Madam, - Eddie Holt's article in your Weekend Review of June 11th was one of the best I have read for years. It tells how the French have a 35-hour week, six weeks' holidays, retirement at 65. They also have the world's best health service, railways and urban architecture. Despite this, nobody talks about the "French tiger".
Ireland models itself on America and Britain. Both societies are in irreversible decline. The reasons are quite similar. In both the rich are getting richer and it is at the expense of the rest. Not only is the real income of the majority falling if measured against house prices, but falling even more dramatically is the amount of free time and security which the average person has.
In 1972 a teacher could buy a house on a single salary in the area I live in. Now two teachers with joint salaries could not do so. In Dublin the situation is worse. In real terms the income of the average person has fallen in the past 30 years.
As the working day and commuting times get longer, people are left with less time for their children, spouses, parents and themselves. In the 1960s parents spent 30 hours weekly with their children. In the 1980s it had fallen to 18 hours. I wonder what it is now. The results are easy to see: obese, depressed children, stressed parents, abandoned old people and soaring suicide rates, as well as climbing rates of crime.
Until the Government, the media and the people stop fooling themselves about the Celtic tiger, things will continue to get worse. The economic welfare of a people is measured by the quality of housing, healthcare, law and order, job security, and the amount of time people have for themselves and their families. - Yours, etc,
LIAM KIERAN, Sandymount Drive, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth.