Letters: Steady decline in west of Ireland must be arrested as a matter of urgency

The decision to downgrade the diocese of Killala and Achonry brings an end to an Ireland we once knew.

I’m not a great follower of religion any more, but the sense of belonging and community is constantly being stripped away.

Mayo, with its nine baronies and 73 parishes, is now minus a bishop. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a huge hill of beans.

However, on another level, it is further confirmation of the steep decline of the west.

Simon Harris tells rural Ireland he has their back. I’m not sure what that means. On the street, we see policing in the form of random patrol cars, the closure of post offices and our hospitals downgraded.

Empty buildings are now to be repurposed for those who seek refuge here, but the required infrastructure is not in place.

It seems even the Pope has given up on the west. So it’s over to you, Simon. Can you build your new government on a western rock?

Johnny Cuffe, Co Meath

Harris should focus on helping those who need it most while he is in top job

Suggestions that new Taoiseach Simon Harris can make a huge difference and improve the lives of all are straining credibility.

He might get 300 days in the top job. It will be nigh impossible to improve the lives of all in that short time.

Perhaps our enthusiastic young Taoiseach understandably fell into that grand acceptance-speech trap of sounding great, polished and JFK-like.

I would suggest he looks no further than seeking to improve the lives of those at the bottom in such a short period.

It is shocking to consider that total government expenditure has almost doubled in the last 10 years and still we are not happy. Improving all lives has not been prioritised.

The time for grand speeches is when a leader leaves office having achieved much. As Robert Frost wrote: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18

New Taoiseach appears to impress people he meets, but now must help them

In the complimentary assessment of new Taoiseach Simon Harris’s rise to the top job (‘“He was so articulate and yet he was only 17” – how Simon Harris showed potential for politics from young age’, Irish Independent, April 11), a former president of Wicklow Rotary, Seamus Parle, reached for the words of poet Maya Angelou.

Mr Parle did this to underscore his obvious admiration for Mr Harris, telling us that those who meet him will never forget how he “made them feel”.

It has been a week when the commonly-held view that Fine Gael and Mammon are joined at the hip was reinforced.

We were reminded of the “monetary cost” of reunification. Additionally, we were informed that Germans criticising Ireland’s housing crisis were motivated by jealousy of our economy.

May I take the opportunity to also quote Maya Angelou in the hope that Mr Harris’s government might shift ideologically to a more people-centred agenda.

“I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.”

Jim O’Sullivan, Rathedmond, Sligo

Rental income kept me off the streets, but paying tax on it felt wholly unfair

Correspondence from Jim Cosgrove (Letters, April 10) and Anne Marie Flanagan (April 9 ) is most welcome. The importance of support services and access issues for disabled people cannot be overstated. However, I would like to highlight another issue that has affected me.

I refer to unintentional discrimination due to anomalies in the law, particularly relating to taxation.

I had to have a leg removed in 2012, and as a result my home, which I had bought at the height of the boom in 2006, became inaccessible to me. It was on the second floor of a building with no lift.

I could not afford to sell the place as it had fallen considerably in value and I had a large outstanding mortgage on it. As a result, I could not afford to buy again and I had to find a new place to rent.

I let my own home with the inten­tion of funding my rent with this income. The rental income, therefore, was clearly not of any financial benefit, apart from preventing me from becoming homeless.

But this cut no ice with the Revenue Commissioners. I was receiving rental income from a property and I had to pay tax on it. That was the law.

An approach to the then-finance minister only elicited a stonewalling response. I eventually sold the property for 56pc of what I paid for it.

The law clearly needs to be changed.

Sean O’Donnell, Ardee, Co Louth

Israeli ‘operation’ in Gaza so despicable that America can no longer play dumb

Israel has dropped so much American ordinance on Gaza that it now exceeds the explosive force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

More children have been killed in Gaza than were killed in all war zones in the entire world in the past four years. No conflict of any size in history has been this deadly to journalists, healthcare workers and paramedics.

So stated the two American surgeons, Dr Mark Perlmutter and Dr Feroze Sidhwa, who have been volunteering in Gaza since March 25.

I am adding my voice of protest to American arming of Israel and to the genocide in Gaza.

Brendan Brady, Oldcastle, Co Meath

Olympics should be all about heroic feats – leave money out of the equation

It used to be 30 pieces of silver to sell out, but now, at the Olympics, it is $50,000 if you win gold. The motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger” does not include better-paid, nor should it.

The Olympics have changed over time, with some sports, including pigeon shooting and rope climbing, being consigned to the past. In their place we have BMX riding, skateboarding and surfing, all of which will feature in Paris this year.

There seems to be an almost desperate effort to renew interest in a competition that is still popular anyway. The prize money goes against the basic premise of the Games, even though many countries already pay the winners.

It used to be all about representing your country to your best ability. Eddie the Eagle showed you don’t have to come first to be a winner.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia

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