Sir, - An "animal-welfare conscious" EU (The Irish Times, June 15th) has decided to improve the lot of the battery hen by the year 2013, a move supported by our own Minister, Mr Walsh. It is a decision which no doubt resonates with junior doctors, who have also been striving for a humanisation of their working conditions, and who also must wait until 2013.
The granting to junior doctors of parity of esteem with the battery hen is a move to be warmly applauded, and is surely designed by Minister Cowen to lift spirits within our demoralised health service. - Yours, etc., Dr Conor Shields,
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth.