Cut TDs’ obscene pay and2020 scrap Senate to clear debt
LAST week you published details of TDs and senators’ salaries, allowances and expenses and it made for shocking reading.
All are on six-figure sums. This is nothing short of obscene when one considers that more than one million were trying to survive on the Covid-19 payment of €350 per week.
The Government should immediately cut its salaries, allowances and expenses by at least 20% to demonstrate that it recognises the shocking state of the country’s finances and the massive national debt mounting up every day.
Furthermore, it’s time once again to revisit the future of the Senate. This is an institution that serves no useful purpose other than as a back-door entry for politicians rejected by the electorate. It is nothing more than a relic of our colonial past. Let’s have another referendum, so the electorate can have another chance to ditch it once and for all.
Is there even one political party out there with the courage to adopt these proposals into their manifesto? I won’t hold my breath!
M O’Sullivan, Co. Cork.
We’re all republicans!
THE prominent parts played by Sinn Fein leaders at the funeral of IRA man Bobby Storey is a reminder that the political party has not moved forward from its bloodied past. There were claims that the required physical distancing was observed at the event, but the truth is that countless law-abiding people would wish to be well away from such arrogant individuals.
In a MoS issue of July 5, Noel Harrington from Kinsale, Co. Cork informed unsuspecting readers of making the long journey to Belfast to ‘pay my respects to a great republican’. The letter-writer made the assertion that no rules were broken although pictures suggested otherwise.
A newspaper article earlier this week described the deceased as a feared terrorist while Mr
Harrington said that Storey worked for peace and equality. Many of us get a tad tired of hearing Shinners being described as republicans.
After all, surely all of us living in this country are republicans but, it does seem, that some Sinn Féin consider themselves to be more Irish than the rest of us.
Billy Wilson, Waterford City.
No more ‘me féin’
THERE is no doubt that for democracy to prosper, the effectiveness of the opposition is as important as that of government. The damage caused by the ineptitude of the Corbyn opposition in recent UK politics is more obvious by the day even if the real costs are yet to be finally assessed, while through the woeful inadequacy of the Democrats, a morally bankrupt U.S. president has every chance of re-election in the coming months. Despite being in opposition, this is still Mary Lou’s chance to bring the ‘change’ she and her party have been megaphoning about since the General Election.
Consequently, I anticipate an end to the usual opposition tactics of: opposing everything while having all the answers; evading detailed analysis and costing of its alternative courses of action; lowering to selective personal attacks and, when in a corner of its own making, as with the recent Bobby Storey funeral, hiding behind a smokescreen of conjecture and generalisation in avoiding responsibility.
Will we witness Sinn Féin casting aside the ‘me féin’ proclivity of traditional opposition parties and be driven to upholding the best interests of all the people of the country with relentlessness, diligence and integrity.
Now that would be real change.
Michael Gannon, Co. Kilkenny,
Fable of a hospital
THREE months of delays caused by a lack of communication between the State and the construction company building the Children’s Hospital reminds me of this story.
There was a farmer who was looking for the perfect cow to buy. He went from market to market searching for the perfect cow but would always find fault with the cows he was looking at. He didn’t like the cow’s colour, the ears were too flat, the tail too short or the shoulders were too small.
This went on for over a year with no perfect cow being found.
If he had just started with a calf, it would be a cow by now.
Kevin Devitte, Westport, Co. Mayo.
Memories of Jack
THE news of Jack Charlton’s death has been received with great sadness in this country. At a time when Anglo-Irish relations were strained, the charm and warmth of his northern English pragmatism went a long way to helping us recognise what we had in common with our neighbours. In addition to the joyful memories he gave us with the teams he stewarded, he should be celebrated for this.
Sam Hughes, Glasnevin, Dublin 11.