Madam, - So Mary Harney and her PD colleagues are concerned that "community values" are under pressure (The Irish Times, October 14th).
Are we being asked to believe that they are unaware of the consequences that derive from the policies based on "individualisation" that she and the Government have been foisting on us over these past eight years? The wholesale withdrawal of basic services so that the private sector can profit from essential need is a fine way to enhance our sense of community. Even now, she is insisting on growing private sector involvement in the health service by expanding the NPTF and incentivising this growth through tax relief for the building of private hospitals on public lands.
Is she really asking us to believe that she does not understand the negative impact on our sense of community when one citizen waits for hours or even days for medical treatment while others sail into plush facilities to receive immediate and preferential treatment? Methinks these crocodile tears are induced by the prospect of an election, and not any seismic conversion on the road to Emo. - Yours, etc,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.
Madam, - Is Mary Harney serious? The very political philosophy of the PDs is one of greed and selfishness, profit at any cost. And it is this core philosophy which is at the root of the destruction of community spirit and cohesion. Her PD colleague Tom Parlon has also recently been bemoaning the collapse of community
Her other colleague, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, voiced the true representation of the PD ethos when he said inequality was a good thing in society.
To date the PDs have at least been honest enough to present their philosophy in manifesto before the electorate and whatever support they have gained has been on that basis. Are they now acknowledging that the same electorate is on the verge of rejecting untrammelled neo-liberalism? - Is mise,
VINCENT WOOD, Newtown Clogher, Claremorris, Co Mayo.