Sir, - Dr Hitchcock of Roscam (May 15th) implies a conflict between funding for Teilifis na Gaeilge and the provision of £60m for a new hospital in Galway, not to mention funding for basic requirements such as hospital beds.
Many would agree with Dry Hitchcock that our health services have been let run down over the last few years. But can one keep health and culture in mutually exclusive categories? Is it appropriate to represent the matter as health versus culture? What about mental health? Since the 1960s there has been an alarming increase in suicide among young men, in the smaller and peripheral areas of Europe, areas where regional and national identities have been under threat. In these areas the difficulty of establishing a personal identity has been aggravated by a weakening in the stabilising influence of family, religion, and ethnic culture. It would be foolish to underestimate the cultural role of television today.
What exactly is Dr Hitchcock suggesting? Not so long ago viewers of RTE and Network 2 could be assured of a programme in Irish, six nights a week, excluding the news. Much of this was current affairs, but more recently attempts were made to cater for those interested in cooking, the arts and music. These programmes used to be dropped during the summer months. Does nobody speak Irish during the summer? Cursai Reatha is now reduced to one night a week. It is to be hoped, if Teilifis na Gaeilge get the 2-3 hours per night they have been assured, that they will attempt to make retribution for the demotion of Irish on RTE and Network 2 over the years.
If Teilifis na Gaeilge is a luxury, then surely most of what RTE and Network 2 broadcast is in the "same category? Is anybody likely to die or suffer unduly for want of The Late Late Show, Glenroe, Fair City, The X Files, Star Trek, etc., etc? Do we really need aliens, mutants, Australian soaps, and demented dimension hopping? Teilifis na Gaeilge is being opposed for the same reason other areas of the national culture have, been defunded over the years. It is not felt to be moronic enough.
What about all the ideological quangos in the health area that receive tax payer or lottery funding? The national fecundity rate has gone below replacement level, and yet it is government policy to provide "a comprehensive family planning service", and abortion referral through certain clinics. Could this money not be redirected towards beds for stroke victims, for example? - Yours, etc.,
Beaufort Downs, Rathfarnham Village, Dublin 14.