Zappone commands the moral high ground, unlike so many ministers
IT WAS surprising to hear Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone say that she was doing what she was doing with regard to the Tuam babies scandal, because it was right.
This seems almost unprecedented for a politician in Ireland. Ms Zappone did likewise with regard to problems with Scouting Ireland; she did what was clearly right. We owe her a sincere thanks for doing the right thing in such matters, rather than opting for the “pragmatic” or typical “cute hoor” option many of our politicians opt for.
In our recent Budget it was clear climate change needed to be seriously addressed, yet the Cabinet opted for doing virtually nothing significant due to lobbying by vested interests.
The greatest environmental scandal in Ireland over the past century has been the peat industry, burning the land from beneath our feet, releasing huge amounts of damaging CO2, destroying valuable carbon storage capacity and our precious environmental wealth. This will be allowed to continue until 2030.
Bridget McCole was treated appallingly by the State for “pragmatic” reasons and she was just one of many such persons treated with such contempt.
Since 2001 our foreign policy ministers and officials have been behaving “pragmatically” with regard to Irish neutrality and complicity in war crimes in the Middle East.
If we had the likes of Katherine Zappone as Minister for Foreign Affairs then our foreign policy might also be directed to doing what is right because it is right.
Thank you, Katherine Zappone, for doing what is right. Edward Horgan Castletroy, Co Limerick