Expenses issue should also focus on procedures in Dáil and EU

SIR,

If the criticism directed at Mr Michael Healy-Rae TD raises the question about transparency in the matter of expenses, then it should equally focus on the procedures and practices of the Dáil and the European Parliament, of which, it seems true to say, Mr Healy-Rae has been a critic.

It came in a week when we heard renewed concerns about the sheepish media and its censorship of people who sound a different note from that agreed by the liberal elite. Consumers of news also complained of media’s tendency to lump its opponents into one single group and label that group as fascist, or racist, alt right, and so on.

It seems fair, therefore, to dust down and re-use that old term Dublin 4, which was a valuable short-hand to convey that tendency to legislate against the people, instead of legislate for or with. (Will anybody argue, for example, that the extreme drink-driving law was introduced with the any degree of input from TDs living outside the constituencies with Luas and Dart?)

The thought police have been out in force again, saying you can’t talk about this or that, walking away if you do, and ruling out concepts like nation or Christian for having nothing to contribute to the discussion about community.

But consider the neglect. We have seen drugs become normalised in our small towns, and watched living accommodation in our capital city go to profiteers, making it impossible for people reading this to find a cheap place to stay.

What can we do locally? Grow democracy from the bottom up. Resist temptation to invite speakers just because they are in the media. (All you do is fill their CVs.) Reverse the order of meetings; have the Question and Answer at the start, not at the end.

If it’s cultural events, or literary societies, don’t take the cash – the cash that gives it, the metropolitan point of view, the right to dictate the questions and impose the narrative. Think about it like this: the great Daniel O’Connell took no lectures from the elite of his day; instead he rallied the poor and told the powers that be what was right.

Likewise today. It should be perfectly normal to question the practices and institutions of the European Union, even as the new elite castigates and censors any body who does. The EU took more than our fish: it often looks as if we simply switched allegiance from one Empire (the British) to another.

I believe the Healy-Raes are fully entitled to ask these questions, Sincerely,

Gerald O’Carroll,

The Green,

Huntsfield,

Dooradoyle,

Limerick