Sir, – As the Government draws up Budget 2027, there is one request: do not forget the humans. Ireland has modernised at speed over the past two decades, but our systems for meeting basic human needs have not kept pace.We have built a capitalist kingdom upon foreign direct investment, yet too often overlooked the people most in need. Data centres guzzle energy and pharmaceutical plants consume vast amounts of water, while families struggle to pay their utility bills, healthcare costs and grocery bills. We can find money for VAT cuts for an entire hospitality sector, before we have secured dignity for disabled people who are still fighting to participate fully in society.Government programmes too often pump money into processes rather than our people. The Assessment of Need system, for example, has allowed private businesses to capitalise on funds earmarked to clear waiting lists, producing cut-and-paste reports that provide no support for parents, teachers or children. Tusla’s school attendance campaign paid a UK advertising agency €1.1 million, while the children who cannot attend school because the system does not fit them, receive no support. Parents are prosecuted for their child’s non-attendance in an education system created in the 1900s, that has been deprived of investment- backed reform.We rightly dismantled the abusive church-run architecture of borstals, children’s homes and laundries, but failed to build the replacement societal architecture of a mature republic: one that protects its vulnerable citizens, supports families before they break, and measures success other than by its rate of employment. Instead of honouring Bessborough as a reminder of what should never happen again, its history will be erased in the name of “development”. The members of the Before We Die campaign, who have carried the lifelong burden of care for adult children with high levels of support needs, are forced to plead for help. Their urgency should shame a State that can bend backwards for investment, infrastructure and image, yet moves so painfully slowly for people who are in distress. Budget 2027 must not be another exercise in balancing spreadsheets. Ireland is more prosperous than ever, leaving no excuse for another budget that prioritises processes over people. – Yours, etc, NESSA HILL,CEO, Neurodiversity Ireland, Sandymount, Dublin. High levels of drink-drivingSir, – The continuing high number of drivers found with substantial levels of alcohol in their system is deeply worrying. The Medical Bureau of Road Safety’s latest report (“Driver arrested six times on suspicion of driving while intoxicated in 2025,” July 21st) highlights a problem that continues to place countless lives at unnecessary risk.Unfortunately, these findings are neither surprising nor unexpected.For decades, simple proposals for Opportunistic Educational Interventions (OEIs) on alcohol use, particularly for repeat drink-driving offenders, have been consistently advocated. These interventions involve a suitably trained person meeting repeat drink-driving offenders to accurately assess their drinking patterns, explore how those may be affecting their lives, and help them recognise whether their drinking has become problematic. They also provide clear information on the indicators of problem drinking and the range of supports available, giving offenders an opportunity to make informed changes before causing further harm.It is both regrettable and frustrating that these proposals have attracted little meaningful attention, despite repeated representations, and have too often been met little more than expressions of support and promises of future consideration.Nowhere is the case for OEIs stronger than within the justice system, where alcohol-related offending carries the potential not only for self-harm but also for devastating injury and loss of life among innocent members of the public.Sadly, these latest figures demonstrate, yet again, the urgency of adopting such an approach. A structured educational intervention of no more than 30 minutes could help offenders better understand the risks associated with their drinking, encourage the seeking of appropriate help and support, and ultimately prevent future offences. As a practical, inexpensive and easily implemented public safety measure, its life-saving potential should no longer be overlooked.The Medical Bureau of Road Safety has a unique understanding of both the scale and seriousness of this problem. Given its expertise and authority, it is surely well placed not only to document the consequences of alcohol-impaired driving but also to advocate for this effective preventive measure.Measuring the problem is essential; helping to prevent its recurrence is equally important. – Yours, etc,GERRY HICKEY,Psychotherapist,Dundrum,Dublin. Trump tacticsSir, – The greatest self-proclaimed dealmaker of all time is having no luck. Months on, he’s still unable to finalise a peace agreement with Iran and is content to flaunt the terms of the memorandum of understanding by conspiring with Oman over ships trafficking the Straits of Hormuz. He now threatens further unrest in the Middle East by making a deal with Saudi Arabia to support their nuclear enrichment. Donald Trump’s double standards are staggering. Worthy of him being shown a red card in the mid terms. – Yours, etc,MICHAEL CULLEN,Sandycove,Co Dublin. Wildfires and culpabilitySir, – Karl McGovern (Letters, July 24th) is right that anyone who recklessly or deliberately starts a wildfire should face severe penalties. However, before we rush to assign blame in the present case, do we yet know how the fire actually started? Was it a barbecue, a discarded cigarette, arson, lightning or something else? If not, we should be cautious about speculation. More fundamentally, even where an individual is responsible for igniting a blaze, that is only part of the story. The conditions that allow fires to spread with such speed and ferocity are the products of decades of rising greenhouse gas emissions. Responsibility, therefore, extends far beyond the person who lights the match.It includes those who choose unnecessarily large SUVs, take frequent discretionary flights, oppose effective climate policies, defend practices that release ever greater quantities of greenhouse gases, and pursue policies that delay meaningful climate action. It also includes influential politicians and commentators who continue to deny or downplay the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change. Governments cannot escape scrutiny. Meaningful climate action often requires politically difficult decisions. Yet there is a persistent temptation to postpone or dilute measures that may prove unpopular with sections of the electorate. Each such delay merely increases the burden that this and future generations will have to bear. Perhaps before pointing the finger elsewhere, each of us should spend a moment looking in the mirror. Most of us, in one way or another, contribute to the unnecessary emissions that are making our world progressively more combustible.If we are to speak of culpability, we should look not only for the spark, but also for those who have created the conditions that allow a single spark to become a major disaster. – Yours, etc,PAUL O’SHEA,Planet Before Profit CLG,Shankill,Dublin 18.Waiting on a trainSir, – Reading of Irish Rail’s plans to acquire gardens and private property along the northern rail corridor, I could not suppress a pang of envy (“‘I wouldn’t have thought it would be needed’: Raheny locals react to Dart line expansion,” July 24th).For years I have watched successive infrastructure projects snake tantalisingly around my home. The M50 missed me, the Luas politely looked elsewhere, and MetroLink has shown no interest whatsoever. Even the occasional cycle lane appears to regard my property with studied indifference.Meanwhile, many fortunate householders find themselves in receipt of surveyors, engineers and, one imagines, compensation cheques substantial enough to make myhome.ie compulsive reading.May I therefore make a modest proposal? Before finalising the route of FourNorth project, could Irish Rail consider a slight diversion through my back garden? I am not unreasonable. A gentle curve would suffice. If operationally necessary, I would even consent to a small station on the patio.Should the railway prove impractical, I remain open to alternative public works such as a MetroLink extension, flood-relief scheme, electricity interconnector or even the occasional bypass, all of which would receive an enthusiastic welcome. Indeed, at this stage I would settle for any State-sponsored project carrying a healthy compulsory purchase order. With apologies to Oscar Wilde, to lose one’s garden may be unfortunate, never to have it coveted by the State feels almost like failure. – Yours, etc,GEOFF SCARGILL,Co Wicklow.In praise of bus driversSir, – Who would be a bus driver on Dublin’s city streets? I sat on the bus yesterday and watched the bus driver navigate between ever narrowing traffic lanes and flimsy plastic poles delineating the cycle paths, past multiple parked cars and pedestrians glued to the phones. Not easy.Hats off to another bus driver who I observed getting out of her cabin to assist a mobility-challenged elderly lady cross the road and direct her towards the gates of the community hospital. Such empathy and care for her passenger. I was impressed. – Yours, etc,FIONA O’CLEIRIGH,Orwell Road,Dublin 14.Hooked on reeling in yearsSir, – Reeling in the Years on RTÉ1 has had me hooked again and again this week. What a great overview of various events throughout a year in time. It has pivotal political moments, Eurovision gems, sporting spectaculars, human tragedies and some good old TV funnies. The best of nostalgic memories. – Yours, etc,JOAN HOBSON,Glenageary,Co Dublin.Ending homelessnessSir, – UK prime minister Andy Burnham has pledged at least to end rough sleeping in Britain.It is not a simple issue admittedly but might we not as a start make the same pledge here at least prioritising it over bicycle sheds, failed IT projects and maintenance of detained vessels prior to disposal. – Yours, etc,EAMONN MAGEE,Clontarf,Dublin 3.For the love of carsSir, – I’m not quite sure of the point of Kevin O’Sullivan’s article (“EVs may soon become the quickest cars on Earth,” July 23rd) but it spectacularly misfires when it equates an interest in internal combustion engine (Ice) cars to a love of speed.For those of us who derive huge pleasure from (Ice) cars, we get as much pleasure from a BMW M2 as we would from a 1.5 litre 1970s rear wheel drive mark 1 Ford Escort.It’s not the speed, it’s the physical connection of man and machine, gear changes, engine notes, smells, pops, crackles and the hairs it can put on your neck when you hear and feel the magic of a well-made engine performing under maximum pressure.EVs are quick, economical, clean and functional. This is what most people want, hence their adoption.For the rest of us, we don’t want speed or functionality, we’re as happy doing 100kph with the smell of Bakelite vinyl, the rumble of a 4 barrel V8 and the perfume of premium petrol. – Yours, etc,SIMON BLAKE,Munich,Germany.Remembering David AndrewsSir, – Most reports of the death of former foreign minister David Andrews failed to mention his role as EU Special Envoy to East Timor at the time of the 1999 UN referendum which led to the independence of the new nation of Timor-Leste in 2002.But I remember him for a kindness to me in 1999. I was seated in the house arrest bungalow of Xanana Gusmão, Timor’s guerrilla independence leader, in Jakarta, waiting for him to appear for a meeting politicians, including Andrews.An official approached and asked me to leave. So I waited outside; I approached Andrews for a comment but his minder told him there was no time as they had to hurry to catch a flight. Andrews overruled him, saying he must give me a quote. I visited Timor four times reporting for this newspaper.That meeting started a process to establish a national reconciliation council, ending 24 years of bloody resistance to Indonesian colonialism under the brutal president Suharto; a third of Timorese had perished. Gusmão was freed following the referendum, to which Andrews brought a plane full of observers. There was a 78.5 per cent yes. Joe Murray, former head of Afri (Action From Ireland) reminds me that the late Timor activist Tom Hyland had great respect for Andrews: “Tom said that if other countries had politicians as courageous and compassionate as him, freedom might have come sooner for the Timorese people.” Hyland and I first visited occupied Timor; our every move was watched through military binoculars.President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste told me: “I very much recall David Andrews as EU Envoy, his integrity and courage in speaking out on the horrendous situation in Timor-Leste at that time in 1999.” He volunteered an extra paragraph which I intend to frame and put on the wall, I am so deeply thankful: “And you David Shanks, you deserve every accolade for speaking truth to power, for consistently writing about the struggle of the people of Timor-Leste for freedom and independence. Thank you for your empathy and professionalism.” – Yours, etc,DAVID SHANKS,Dublin 6.Car wash won’t washSir, – I have been a car driver for almost 50 years and, in all of that time, I hardly ever bothered to wash my car. It has always seemed to me to be a waste of both time and water, so I have never seen the point of it. After all, it rains in Ireland. – Yours, etc, PÁDRAIC HARVEY,Co na Gaillimhe.