Sir, – In all the discussions about return to office mandates, one thing I have not heard are the voices of the tens of thousands of partners and spouses who are expected to pick up the slack at home when the boss says “come back”. In a household with two working parents, someone has to lose out. To cover these “anchor days” as they are called (days of the week with mandatory attendance), one partner is expected to drop their commitments and juggle their job and family at the behest of someone else’s employer. That person might have to reduce working hours, cancel their own office commitments and meetings, manage school runs and childcare, etc.Woe betide if two anchor days are set for the same day of the week by two different employers.As is often the case, women disproportionately take on the unpaid labour. The gender pay gap highlights the lack of women in senior leadership roles. It’s hard to be ambitious when you are telling your own boss, “oh, no, I can’t make that meeting as my husband’s employer [who does not pay me] expects me to be available at that time to handle the school run”.So anchor days remain the bane of our family life. – Yours, etc, AOIFE RUTH,Ballyfoyle,Co Kilkenny.A caveat for using car hornsSir, – In response to Tony Corcoran’s letter (August 27th) on the merits of louder car horns, may I suggest a caveat. Car horns should simply be as loud inside the car as they are outside it.Too often, drivers forget that when they sound the horn, they may be outside someone’s home. Cities should be quiet spaces and pleasant places to live. Cars should be guests.It could prove a remarkably simple way of moderating driver behaviour. – Yours, etc,VINCENT WALL,Ballincurrig Park,Cork.A complicated route to pay dealsSir, – Over my career as a public servant since the early 2000s, successive public service agreements have run to roughly 750 pages in total. Each has involved lengthy negotiations between government and unions, consultation with members, workplace briefings, ballots and so on.Yet when the resulting pay increases are compared over time with inflation figures, the outcome is strikingly similar: public-service pay has broadly tracked inflation.If that is the destination, why do we repeatedly take such a complicated route to get there?Inflation is independently measured. Other European countries, including Belgium and Luxembourg, already use forms of automatic wage indexation. The Government could agree a similar mechanism whereby the inflation component of public-service pay is adjusted automatically when a defined threshold is reached.I am not suggesting we abandon collective bargaining. Government and unions would still negotiate genuine real-pay increases, productivity, reform, etc. What would no longer need to be renegotiated every few years is the basic question of how much prices have risen because it is calculated independently anyway.Successive governments have repeatedly asked public servants to improve productivity, eliminate unnecessary processes and automate repetitive work.Perhaps the State should apply the same principle to its own pay-setting machinery.If decades of agreements, negotiations and ballots have broadly delivered what an objective inflation formula could have achieved automatically, surely it is time to consider a more efficient system. – Yours, etc,BRIAN BUGLER,College Road,Cork.Sharing student accommodationSir, – The vast majority of third-level students need accommodation from September to May; the vast majority of tourists need accommodation from May to September. Why not issue a special renting licence to any individual with one or two properties to avail of the ¤14,000 rent a room tax-free income from the student accommodation with tax to be paid on any Airbnb or tourist rental? – Yours, etc,DAVID CURRAN,Knocknacarra,Galway.Rushing to judgmentSir, – My son is an autistic young adult and is unable to use standard public bathrooms when he goes out.Therefore, he can use only a single user accessible bathroom when out in public. This usually, he can do without issue.However, he has reported to me that he has received verbal abuse on an alarming number of occasions when simply trying to use accessible bathrooms. He receives comments such as being accused of being in the “wrong place” or other people questioning him on why he must use the accessible toilet at all. This has led to him being afraid to use public bathrooms and I often have to accompany him to the bathroom and stand guard while he uses it.I feel that in this day and age a disabled person – visible disability or not – should not have to explain themselves just to use an accessible facility. – Yours, etc,THERESA HICKEY,Frankfield,Cork.Good mannersSir, – I don’t know how old Bernie Kirwan is (Letters, August 25th), but, as a regular bus user, I am old enough to be offered a seat by young women and young enough to be embarrassed by the gesture. – Yours, etc,DAVE ROBBIE,Booterstown,Co Dublin.Ireland’s security and defence Sir, – Conor Gallagher’s article “European warships providing missile cover during EU presidency must stay 22km off Irish coast,” (August 27th) highlights the farce that is Irish defence and security policy. Ireland, supposedly neutral but inviting Nato warships to provide the State with protection due to decades of Irish government neglect and indifference regarding defence. In most other European countries, an article such as that would probably lead to calls for the government to resign. It appears that we have finally reached Fr Ted levels of defence and security: “Is there anything to be said for saying another Mass?” – Yours, etc, CONOR HOGARTY,Deansgrange,Blackrock,Co Dublin. An opportunity for IrelandSir, – Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union comes at a pivotal moment. One of Ireland’s tasks is to advance negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget, which will determine the future of its overseas aid.In the face of unconscionable aid cuts by the US and some European states that threaten millions of lives, it is vital that Ireland uses its position of influence to put human rights, inequality and poverty at the heart of the process.As a core priority of its presidency, Ireland has committed to placing values at its heart. To keep this promise, opening discussions on the EU’s Global Gateway Strategy is essential. The EU’s global investment strategy is characterised by large infrastructure investments shaped by geopolitical interests and close working ties with the private sector. However, combining Global Gateway investment and development co-operation poses a risk of losing sight of the core aims of poverty eradication and protecting human rights. The use of public funds to derisk private investment could bolster corporate power at the expense of the communities that should be at the heart of development.Global Gateway as currently formulated promises a “win-win” situation for the EU and its member states, the private sector and some of the most impoverished populations in the world. Is it possible that such an approach could deliver for marginalised communities? To date the strategy has created a hierarchy in which the interests of European states and rich corporations are prioritised over the rights of the most vulnerable. Worrying trends are already emerging, with Trócaire’s partner organisations in countries such as Honduras and DR Congo reporting tensions, violent repression of peaceful protests and outbreaks of armed conflict linked to some Global Gateway projects. Ireland has a track record of using its voice to place poverty and human rights at the centre of the development agenda. This week, at the meetings of Foreign Affairs ministers and EU Affairs ministers, not all member states will share this position, making Ireland’s leadership ever more critical. – Yours, etc,SEÁN FARRELL,Chief executive,Trócaire,Co Kildare.The taxing issue of inheritanceSir, – In all of the recent correspondence about inheritance taxes, two things have not been discussed. The first is whether it is right to feel entitled to someone else’s wealth that you have not earned.The second is that, given that most wealth in Ireland is probably based on increases in property prices, which have not been earned and which have exemptions or reliefs from taxation, how true is the claim that tax has already been paid on what you want to inherit?That is not to say that the owners of the wealth should not plan for its disbursement, either before or after death, in whatever way they see fit. It is simply to raise the question as to what unearned wealth from our predecessors should mean to us. – Yours, etc,ROBIN MANDAL,Dublin 6.What’s good for the goose ...Sir, – I was relieved to learn that the floodlighting of the pitches at St Michael’s College has received the scrutiny it deserves, including a survey of the feeding habits of the light-bellied Brent goose (“Dublin school gets go-ahead for pitch floodlights despite residents’ objections regarding geese,” August 25th).Significant numbers graze the pitches and Dublin City Council has imposed a 9.30pm curfew on the lights.As a blow-in to the area, one has to admire the standard of living enjoyed by the Brent goose in south county Dublin, with protected feeding grounds, an environmental impact assessment and carefully regulated lighting.These seasonal visitors arrive from Canada, occupy some of the most valuable real estate in Dublin and consume the local produce. One wonders what US president Donald Trump would make of it. A tariff, surely, cannot be far away.Elm Park Golf Club is directly across the road. One assumes even these well-connected geese would struggle to get in. – Yours, etc,JOHN GARVEY,Co Dublin.Ratko MladicSir, – Your article on Ratko Mladic’s death (“Mladic’s crimes were among ‘the most heinous known to humankind’“, August 28th) recalls to my mind 1992, when I was a hotel management student in Munich. I worked alongside Croats, Bosnians and others who had fled persecution from their homes. The reporter, Dan Bilefsky, reminded me of the brutal war crimes Mladic and others carried out against their victims. My only regret is that, at the time, I did not fully understand the true extent of my colleagues’ suffering. – Yours, etc,CIAN LANDERS,Carryduff,Co Down.Christianity in decline?Sir, – The reported 30 per cent fall in Catholic baptisms in Ireland will inevitably be seen as further evidence of Christianity’s decline. Perhaps it is but I wonder whether another quieter exchange is taking place alongside it.For much of my lifetime being Catholic in Ireland was something you inherited. You were baptised as a baby, attended a Catholic school, received the sacraments and were married in the church. For many, describing oneself as a Catholic required little consideration of whether one actually believed. That world is disappearing. Yet at the same time that infant baptisms and church attendances are falling, Dublin has recently seen a slight rise in the number of adults choosing to enter the Catholic Church.Numbers are small and should not be exaggerated. But there is an important difference between the two trends. A baby does not choose baptism.An adult chooses faith. Perhaps, therefore, we are witnessing not simply the disappearance of Christianity but the end of inherited Christianity.That may ultimately leave Ireland with a much smaller church. But size and strength are not necessarily the same thing. A church filled through social expectation is very different from one composed of people who have consciously decided that they believe the message.I can remember an Ireland where declaring yourself Catholic was almost automatic. I would not wish to return to a society in which religion was imposed by convention or reinforced by social pressure.But neither would I assume that Christianity is finished simply because that Ireland has disappeared.Perhaps the Christianity of the future will be smaller than the church I grew up with. It may be more genuinely Christian.If faith is to survive in modern Ireland, perhaps being inherited was never going to be enough. It will have to be chosen. – Yours, etc,WILSON BURGESS,Derry.No trust in AISir, – William Reville takes me to task (Letters, August 26th) for being unduly negative about AI. While I respect the instances he puts forward for the use of AI in areas such as diagnostic medical radiology, what he cannot deny is that in other areas AI presents “facts” that are demonstrably untrue. In my opinion, this makes all of AI suspect and untrustworthy. – Yours, etc,RICHARD PINE,Greece.