Madam, - By my actions know me. When news broke recently that a group of the chosen had turned €31 million into €85 million, a consequence of which will be to deprive others of a fair share of the pie, the silence from this Government was akin to standing in a field during a windless snowy downpour.
When news broke that a group of our elderly in State care were nibbling a crumb or two extra, Harney reacted with the speed of a Victorian surgeon to stop any such sharing of the pie.
Indeed it is not too fanciful now to think that, if the elderly were in any way to interfere with the relentless redistribution up of resources, a final solution might be contemplated.
Let's face it, when pigeonholing the present government, right-wing just doesn't cut it any more. - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.
Madam, - What an irony! As the State's coffers are bursting with money from (our) taxes, and financial commentators increasingly talk of the arrival of the Celtic Tiger (Mark 2), our "caring" Government can only shout "Bah humbug!" and set out to rush through legislation which will try to legitimise the past illegal extraction of money from the pensions of the less well-off - and to formalise that practice into the future.
Mary Raftery's article (December 16th), quoting Ms Harney's previous comments on the care of the elderly, should be compulsory reading for all potential Scrooges over this Christmas period. - Yours, etc,
HARRY McCAULEY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Madam, - I wholeheartedly agree with Mary Raftery's account (December 16th) of the scandalous treatment of pensioners at the hands of Health Minister Mary Harney.
Last August, in an interview with Morning Ireland, the Minister insisted that wealthy people should contribute voluntarily to society rather being coerced into paying tax. The same Minister now illegally steals money from old people who have paid tax on their incomes all their working lives. This happens alongside annual tax avoidance giveaways of €10 billion a year to the wealthiest in Irish society. There was never a more glaring example of "one law for the rich, one for the poor".
In the context of the development of social rights across the EU, where a right to free care for those over 70 has existed under the Health Care Act of 2001 in Ireland, it is now being extinguished when the Exchequer is being asked to pay. I shudder to think about the future prospects for social rights under the present disability Bill in these circumstances.
Mary Harney and the PDs made their name as the party of Openness, Transparency and Accountability. However, they knowingly deducted money from pensioners illegally for three years.
To add insult to injury they now refuse to pay the money back. It is high time that financial compensation be secured for every last old person from whom money has been stolen by bringing the Government through the courts.
This is not unusual in Ireland. Vulnerable people, be they haemophiliacs or homeless youths, have been forced down this road in the past.
In a society where there is a waiting list for handbags worth €5,000 and where a Government Minister can award uncontested lucrative financial contracts and junkets abroad to personal advisers, why do old people on €160 a week have to suffer? - Yours, etc.,
TOM O'CONNOR,
Department of Social Studies,
Cork Institute of Technology,
Cork.
Madam, - Financially mugging pensioners at Christmas is an original way of displaying newly acquired socialist credentials. Presumably, it is the Stalinist road to socialism that the Fianna Fáil party is travelling. Perhaps in 2005, we will open our very own Irish Gulag! - Yours, etc.,
ALAN SHATTER,
Upper Ely Place,
Dublin 2.