Questions are again being raised regarding conflicts of interest by Teagasc, our State advisory body, in relation to the Dublin Declaration. Teagasc hosted this conference in Dublin in 2022 at a cost of €45,000 to the Irish taxpayer. Much of the thinking and framework underpinning this conference have been refuted in a significant, evidence-based analysis recently published by independent scientists.
Independent is the key word.
The Dublin Declaration Scientists from the meat industry argued that we need to “keep eating meat to be healthy”, “no need to cut down to be green”, and “animal farming is what humans do”. All of this is supposedly backed up by scientific evidence. It is not surprising that scientists employed by the meat lobby groups had vested interests in countering narratives about the negative environmental and health impacts of meat production.
It is unacceptable that Teagasc displayed a serious conflict of interest in both hosting this summit and concurring with the bias of the report. Moreover and even more disturbing, this summit has significant long-term consequences as its now refuted findings have been used to influence EU policy.
One must conclude that our state body considers profit for the meat lobby groups is more important than human health, the environment, animals, and ultimately our future. Questions need to be answered as with this regressive thinking and approach we cannot hope to meet our climate targets for 2030 unless the tooth fairy can help out.
Joan Burgess, Friars Walk, Cork
Bono’s medal disheartening
It was very disheartening to see Bono accept the US presidential medal of freedom from Joe Biden on January 4, just one day after Biden notified Congress of an additional $8bn arms sale to Israel that would result in the deaths of many more Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom will be women and children.
As co-founder of the advocacy group One, which claims to “speak out for a just and dignified future for everyone”, it would have been more consistent to see Bono decline this award and extend this ideal to the tens of thousands of victims in Palestine, including the highest number — per capita — of child amputees in the world, as a direct result of Israeli bombing.
Tom Butterly, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin
Real forgiveness is real freedom
Jennifer Horgan is right to express dismay at the vindictiveness of society, making the connection between the fall away from our traditional faith, and forgiveness (‘Focusing on Forgiveness Would Make Our World a Better Place,’ Irish Examiner, January 3).
Yes, there have been periods when elements of the Church in 20th-century Ireland became triumphalist and emphasised God’s Justice over God’s Mercy, but it is not representative of the 1,700-year history here of Catholicism: For example, throughout the darkest days of the anti-Catholic Penal Laws the ordinary clergy comforted, supported, and taught the native Irish even at risk to their own lives when our Gaelic nobility had abandoned us to our fate.
But to focus on this or that period when the human face of the Church shone or shocked is to miss a deeper truth: At the core of Christianity is forgiveness: Beginning from God and spreading out to each other.
Modern secular society often demands perfection — in others —and howls for blood when we come up short. In Deuteronomy, when God instructed ‘an eye for an eye’ this was not an exhortation to violence but an early attempt at proportionality in revenge in a violent brutal society. Ancient societies did not readily forgive those who offended them, and why should they, they reasoned?
Many generations later, Jesus could refine this with ‘turn the other cheek’ and ‘forgive 70 times seven’. Humans need time to change. But if Irish society continues to reject Christianity there is no reason to suppose it will still hold onto its core values. While the Church continues to teach the concept of offence (sin), it also provides the remedy: Repentance and forgiveness. We offend each other, we offend God, but there is a way to a better kind of life. Remove that, and all we are left with is a cycle of offence and vindictiveness.
Unforgiveness traps us in an endless cycle of bitterness, blocks God’s forgiveness of our own failings, and keeps us a psychological prisoner of the circumstances that led to the unforgiveness in the first place. Real forgiveness, on the contrary, brings real freedom, not only to others, but also to ourselves.
Whatever its human failings, the Church once again turns out to be right in its core teachings and Ms Horgan ought be complimented for her honesty in spotting the connection.
Nick Folley, Carrigaline, Co Cork
Correcting the record
I refer to the article of January 8 by Niamh Griffin reporting my own article in the Times of Israel. While of no relevance to its subject matter, reference was made in the Irish Examiner’s article to my having “stepped down” as “Minister for Justice after receiving a report into allegations made by Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe”. Regrettably, so the reference ends.
What is omitted is that I was compelled to resign by then taoiseach Enda Kenny, the allegations made against me were determined to be untrue by the independent O’Higgins Judicial Commission of Inquiry (some also recorded by it as withdrawn by the sergeant) in its report published in May 2016, the adverse findings contained in the report referenced (the Guerin Report) were unanimously set aside by the Court of Appeal (October 2016) and by the Supreme Court (February 2019) due to Guerin denying me a fair or any hearing and having no remit to criticise anybody, then taoiseach Micheál Martin took until December 2020 to inform the Dáil of the report’s redactions and then taoiseach Leo Varadkar in July 2023 acknowledged in the Dáil that I had been unfairly and wrongly treated by an organ of the State.
I assume this will be published to correct the record and the implication that the circumstances of my ceasing to be Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence in some way impact on my personal credibility in addressing a contemporary issue of considerable importance.
Alan Shatter, Dublin 16
Insurance costs damage health
The subject of price hikes for circa 600,000 customers, whose health insurance policies are up for renewal this month is concerning. It seems we are experiencing a perfect storm in the health insurance market which suggests the upward spiral in the cost of premiums is set to continue.
I contend that this is really bad news for hard-pressed consumers who are already struggling.
This also means that employers are squeezed too. It appears that medical inflation is the reason why these price hikes are happening. Medical inflation includes costs, such as claims, new drugs, new technologies, and labour, all of which have increased substantially in price in recent years. It’s my assertion that all these rising prices are sadly having a damaging impact on our mental health.
John O’Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary
