It’s hypocritical for Enda to turn blind eye again

TOM Barry becomes an international laughing stock by pulling a female colleague on to his lap in a late night Dáil session. James Reilly has continued debt woes over a nursing home deal with f our co-debtors and is back in the High Court, having been served with a notice to pay.

And to add to that mix, it emerges that John Perry had tried to use his political position as minister for small business to fend off Danske Bank’s attempts to get him to repay €2.5million.

The one t hi ng t hese t hree politicians have in common is that their party leader, Enda Kenny, has come out in full support for each of them whenever they were criticised, or rightfully asked to resign.

There’s nothing else to call this Government at this stage other than a laughing stock, and Enda Kenny a hypocrite of scandalous proportions.

If he was still in Opposition he would be calling for the heads of Barry, Reilly and Perry. Yet now all he’s doing is protecting them so that he can protect his political position.

There is no political party here now that isn’t morally corrupt and rotten to the core. Instead of veering between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael every few years, it’s time to take a stand in next year’s local elections and not let any of them back into the power they’re so desperate to hang on to.

S. O’DONNELL, Navan, Co. Meath.

Alcohol ban is a farce

ONCE again the taxpayer and the ordinary citizen will pay the price of a vanity project designed to make a politician of the day look good.

The latest example is James Reilly’s proposed ban on alcohol sponsorship of sporting events. There is no research that I know of linking such sponsorship to alcohol abuse and the hefty funds offered by these companies can often be crucial. God knows what will happen to these sports if they can’t replace that funding. Our sporting prowess has been one of the few things to still take pride in in Ireland during this recession which has seen us lose our national confidence. Yet now this Government wants to even take that away from us too. And the latest news at the weekend that drinkers will pay the price of this ban will once again only penalise the average Joe who enjoys the odd pint.

In the last Budget, your average working mother bore the brunt of the extra levy on wine. If this Government is actually serious about tackling the evils of alcoholism, why isn’t it taxing dangerous spirits and cheap cans of high alcohol cider?

MARY MURPHY, via email.

Stand up to tax

I SEE the Local Property Tax is not going to fund local amenities (Mail). Enda has gone on his break, leaving us yet again in limbo.

Since he came to power, he has damned us with lies and pre-election promises: for example, we will not cut child benefit, welfare, health budgets etc. I could rant and rage forever but it’s time to wake up, Ireland. Smell the coffee: refuse to pay the LPT. After all, real criminals are let go free.

And where could they put us all? I for one am not going to pay for something that I was told lies about. Even though my income is a modest €188 per week, I would have tried. This is money taken under false pretences being extorted under false promises, which in itself is a crime.

It’s time to stop protecting the fat cats and give struggling people a chance and believe me – that is about two-thirds of this country between middle and lower classes.

So, Enda, mull over this and try a little bit of redemption in the time you have left.

ANN KELLY, Waterford.

Sporting elixir

MY heart almost goes out to poor ol’ Usain Bolt and Chris Froome as they visibly squirm under the apocryphal Lyndon Johnson story — ‘Let’s make the son of a b**** deny it’.

Isn’t that exactly what happens when one fish in the barrel decides to rot and the rest become tainted, whether imagined or not? There’s a whole lot more different barrels out there. By the way, whatever happened to all those bulging muscles we used to see in the top athletes, not too mention the Popeye arms of the pro-golfers — have they all stopped taking drugs or spinach?

When you see 6ft-plus cyclists, imitating emaciated scarecrows who couldn’t throw a leg over a bike, riding in Grand Tours without breaking sweat, you wonder exactly what sort of diet they are on.

LIAM POWER, Ballina, Co. Mayo.

Clever Fido!

WE’RE told that apes can call up memories like humans do (Mail). I don’t know about apes, but I know dogs have memories. Years ago, we were looking after my uncle’s dog when he was away on holiday and one day we visited my grandmother, taking the dog with us.

She had a cat for which a saucer full of milk was put down and when the dog saw this, he immediately drank it. On all subsequent visits, as soon as the front door was opened, he’d dash through and drink the cat’s milk. He remembered where it was.

Years later, we had our own dog and he went to my wife’s parents when we went on holiday. They lived on a main road and my parents lived on the same road half a mile away.

One afternoon, they heard barking at their front door: the dog had got out from my wife’s parents’ house and walked the half-mile to my parents. To have had a clear picture of where he was going, he must have had a good memory. S. A. STADDON,

Sunderland.