Restructure the way country is run

Sir — The continuance of a political party system of managing the country, as demonstrated by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and, in recent times Labour, for the last 30 years guarantees an adversarial, power-hungry, self-serving, incompetent, deceitful, corrupt and inward-looking form of nation management.

If the two major political parties had ‘think-ins’ every week from now until the turn of the next millennium, they would not be able to put right the ills inflicted, by them, upon this nation and the people.

The total amount of revenue denied the public purse over this period through mismanagement, incompetence, pocket-lining, cronyism, jobs for the boys, quangos, outof-all-proportion pensions, salaries, golden handshakes and greed — together with the, unconstitutional giving away of vital public natural resources to private business — would leave you open-mouthed in disbelief.

Observing ‘politics’ over the years you would have to conclude that we are not living in a democracy and that our hard-fought-for Constitution is being treated with disdain.

With a generous-hearted and entrepreneurial people, with a nation rich in human and natural resources with vast territorial waters and a bountiful landmass, this island nation, given a decent, nonpolitical, democratically-elected management structure, with each representative publicly sworn in to serve the common good, would be thriving, fair to all, and would release us from the debtors prison into which we have been forced.

A bold, brave, innovative restructuring of the way the country is managed for the common good is needed if Ireland is to regain real independence and provide a truly democratic and healthy nation for all her citizens into the Third Millennium. Joe Brennan Ballinspittle, Co Cork