Sir, - On foot of Mary Harney's proposal to cut thousands of Community Employment jobs, Fintan O'Toole wrote an article entitled "A cold and distant place for outsiders".
I am currently employed by FAS on a CE scheme. Apart from an extremely uncompetitive salary I like my job and feel I contribute in a meaningful way to my local community. Mary Harney's decision will soon change all that for thousands like me. There will be no golden handshakes when our scheme is scrapped and we are forced to leave our jobs. Nor will any of my CE co-workers have offshore accounts to soften the blow.
Protest marches to Leinster House, petitions and letters to Mary Harney have been and will continue to be ignored. Why? Because the changes she is proposing largely affect the poorer members of our society who have no voice and certainly no political influence. They are devalued and disregarded and their opinions are not considered worth seeking.
Everyone, no matter what their financial circumstances, should feel they have some control within their particular setting and have power to lobby for change if they feel change is needed. Everyone should feel they can make a difference. In our Ireland of today, greed and the accumulation of wealth are the qualities which are respected, admired and applauded. Our credibility derives, not from personal integrity or any contribution we might make to society, but from the power which wealth brings. Until this social injustice changes the poor will remain powerless.
And now we are seeing and hearing what many people have suspected for years. Many of the so-called "movers and shakers" in our society have amassed vast sums of money by fraud and deceit. Even now when they are being found out and exposed, we know in our hearts and souls that they will never be made to account for their behaviour and their crimes will go unpunished.
Would ordinary decent people want to have any association with the current apparatus of power? No thanks. - Yours, etc.,
Joan Byrne, Dundela Avenue, Sandycove, Co Dublin.