Letters to the Editor: Play is not a luxury — it is essential for children
Mark Harris points to the experience of New Zealand which has made significant investments in school playground infrastructure. FIle picture: Gareth Fuller/PA
I am writing to express my concern over a fundamental issue that seems to be largely overlooked in Ireland — the lack of playgrounds in schools. It is astonishing that in a country that values education and child development, so many schools lack dedicated play areas where children can engage in unstructured, active play.
Play is not a luxury; it is an essential part of a child’s development. Research consistently shows that physical activity improves cognitive function, social skills, and overall wellbeing. Countries around the world prioritise playgrounds as a crucial part of school infrastructure — yet in Ireland, many children spend their breaks on bare concrete yards with little or no equipment to encourage movement and play.
The consequences of this are concerning. In an age where childhood obesity is rising, and screen time is replacing outdoor activity, we should do everything possible to promote active play during school hours.
Playgrounds provide an outlet for energy, improve concentration in the classroom, and support the emotional and social development of children. The absence of such spaces is a disservice to the younger generation.
When I arrived in Ireland four years ago with my wife and two children, I was shocked to learn that schools did not have playgrounds. My wife, having grown up here, did not think much of it since she had never known any different.
Why is this the case? Are our schools missing out on all the benefits due to fear of claims or extortionate insurance premiums? Why are we still accepting this?
When discussing playgrounds, I am not referring to superficial installations designed solely for safety at the expense of developmental benefits. Instead, I advocate for high-quality, durable, and intellectually stimulating structures that encourage children to engage with risk in a constructive manner. I mean good quality, long-lasting, and challenging equipment.
Despite having only half the GDP of Ireland, New Zealand has made significant investments in school playground infrastructure. It is standard practice for schools there to have at least one well-designed, state-of-the-art playground, and in many cases, multiple play areas catering to different age groups. This commitment reflects a broader understanding of the importance of physical play in fostering cognitive and social development.
It is time for the Department of Education and local authorities to recognise this gap and take action. Schools should be provided with the necessary funding and support to ensure that every child has access to a safe and stimulating play environment. Parents, educators, and policymakers need to come together to make this a priority.
Our children deserve better.
I was recently listening to a number of economists expressing their concerns apropos to a future banking emergency.
A banking and financial crisis can happen for all sorts of different reasons. It can come from various sources, but the banks are usually a big part of it, if not the drivers.
The way in which banks cause the problem or contribute to these issues is by lending to people who can’t pay back what they were lent.
One must always remember that what banks lend is not their own money, it’s other people’s money, and that’s always, in various guises, the source of the problem.
If we were to find out that there is another banking problem in the United States or elsewhere, it would be because the banks have lent money to somebody and that somebody isn’t able to pay it back.
A lot of banking these days is called “shadow banking” for a very good reason, because it happens underneath the hood, as it were. We don’t know who these banks are lending money to. What we do know is this: The last thing we would need right now is a global banking crisis.
Tánaiste Simon Harris — reiterating the programme for government — says defence spending level of ambition 2 (by which is meant level of spending 2) will be reached by 2028: in today’s money, that’s €1.5bn, or 0.22% of GDP (‘Simon Harris: Ireland should raise its defence budget to €3bn’, February 22).
The Tánaiste also says that level of ambition 3 should be reached “in time”. He says this would provide a “credible defence” comparable to countries that are “similar to Ireland”. A figure of €3bn a year is provided by the . That would be 0.44% of GDP.
The levels of ambition were defined in the 2022 Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. Level of ambition 3 is to “develop full spectrum defence capabilities to protect Ireland and its people to an extent comparable to similar-sized countries in Europe”. Similar in size, presumably, by area.
The report says Ireland should match the defence capabilities “of other small Western European countries”. That sounds like by area, or could it be by population?
If by area, Serbia and Lithuania are the two European countries most similar in size to Ireland. Respectively, they spend 2% and 2.7% on defence.
If by population, Slovakia and Croatia are closest to Ireland. Respectively, they spend 2% and 1.8% on defence.
Surely even Simon Harris and Micheál Martin must realise that, in an economy with very low corporation tax, wrecking social services in favour of that level of defence spending would meet with very strong resistance across society. At least, they should realise it. The Government needs to be clearer about its defence spending ambitions. Once properly understood, it seems certain to me that most people will reject them.
There have been many surprises since the start of the second Trump presidency — some stupid, as with the enthusiasm for the reintroduction of plastic straws, and some offensive with the banning of transgender people in the military services.
Now comes another action that is both offensive and stupid, even though of minor concern for most people —the removal of the book Freckleface Strawberry from schools serving military families, for a ‘compliance review’. The book’s story of accepting differences in people is of specific interest to me as a red-headed, freckled individual.
Red hair and freckles can be a source of attack for bullies, but it is nothing to be ashamed of. The proposed review for “gender ideology” and “racial indoctrination” seems futile as there are no parts related to gender or race.
Book-banning is almost always wrong, restricts personal freedom, and does not improve a society’s safety or moral character. It is also too easy to do, as shown by a person who decided, as a joke, to ask for the Bible to be banned in a local library as it contains violence, which it does, and they were successful.
Let people read about the world, factual and fictional, and develop their own understanding of it.
Waste disposal has become a hot topic as part of the Green movement. However financial waste is something that never gets an airing, both in government and personally.
Programmes for government never focus on financial waste.
However, we know there is a hell of a lot of it in the billions thrown away on all kinds of folly and double bureaucracy.
The full extent of government financial waste has never been known because governments generally refuse to admit they have wasted taxpayers’ money.
The Dáil bicycle shed was just one prime example and there have been hundreds of others over many decades.
We all remember the e-voting machines which cost €63m plus storage costs as a disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money.
Personally, we are all probably guilty of wasting money — hundreds, or perhaps thousands or tens of thousands over a lifetime, which, if not wasted, could be recycled for rainy days or debts.
Never mind the enormous amount of tax rebates in the multi-millions left unclaimed by Irish workers annually, which has got to the point where the Revenue is reminding people they can claim it.
Let our green thinking culture reach a broader remit when it comes to waste to include financial waste.
