Letters to the Editor: Sensible steps towards recruiting more teachers
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Alan Whelan writes that 'Ireland’s over-centralised education system is controlled by a central government unable to find commonsense, innovative solutions to soluble problems and unwilling to listen to national parent associations'. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA
My wife and I returned to Ireland some years ago as legal guardians of two young children and we involved ourselves in parent associations of their schools. We quickly concluded that Ireland’s over-centralised education system is controlled by a central government unable to find commonsense, innovative solutions to soluble problems and unwilling to listen to national parent associations.
Having read the victim impact statements made by the family of Ashling Murphy at the sentence hearing of Jozef Puska, this case like other murder cases cries out for life sentence to be just that: life.
Life without parole for someone, who not only is found guilty of murder, but who lies about the circumstances of the murder itself or who fails to give an adequate explanation into their actions. They should never see the light of day ever again.
The focus of Irish Government diplomatic efforts should be with the US government and president Joe Biden. Our immediate focus should be at the UN where we must take the lead in using the mechanism available to the General Assembly to bypass the Security Council veto process.
The procedure is known as ‘uniting for peace resolution’. There are plenty of successful precedents for UN administrations; the UNTAES mission in East Slavonia in Croatia in 1996; the UNTAET in East Timor in 1999 where the UN took over as a temporary government. The UN General Assembly must authorise a UN mission to take over the administration of Gaza — the clear divergence between the US and Israel on this creates a window of opportunity which must be exploited before more ‘facts on the ground’ make it impossible.
The mission will need a substantial military backing, maybe up to 50,000 ‘Blues’ — otherwise the Israeli’s will continue to thwart the UN as they have been doing for decades. There can be no question of allowing Israel to impose full military control over Gaza despite their stated wish to do so.
Reading Séamas O’Reilly’s column (‘Farewell to the incompetence, cruelty, and cringe of Suella’ — Irish Examiner, Weekend, November 18) reminded me of a saying I first heard about 50 years ago: “People go on holiday to London for the changing of the guard and to Paris for the changing of the government.”
How times have changed.
Former prime minister David Cameron has rejoined the UK government as foreign secretary.
I remember Cameron in 2011, along with French president Nicholas Sarkozy, decided to remove Muammar Gaddafi from Libya.
However, how to follow this up? No plan, the same with Tony Blair and US president Bush, and Iraq. Result was, Libya became like Iraq, a broken country.
Hundreds of people on small boats left the Libyan coastline to try and seek refuge in Europe and along the English coastline.
The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak now wants to squeeze them back into Africa via Rwanda.
The process of intentionally ending human life is not simple.
The most common lethal drugs prescribed to ‘assist suicide’ have been very high doses of barbiturates — pentobarbital or secobarbital. However these barbiturates have become scarce/expensive and alternative drug combinations are now being used. In US states where assisted suicide is legal, one drug combination includes diazepam, digoxin, morphine sulfate, and amitriptyline (DMMA).
To euthanise a human being a general anaesthetic is commonly administered first (frequently a barbiturate/sedative such as propofol) to induce unconsciousness. On occasion an anxiolytic (eg, benzodiazepine) is administered prior to the coma-inducing sedative (ie, to mitigate propofol-induced pain if appropriate). A neuromuscular blocking agent is administered after the anaesthetic.
These drugs paralyse all striated muscles, eliminating any movements, both to prevent respiratory effort and to eliminate muscular spasms which could be interpreted as signs of distress by observing relatives, doctor, or nurse. Monitoring the cognitive levels of the person being euthanised presents difficulties.
Internationally, the drugs and doses prescribed or administered to cause the intentional death of a human are not always reported. There are problems of uncontrolled and unregulated experimentation with drug cocktails which have not been monitored and whose mode of action is unclear.
If assisted suicide and euthanasia are being described as a ‘medical procedure’, involving medical professionals such as doctors, pharmacists, and nurses, then the practice must be held to the same standards of any other medical procedure.