Madam, – I must take issue with Joanna Tuffy TD’s assertion that she could “learn more about the impact our economic recession is having on our country and its people from constituency clinics and local meetings than. . .from articles or books” (March 12th).
Part of the reason our public finances are in such a dire state is that politics became a cockpit of interests fighting for their share of the Celtic Tiger windfall. Let us not forget that in the 2007 election the Opposition parties tried to gazump Fianna Fáil with even more grandiose promises of expanding public expenditure.
Maybe if politics was based on national leaders outlining their views of the national interest rather than on greasy cowboy TDs (90 per cent are men) dispensing local favours we would be in a far better position than we are. – Yours, etc,