Madam, - There has been surprisingly little comment on the Taoiseach's shoulder-shrugging admission recently that the Government will not permanently end hospital waiting lists by the middle of this year.
Despite a solemn statement from Fianna Fáil on May 6th, 2002, just days before the general election, that waiting lists would be a thing of the past by 2004, the Taoiseach scoffed at the notion on the weekend of his party's ardfheis. Now, however, hospital waiting-lists are longer than they were at the time of general election.
Mr Ahern and his party have shown such a contempt for the concept of honouring election promises that they believe they can now shrug their way out of every problem.
By June 11th, however, many of those shrugging shoulders may be painfully dislocated. - Yours, etc.,
OWEN O'SHEA, (Labour Party Candidate), Milltown, Co Kerry.