Taoiseach must tap into our potential to be great
SIR, The 6th Century monk St. Columcille said: “Ireland would be divided into to two shares against the people’s will. They would get up some morning and the border between the two shares would be away”. Very interesting when we hear that Northern Ireland is the biggest stumbling block to an EU deal on Brexit with the UK. The upshot will be more than interesting.
Let’s look at Ireland, the Ireland of the future, and what could be achieved by our young, vibrant, forward thinking Taoiseach with with a few likeminded people around him.
I am a firm believer that we here in Ireland can become a very wealthy nation but some very realities have to be put in place first. Our main priority has to be corruption, which in this country is out of all proportion. Our justice system also leaves a lot to be desired. Corruption has to be tackled right across all walks of life, the nation has to be put first. The Taoiseach must never be afraid to raise a voice for honesty, truth and compassion against injustice, lying and greed.
Another problem is that 16% of our population lives in poverty. Why is this when we are the fifth richest country on the planet. There is no reason that I can understand why we cannot look after our own population, the most vulnerable, the sick, the poor, the old and the young.
Building residential units in towns to house elderly people from the countryside, which was proposed by the United Nations and adopted by this country, is not acceptable nor will not serve the elderly. The day you move them from their home in the countryside is the day they die.
We have the resources and the capabilities in this country to build a better Ireland but our politicians, who look to somebody else to come to their rescue, have failed to do so.
We must always remember the values of the founders of the State, we have to respect the law, we have to use our state departments. We should be reading more about our founders, we shouldn’t forget what they did and the circumstances. Today a lot of people feel so pessimistic about Ireland in lots of ways, yet our system has protections but I must say our investigative reporting in this country is second to none that in itself is a major plus to any nation and should be taken more seriously.
I feel less pessimistic about the country than a lot of other people do; we see a lot of movement, we have large turnouts on the positive things that are happening.
As long as our Taoiseach stays on that track he will carry the majority of the people with him but he must beware becoming another Taoiseach who performed reasonably well at the beginning only to slide into disaster later.
Sincerely,
Michael O’Sullivan, Castletownbere.