Gentle Decline 1/33: Letters Special Edition
Hello. This is a special issue, containing very little apart from the text of two letters which I will be sending to various offices of the Irish government. I won't be sending them as email, because Irish politicians routinely ignore email from constituents. They take things a little more seriously if you send a paper letter. It is, of course, extremely doubtful that the actual ministers, TDs, etc, will read the letters sent. They will almost certainly be read instead by secretaries and assistants, and passed on only in summary to the actual elected officials. However, adding one more letter to the pile is the way in which public opinion - aside from in the media, which is a distorting mirror at best - is measured in this country.
I'm sending you the text of these letters because, if you live in Ireland, you can do the same. Copy and paste the text - alter it according to your own voice if you like - print it, and post it. It will cost you a euro for the stamp, but that's apparently the price of actually getting the attention of the politicos who are supposed to represent us. The addresses for relevant ministers are included below; you can find the appropriate addresses for your constituency's TDs at https://www.whoismytd.com/.
If you're not in Ireland, I reckon you can still send letters to the ministers. The what-will-the-neighbours-think concept is strong in Irish society, and leveraging it to ensure some common decency and future sense is no bad thing. You might also run through the thinking necessary to pin down the relevant issues in your own country, and you can certainly use these letters as templates if that's useful.
The text I'm giving here is the one for the relevant ministers, but it won't take much changing for the TDs.
The first letter concerns Direct Provision, the utter mess of a system into which refugees arriving in Ireland are placed. With the certainty of more climate refugees in the future, this thing has got to go away. The letter is adopted from one provided by Amnesty International in the Direct Provision Action Guide; the information in there is slightly out of date owing to our recent change in government.
The relevant ministers for this letter are (at the time of writing): Helen McEntee, TD, Minister for Justice, and Charlie McConalogue, TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Law Reform. McEntee is in Fine Gael, the more urban and Tory-like of Ireland's two conservative parties. McConalogue is in Fianna Fáil, the more rural of the two. Neither are likely to be particularly sympathetic to Direct Provision issues, largely because they are personally unaffected by them.
Both can be contacted at: Dept of Justice and Equality, 51 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, D02 HK52, Ireland.
Dear Minister,
I am writing to express my concern at the continuing failure of the Direct Provision system to provide adequate accommodation and dignity for refugees. While I acknowledge recent improvements and reforms, it remains clear that this system fails to meet Ireland’s human rights obligations. Considering that the climate crisis is likely to bring many more refugees in the years and decades to come, Direct Provision must end.
I therefore urge the Irish Government to work in consultation with refugees and rights holders directly affected by the system to develop an alternative to Direct Provision that fully complies with international human rights standards.
As you are no doubt aware, this new approach must:
Respect, protect and fulfil the rights of asylum/protection seekers to adequate housing, and an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families
Safeguard their right to physical and mental health, and their right to private and family life
Ensure support services are available, acceptable and appropriate to the needs of all individuals, including children, families, survivors of torture, and other vulnerable persons
In the meantime, the Irish Government must, with urgency:
Introduce vulnerability assessments for torture victims and other vulnerable persons, and ensure that decisions concerning these are informed by individual needs and vulnerabilities
Ensure timely and effective access to medical, psychological, rehabilitation, legal and social services and supports for people currently within the Direct Provision system
Ensure effective access to the right to work and access to the labour market, for the widest number of asylum/protection applicants
Guarantee the right to prompt, fair and effective determination of claims for international protection, by ensuring high quality decision-making in the international protection process, and the provision of legal advice and assistance to asylum/protection seekers at all stages of the protection process
I look forward to an account of how the Irish Government intends to handle this urgent matter, within an immediate and evident timeframe.
Yours sincerely
Next up is a letter concerning flood defences and tree planting. I debated making this two letters, but it seems to work reasonably well as one. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is the relevant one here; the current office holder is Eamon Ryan, TD. Ryan is the head of the Irish Green Party, which is currently in the process of falling apart, mostly as a direct consequence of going into government with the two conservative parties and not holding their nerve to actually demand change. Again. Nevertheless, he can be expected to be reasonably sympathetic to the issues, and will probably be doing something toward them.
Eamon Ryan can be sent letters at: Minister's Office, Department of Communications, Climate action and Environment, 29-31 Adelaide Road, Dublin, D02 X285, Ireland.
Dear Minister;
I am writing to express my concern at the continued instances and effects of flooding in Ireland, and particularly in the South-West. As you are no doubt aware, the climate crisis and the resulting changes in weather patterns indicate that we will be seeing many more storms and much more in the way of rainfall and flooding.
Accordingly, I wish to inquire as to what your Department and the Irish Government in general will be doing about this issue. Flood defences for towns and infrastructure will be essential.
In particular, I am aware of recent work that shows that tree planting in upland areas and river valleys can reduce the impact of flooding massively, and that the removal of sheep from mountain areas can result in the regrowth of natural forest in very short order. I would like to inquire about this specific strategy, and hope that there are concrete plans for it.
A satisfactory plan for flood handling would include:
Budgets assigned for flood defences for towns and villages
Budgets assigned for flood defences for infrastructure, including water supplies, sewage handling, electrical and gas supplies, and telecommunications structures
Tree-planting in upland areas and river valleys
Fencing in mountain areas to prevent sheep and deer from destroying trees
Clear and unambiguous plans for the construction and enactment of the above points, including an urgent timescale
I look forward to a clear plan on how the Irish Government will handle this matter.
Yours sincerely,
There's also a need to educate the general public on how mountain areas should look, with trees, once sheep and deer are kept out, and the effects of that on flooding, but I think that's a job for Twitter and maybe Instagram.
That's it; this issue brought to you by a need to get the text of these letters out there.
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