Sir, – I listened to an independent TD reminding the nation that a week is a long time in politics. Really?
Can we as an electorate remind all elected TDs that 10 weeks is a long time without an elected government and while we may quite like, or not notice, the absence of a government, please stop patronising us.
We do pay your salary by the way.
– Yours, etc,
JOHN O’CONNELL
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – The general tone of the post-election debate seems to be that we have returned to the Celtic Tiger situation in which the demands of every vested interest have to be met by spending more and more taxpayers’ money.
We are even bringing back to prominence many of the powerful people who made the decisions during the Celtic Tiger era to buy off all vested interests with taxpayers’ money.
That was the policy which eventually helped to bankrupt the country.
Is repeating the policies of the Celtic Tiger and honouring their practitioners in the national interest?
– Yours, etc,
A LEAVY
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – It appears there is some State alarm at the prospect of job losses at Intel. Yet 10 weeks of “intensive” (we are told) political discussion among the newly-elected 158 has failed to elicit a single mention of the desperate need for a new strategy to counter rampant automation which is usurping, on a vast scale, every type of employment there is.
Intel is just the tip of a gigantic iceberg of multinational trouble with companies trying to counter gross over-production, intensive technological advance which makes even recent innovation obsolete, and an urgent need for automation to retain competitiveness.
There appears to be no appreciation whatsoever of how 21st-century technology is transforming global economics. If the future government fails, as the two previous ones have, to grasp the implications and seriousness of the digital age, any cosy little arrangements they make will be as irrelevant as waffle over water or wishes generating work.
– Yours, etc,
PADRAIC NEARY
Tubbercurry,
Co Sligo.
Sir, – Ireland 1916, striving to form a government.
Ireland 2016, struggling to form a government. Is this some type of commemoration?
– Yours, etc,
EVE PARNELL
Dublin 8.
Sir, – As the horse-trading and giveaways are being finalised, we can at least be thankful for one positive outcome from the recent economic turmoil, the EU fiscal rules that will tie the hands of our politicians. Lest we forget the general government deficit is still €500 milion per month.
Our borrowed resources must be applied to where they are needed most and not to buy votes. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT DESMOND
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.