by the Sinn Féin leadership,, North and South, on the death of Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, a convicted IRA terrorist and murderer, confirm the total unsuitability for such a political party becoming part of a government in the Republic of Ireland.
They should repudiate the tarnished past of their military wing that is the IRA before aspiring to become part of the government of the democracy that is the Irish republic. – Yours etc,
ADRIAN HONAN,
Portarlington,
Co Laois.
Traveller and Roma communities
Sir, – The recent report from The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe as highlighted by your newspaper today (”‘Structural’ racism hinders Travellers’ rights – report”, Home News, Wed 26th) is again another damning indictment in how we treat the Roma and Traveller communities. To say that “Structural Racism” hinders access to basic rights for the aforementioned casts a horrible reflection on us all.
I am ashamed to say that my Government treats people in this way. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DORAN
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
