Noonan can create jobs... if he leaves his own one
MAYBE one of the reasons there are people who can work but don’t is because there are so many people like Michael Noonan in Ireland.
Wasn’t he a teacher once? Didn’t he then get elected to a council but still hold on to his teaching job? Even after he became a TD, didn’t he (and all the other TDs who have never worked a day in their life in the real world) still hold on to his teacher position and pension, while also clocking up a council and TD’s pension?
Then, even as a minister, didn’t he still hold on to his teaching job, while not actually doing any teaching but preventing another person taking the job?
Isn’t Mr Noonan, by his refusal to accept he has nothing new to offer and by clinging on to office, depriving a younger more fit and capable person of taking a job and making a contribution to fixing Ireland for a future that younger person will have to live in? Mr Noonan is moving towards the end of his career and won’t need to face the consequences of his failings as a minister.
Isn’t he also in receipt of a State pension, a Dáil salary and pension, plus a ministerial salary and pension, and doesn’t he also receive a few extra thousand euro every month in t ax- f r ee unverified expenses?
This is the same man who, along with the likes of Des O’Malley and Willie O’Dea, has been at Cabinet for decades while allowing his native county of Limerick to have some of the worst socially deprived areas in the entire country.
We can see what sort of country Ireland would have become if the likes of people like Mr Noonan were allowed a free rein.
So forgive me if I treat comments from someone like Michael Noonan with the same sneering contempt he displays to the people of Ireland, especially the ones struggling because of the policies Mr Noonan applies to others but not to himself.
It’s no wonder so many people struggle to find jobs when has-beens like Noonan refuse to loosen their death grip like they are some sort of Japanese company man. DESMOND FITZGERALD, London. YOU report that Michael Noonan finds that many people on the dole are allergic to work.
Is he therefore implying that there are no employed people who are equally allergic to work, like, for example, the State system operatives who sleep-walked us into economic destruction?
We surely have a bright future when Mr Noonan cures this allergy, as he promises, by generating full employment on l i veable wages. Mr Noonan, sir, if you need a distraction from your political problems, would you please pick a shield other than the most vulnerable in our society.
MICHEÁL Ó SEIGHIN, Béal an Átha, Co. Mhaigh Eo.
Where’s the fairness?
THE fact that the Government has set up a Low Pay Commission, rather than a fair and equal pay commission, is a clear indication that there is an official intention to insure that low pay will be imposed on a permanent basis, and particularly on the voiceless workers.
I note that the eight-member board is headed by a former banker and many of his team members are full-time senior trade union officials. I presume all are earning more than the national minimum wage of €8.65 per hour. I would question what does any one of those sitting on that commission know about living on a pittance income.
Before any take their cosy seats, all must disclose their total income, both pay and extras. This reference point would help us relate to the difference between their world and the world of the low paid.
Also why, as yet, is there no representative from within the low paid appointed to this board? Now where did I hear someone demand ‘all for one and one for all’?
DENIS O’HIGGINS, Monaghan.
Leave protesters alone!
YOUR articles on the water protesters leave me fuming. Why have none of your cohorts interviewed the working people that are protesting? Sorry, silly me – that would not garner the same attention as ‘half of protesters are unemployed’.
The majority of the group that I travel with to the protests are in fulltime employment. Not one of that group were interviewed.
I admire the unemployed who come out. It shows that they have motivation. They are not only protesting about the water charges but also because they cannot get jobs and are sick to the teeth of everything thrown at them.
Yes, there are some people who will never want to work but you won’t find them at the protests simply because they won’t get off their chair to go out. It might also be wise to do a survey on the people that buy your paper. You might get a shock.
LORETTO KING, Galway.
Definition of marriage
I HAVE always believed that marriage between two persons meant one male and one female.
I have heard someone say that the No brigade are afraid to admit to saying No. I for one am not afraid to express my opinion. I have always believed that a marriage is between a man and a woman, and that is not about to change.
I remember seeing a Laurel and Hardy film where Oliver informed Stan of his impending marriage. Stan inquires is it to a woman, and Oliver replies: ‘Of course it is to a woman – who ever heard of a man marrying another man?’
How times have changed, and to my way of thinking, certainly not for the better. I wonder if Enda and Joan don’t get the result that they want then will we be having another referendum? It wouldn’t be a first. Didn’t Fianna Fáil do it? BRENDAN O’BRIEN,
Tallaght, Dublin 24.
That’s true equality
ALL men should shun any woman who espouses same-sex marriage and similarly all women should shun any man who does likewise just to give them a taste of their own medicine!
COLM O’CONNOR, Dublin 14.