• MARTIN Connolly (Forget the clapping, pay them properly, July 30) was not before time.

Time for the recognition he so appropriately applied to the neglect of so many health care workers who have been cheered – OK – but during the past few years they have suffered austerity, and have been consistently denied the pay increases that in a fair society they would have been awarded as a matter of entitlement.

I receive domiciliary care following a serious accident I had a year ago. I have had the services of carers, now three hours a week, for a few months. The care has been of a high standard. The carers, I suspect, are underpaid.

When will there be a realisation that quality services need to be paid for through fair taxation? What people promise pre-election and what they actually vote for are two different things. Regrettably.

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