Happy new year Mr Hogan, good luck with your job search

SIR,

Happy new year – I hope. So Phil Hogan is still a bit miffed about losing his good job in Europe because he attended a golf outing that broke the Covid-19 rules. He is right, I suppose, especially when you look at all of the others who attended social gatherings with little or no consequence. Just a tap on the wrist and having to apologise for having been a bad boy or girl.

I would have thought that Phil might have toughened it out like the Woulfe and forced them to remove him. After all, the Woulfe is still sitting high on the bench and those in RTÉ who attended another gathering are still in their jobs after offering suitable apologies of course. Still, I do not suppose that he will be joining the dole queue any time soon.

Then you have Malcolm Noonan, Junior Minister from the Green Party, expressing an opinion that water charges should be explored once more as a way of screwing funds out of a populace who have fought long and hard against it. Perhaps he is hoping for a seat on its board after the next election when this rare species will be utterly decimated.

Now, after nine months of isolation for most of us, we have a picture of two boxes of vaccine arriving on our shores as sign of hope. The lucky lottery of just who should get this is underway, however I would not be for cheering just yet as it could well take the rest of the year to receive the jab. The Chinese, on the other hand, hope to have 100 million of their people inoculated by the end of February.

So we wander into the new year with little to cheer about, just a hope for better things and a sense that sometime in the future things will return to normal. I wonder if Phil in the meanwhile is reading the newspapers for job opportunities like so many others. I wish him well in his search, Sincerely,

Michael O’Meara, Faha,

Killarney