Letters to the Editor: Why should we pay the licence fee after this?
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As somebody who has paid for a television licence for over 40 years, I am contemplating not renewing my TV licence this year. The only reason I ever paid for it was because it was mandatory, and I listened to threats for decades on RTÉ, where the television licence inspector called to the door (often in the dark of night), and “caught you out” for not having a TV licence. I listened to threats of large fines, including potential imprisonment, if I did not pay, so I paid. There were times it was more difficult than others, and I bought stamps at the post office weekly to ensure that I would not default.
Imagine my outrage to read that Ryan Tubridy was paid over €300,000 more than what RTÉ declared! Now Ryan rigorously interrogated far less articulate people than himself over the airwaves during his long, well remunerated career, yet he offered the explanation that it was “not his business” to understand how RTÉ decided to pay his salary. No teflon tactics can command any credibility that his excess salary went unnoticed. If he was interviewing himself he would not go easy!
Most of the people who have nearly canonised him in recent months earn less per year than the amount he received over his outrageously high annual salary. Shame on you Ryan! Be honest and say you knew you were getting this money, and that you hoped nobody, especially your fans, would find out. We have been your supporters Ryan, because we paid your salary from our licence fee. There is the “letter of the law” and “the spirit of the law”.
Somebody, somewhere in RTÉ made the decision to pay this money to keep Ryan in his well paid position. Along with all the other money we have been conned out of, be assured we will pay several thousand more for a “public enquiry” which will line someone else’s pockets. I am going to boldly suggest that the ordinary person decides to comprehensively withdraw from paying any licence fee whatsoever, until there has been a full, frank, and honest review of all the practices in RTÉ.
The Government ought to support their citizens in this matter. To be honest I can find plenty to amuse me on television without looking at RTÉ at all, some on free channels such as TV3 or whatever it calls itself nowadays.
I have been honest in my dealings with our national broadcaster. They have not reciprocated. They have threatened me to comply, by warning of up to three months in jail, if I did not pay my TV licence. What’s sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander! What consequences will there be for the people who have misappropriated our licence fees?
It’s time we stood up for ourselves and reconsidered not paying licence fees. As Judge Judy says “you must come to the court with ‘clean hands’!” What judge would prosecute us while a bigger crime is unresolved? It would be far more beneficial for our citizens to donate this fee to homeless charities.
Kayren Hayes
Mulberry
Mitchelstown
Some lives seem to be more important
How many people have dwelt upon Orwell’s pigs and their quote: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, this past week?
On Wednesday June 14, 750 people crammed onto a small vessel were thrown into peril off the coast of Greece, and to date, hundreds remain missing.
On Monday, we learnt of five people missing in a submersible in the vicinity of the Titanic.
It seems those five lives are indeed more equal than those who remain missing off the coast of Greece, given the publicity and talk surrounding both events.
What makes the first tragedy even more compounding is the very fact just a few days ago, June 20, was World Refugee Day.
Marie Hanna Curran
Ballinasloe
Co Galway
Nursing home abuse is unacceptable
Regarding the “Emily” report, anyone with a relative or friend in a nursing home today will be enraged and saddened by the media reports of rape and sexual assault on nursing home residents by a staff member. This rocks the very foundation of older person care in Ireland.
I pay tribute to brave Emily, now sadly deceased, whose testimony convicted the perpetrator. It is particularly disturbing to read that some other female residents also made allegations but were not believed or listened to. These women were dismissed on clinical care grounds as staff believed that that they were suffering from confusion, delusion or hallucinations.
The fact that this happened in a HSE-managed home adds to the horror. These families entrusted their loved ones, who are older and vulnerable, to the care of the State. The fact that a state-run residential centre did not follow safeguarding procedures beggars belief.
In my view, the Emily case is yet another example of the utter failure of an outmoded institutional model of care, where people are seen only through the lens of their disability or illness and by the convenience of staff and the priorities of the institution. The fact that this happened during covid, when residents were isolated and separated from family members, is particularly poignant.
It is long past time that our nursing homes, both private and public, adopted a person-centred model of care rooted in human rights and the needs and wishes of the individual resident. This is the system advocated by the WHO and supported by experts in the field, nationally and internationally. This person-centred model of nursing home care is advocated by Hiqa and reflected in the Hiqa national standards for residential care.
Therefore, I question why after 14 years of Hiqa supervision that yet another tragic failure in patient safeguarding is attributed, at least in part, to an outmoded culture and practices. What assurances can the HSE, Hiqa, private nursing home operators, and their representative bodies give that such abuses are not happening in another nursing home here and now? One lesson worth reflecting on is that never again will any nursing home resident be locked away and denied the support and comfort of a relative, friend or advocate, no matter what the circumstances.
Annette Condon
Cashel
Co Tipperary
Mink marauders
It was with some amusement I read John Tierney of the Association of Hunt Saboteurs claim to be the voice of the wild and natural conservation in calling for ban on all hunting of wildlife (“ Conservation Must Include Protection” Irish Examiner online, June 19).
It was self-proclaimed animal rights activists who released the invasive species of mink into our native habitat, some 5,000 alone released in one instance in Donegal in 2010. Views on the wearing of fur may vary, but the dictates of fashion come and go and it is likely mink farms would have been phased out over time anyway. Instead what we now have, thanks to animal activists, is thousands upon thousands of aggressive non-native mink devastating our local species, including many of the ground-nesting birds on the amber list that people like Mr.Tierney claim to be so concerned to protect.
Of course, it is left to traditional trappers and hunters to deal with the mess left by animal activists, and within some of the tightest regulations in Europe. They say the definition of stupidity is to repeat what doesn’t work, so true to form, Mr Tierney would now like to see an end to all hunting or trapping of wildlife, presumably so predators like mink can get on with their work undisturbed.
Are these really the kind of people we want to see in charge of our natural heritage and conservation?
Nick Folley
Carrigaline
The shredding of our Constitution
President Higgins must not be silenced or censored. He is not the servant of the Government, nor is he a political ventriloquist’s dummy.
He clearly has real concerns about the “drift” in Ireland’s foreign policy. He also previously expressed great concerns over the volume of legislation being sent to him to sign. Government has long since stopped listening to and representing the people and is now following a path of virtual diktat.
So too is the peoples’ anxiety regarding the rapid un-debated and unchallenged raft of new legislation being driven through the Oireachtas. A recent example of this is when only 20 out of 160 TDs turned up to a debate!
As a historian and commissioner of oaths, I share a deep concern that many politicians, academics, and others fail to accept that protecting the people’s constitution is a Presidential duty.
We don’t live in a dictatorship. The political grab of power across every aspect of everyday life and the political shredding of our Constitution must stop.
Seosamh O Ceallaigh
Ballyconnell, Falcarragh
Co Dhun na nGall