No, wait, I spoke too soon…

Turns out the Irish Times Letters Page is in flying form today:

CHURCH & DA VINCI CODE

Madam, - Rev Angus Stewart (May 23rd) devotes six paragraphs to debunking “facts” in The Da Vinci Code. I watched the movie at the weekend and enjoyed it, but I feel Rev Stewart’s efforts were entirely unnecessary.

After watching Star Wars I didn’t need anyone to tell me that the events depicted didn’t actually occur a long time ago in a galaxy far away. - Yours, etc,

Michael Moriarty

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PUBLIC SERVICE DECENTRALISATION

Madam, - If Fás moves to Birr - a pretty town but very small - what will happen to the unemployed public who depend on it for training? Most unemployed people live in Dublin. How could they get to Birr, which doesn’t even have a railway station? For sheer daftness, the idea is surpassed only by the proposal to move the Department of the Marine to Cavan, a landlocked county about as from the sea as you can get.

Gilbert and Sullivan, where are you now when we need you? - Yours, etc,

Gráinne Farren

My letter of the day…

FUNDING EDUCATION

Madam, - Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has informed us that the Government is spending billions of euro on the education system, and yet there is little evidence of this.

The Minister announced recently that between 2000 and 2006 €2.5 billion will have been spent on infrastructure in thousands of schools. Yet schools are still raising funds for basic equipment. In the past two weeks I have had children call to my home seeking sponsorship and I have had my bags packed in my local supermarket by children all raising funds for school equipment. This is something that I would expect in an impoverished society, not one of the most successful economies in Europe. Yet this is accepted as the norm.

Another facet of this chronic long-term under-resourcing of public education is the acceptance that supermarket chains can provide computers and PE equipment for schools. If the State was doing what the Minister claims - properly funding the Irish education system - there would be no need for this. One does not need a sophisticated inquiry to see that education needs significantly more resources. Teachers, students and parents should not have to divert themselves from the business of education and learning to raise money for what should form part of a publicly funded education system. - Yours, etc,

JOHN FARRELL,

Member, TUI national executive committee,