Climbing’s a reach for me in Mickey Mouse Olympics
AS A keen sports supporter, I am finding it difficult to get enthusiastic about the 2020 Olympic Games. That is mainly because of the Covid issues, lack of spectators and the Mickey Mouse events involved.
Climbing is one of the latest to join the latter category. If Ireland was allowed put forward suggestions for new ‘sports’ to be included, disciplines such as marbles, rounders and snakes and ladders could be submitted for consideration.
Like many others, because of the health dangers, I feel the Games should have been scrapped. The competitions are getting massive television and radio coverage and while wishing the Irish competitors all the best, I will not be tuning in as much as in past Olympics.
Eric Rice, Navan, Co. Meath.
Save our Jobs Clubs
THE Local Employment Service and Jobs Clubs which have served the long-term unemployed across Ireland for 25 years will cease imminently.
The Government plans to replace them with a new forprofit service that is not supported by any stakeholder group or research body in
Ireland. It transfers risk from the State to community organisations who exist to maximise social rather than shareholder value. It excludes large parts of the population e.g. carers, lone parents and all those seeking a way out of precarious and lowpaid employment.
This State has effective mechanisms in place through social dialogue to achieve consensus on intractable political and economic problems. It is not too late to bring together the stakeholders of employment services to determine a model of changed service that works.
Until that happens, the December deadline which will close these offices must be withdrawn.
Jim Finn, Chairperson, Irish Local
Development Network,
Turned on to issue
YOUR reporter Nicola Byrne wrote an article (MoS, July 18) on the experiences of people taking staycations here. I would like to pass on my bad experience of a person providing such accommodation.
Last July shortly after the lockdown was lifted we got a booking from a Dublin party for a week here in Connemara. These people were very pleasant and assured us they would be bringing their own sanitiser.
On the day they left I noticed a broken light switch with the middle having fallen out and put it down to some odd mishap with their children. However, on inspecting other rooms I could see other switches ready to fall apart. To date, one year later I am still finding broken switches and have replaced about 20 of them.
The problem has been the liberal use of sanitiser on them. It weakens the bakelite-like material inside the switch that houses the metal contacts and subsequent pressure then breaks support structures of the bakelite. Last week I had an electrician from Northern
Ireland come to stay and he told me he had experienced the same effect with sanitiser on electrical equipment (think shop scales etc). I now have a sign asking all guests not to use sanitiser on switches.
John Hughes, Coalpark,
Clonbur, Co. Galway
Russian gas on way
PRESIDENT Biden was seen castigating Chancellor Angela Merkel in mid-July, for her supporting the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – which will connect Russia with Germany – for the transmission of such fuel from Siberian gas fields.
This extra supply of natural gas will make many parts of Europe quite dependent on Russia for much of the energy requirements of EU countries and customers.
Meanwhile, Green Party members of the Coalition are promoting their climate action ideologies by standing against the building of a natural gas import terminal and preventing the search for natural gas off our coastline. This is while natural gas has been supplying around 60% of Ireland’s electricity generation – and indeed wind generation has been below 5% of our daily electrical power needs – over the past week or so.
It should be pointed out that indigenous sources of gas that have been available are fast running out. Kinsale’s gas fields are fully depleted and Corrib, off Mayo, has just a few years of useful natural gas supply remaining.
Much of the natural gas that Ireland will need in the near future will have to be sourced from the EU gas network, which will mean Russian gas.
Such entities will include US companies that set up shop in Ireland. Maybe someone should inform President Biden about the future dependence of Ireland on Russian gas, as the IDA continues to persuade other American companies and data centres to establish themselves in Ireland.
Tom Baldwin, Midleton, Co. Cork.