Madam, - Is it any wonder that people in this country are disillusioned with politicians and the Government departments that they control, when all they see is the destabilising and dismantling of services they believe they have already paid for.
Mary Harney's latest statement suggesting that children contribute to the cost of keeping older relatives in retirement houses is typical of the genre.
I don't want my children to bear any costs in relation to my retirement - they have enough to do in looking after their own families without having to worry about me.
I have given the State large sums of money every year for the past 40 years - and when I say large, I mean large. When the Ansbacher account holders were paying no tax at all, the State was taking up to one-third of my income in direct taxation, and this from a single-income household with wife and children therein. I paid this money to the State so that it would set up a structure of services, one of which was the provision of care for the elderly.
There are certain words in the politicians' lexicon which are seldom heard and two of these are commitment and duty. When a commitment is made and money is taken to provide a service, then there is a duty to provide it.
So let's be up front: Is the service going to be provided or not? And, if it is not, then send me back the money that has been taken over the past 40 years, allowing for inflation and interest, and I will make my own arrangements. - Yours, etc.,
HUGO LACY, Mellifont Park, Drogheda, Co Louth.