Dear Sir/Madam,

Life in Ireland just gets more and more absurd and bizarre as the days go by. 

Today we heard that the Mid-Western Health Board objected to a new McDonald's outlet planned for Ennis,  “citing concerns about the possible effects on children’s health”.

Now, let’s just get one thing straight here!  People choose to eat in McDonald’s and people choose to start smoking or go or not to go to smoky pubs.   I choose not to bring my children to McDonald’s and I choose not to smoke and go to smoke-filled pubs.  HOWEVER, what I really would like is to have some control over the air that I and my family breathe and the air that my organic vegetables grow on.   Unfortunately, we in the Cork Harbour area seem to be doomed by the double standards and hypocrisy of the politicians of this country.  We and our children will, if this incinerator goes ahead, be subject to dirt, dust and poisons.  My age group will probably not suffer from the consequences of incinerator poison until another twenty years or so but what are we leaving behind for our children?  Why are we having children if we are being careless to the extreme with what nature is providing for us to be healthy? 

The amazing thing is that we are in the jurisdiction of the Minister for Health AND CHILDREN!!!  Neither he NOR the Southern Health Board have ever said a word against incineration.  Dieticians in the McDonald's case state that "Whatever the short-term financial benefits might be, we cannot put a price on our children's health".

It is an absolute appalling, disgusting, hypocritical situation!.

Yours,

Ann Kirwan
Cork Harbour