Letters: Soft sentences fail to act as deterrent, so it’s time a life term meant jail for rest of a criminal’s days

Does an increase from five years to seven years for specific knife crimes send out a message? I don’t think so. This is a political stunt designed to play to the cheering galleries.

Crime is a disease spread by un-well minds. It needs a preventative cure. We must fight the disease at source.

This means introducing real sanctions, such as life imprisonment for people who choose to commit deplorable crimes.

Put an end to these fake life sentences. At least give them a different name, because they are not life sentences. Life should mean life.

Long-lasting prevention comes with a vaccine. This means investing in children and young adults.

Education and training programmes that give people a pathway to work opportunities can be game-changers.

Prevention also means investing in security – specifically, more gardaí on the streets.

Aidan Roddy, Cabinteely, Dublin 18

Class-based politics played a part in delayed justice for Stardust victims’ families

Justice would have been served much earlier if the Stardust tragedy had happened in a more affluent part of Dublin.

This is the sad reality. May the 48 rest in peace.

Paul Doran, Dublin 22

Justice at last is vindication of families’ unwillingness to stop fighting for the 48

I want to congratulate the families of the Stardust deceased for the courage and tenacity they have shown for 43 years.

There is a lovely saying from a classic movie called The Winslow Boy. Robert Donat, playing the solicitor acting for a boy accused of stealing in school, says: “Let right be done.”

Finally, right has been done for the families of the 48 people killed in Stardust nightclub disaster.

Brian McDevitt, Glenties, Co Donegal

Need to move away from greenhouse gases has never been more urgent

Analysis by World Weather Attribution has revealed that the protracted heatwave in the Sahel region of Africa this month would have been impossible without human-made climate change.

Mali registered the hottest day in its history on April 3, with a temperature of 48.5C. The analysis also revealed that maximum temperatures in Burkina Faso and Mali had been made 1.5C and 2C hotter, respectively, by climate change.

The burgeoning area of extreme event attribution (also known as attribution science), which measures how climate change causes or exacerbates extreme weather events, is crucially important in showing causative links between climate change and extreme weather events.

It will also help counter the dangerous disinformation emitted by greenhouse gas-intensive industries and their agents.

According to the Carbon Majors Database, which is compiled by world-renowned researchers, only 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80pc of global CO2 emissions since the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate.

Agriculture, fossil-fuel production and the management of waste are the primary sources of methane emissions. Additionally, agriculture is the main source of nitrous oxide emissions.

If we are to prevent catastrophic climate change, we need to wean ourselves off our toxic addiction to greenhouse gases. It behoves govern­ments around the world to accept the evidence and take the necessary actions to steer us away from the path to ruin.

Rob Sadlier, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

US obstruction of official recognition for Palestine tells its own murky story

The United States has blocked Palestine from becoming a member of the United Nations by virtue of its veto. Britain, which is one of the five permanent members, abstained.

Effectively, this means denying recognition of statehood to the long-suffering people of Palestine.

While the test for statehood involves several legal criteria, it is essentially a very political act.

Statehood recognition takes place by virtue of two general theories.

The first is constitutive, which means statehood is granted by other existing states by virtue of their will and consent. The other is “the declaratory theory”, where statehood is granted by virtue of the practical realities on the ground.

The world should ignore the US and Britain and follow the Kosovo model. Kosovo is recognised by the majority of countries, but its statehood is still denied by Russia, Serbia, Spain and Greece.

Kosovo functions as a nation despite being denied entry to the UN. It hopes to eventually join the EU.

Britain should not lecture the rest of the world on the legalities of statehood.

In the Spanish Civil War, from 1936 to 1939, they first recognised the government on the republican side.

When Franco began gaining the upper hand, Britain switched sides, giving Franco de facto recognition.

Britain again adopted a wait-and-see approach when Italy invaded Ethopia in the 1930s.

This gave a fascist invasion de facto recognition in 1936 and de jure (legally recognised) status two years later.

The US also has a shameful record of defending rogue regimes in Latin America.

We are now at a point where the US and Israel are becoming isolated on the world stage.

The UN needs to get a grip by first sending a peace-keeping force to Israel and Palestine. It should set up a temporary government for the day-to-day administration of the Gaza Strip while setting a five-year time line for the creation of a new state of Palestine.

If the US tries to block this, the civilised world should turn its back on it.

Joseph Kiely, Letterkenny, Co Donegal

Successive governments failed most vulnerable in our society – sick children

Thursday’s editorial (‘Our children deserve better than having to wait for cancer care’, April 18) was a sad commentary on the way our most vulnerable children – those with a cancer diagnosis – are being treated by our health services.

The editorial hit the nail on the head. This sentence stood out: “How we view, value and cherish the youngest and most susceptible members of our society has to be the most honest hallmark of our humanity.”

The leader of the main opposition party, Mary Lou McDonald, speaking in the Dáil, said 800 chemotherapy appointments for children were cancelled last year alone.

Our new Taoiseach, Simon Harris, is adamant that services are improving. He assured parents “that they live in a country that has really good cancer-care outcomes”.

Cancer specialists tell us the sooner cancer is detected and treated, the quicker the patient recovers.

This current situation is not the fault of our cancer consultants, doctors and nurses. They are doing their best to overcome shortfalls in our hospitals. They are also trying to overcome the many shortcomings in the health system that have been tolerated by several governments.

The current situation is a major failure of government – past and present. How has it come to this?

Tom Towey, Cloonacool, Co Sligo

Latest price increase by brewing giants nudges Irish pub closer to ruin

Guinness (Diageo) and Heineken have confirmed they are increasing the price of their product.

The cost of living is already through the roof. More and more businesses are closing due to spiralling costs. So why are they piling more pressure on?

Publicans are feeling the pressure from increased Vat, increased minimum wage and high electricity costs. And now this. What is left for the publican to pay himself or herself?

Ireland, and Dublin in particular, is being ridiculed for being too expensive. Why would tourists come here with our exorbitant prices and lack of accommodation? They certainly won’t be visiting for the weather.

The Irish pub and the craic was our unique selling point, but now the locals can’t even afford it.

My hard-earned cash will not be going towards supporting multinationals. I am much happier to support local breweries such as Ballykilcavan, who actually give back.

J Bennett, Co Laois