Sir, – Stephen Collins's article (Opinion, August 6th) "Ireland not immune to virus that spawned Donald Trump's success" is nothing more than an apologia for the last government. He writes that conventional wisdom before the February election was that the last government would get some credit for the significant recovery in the economy between 2011 and 2016 and that recent governments were punished rather than rewarded for doing the right thing.
In fact the ESRI concluded that all the coalition budgets were biased against the lowest income. groups. Stephen Collins describes these measures as “courageous political decision-making”. I doubt if those attacked by these budgets would agree.
He goes on to complain that a huge proportion of the electorate refused to believe there had been any improvement in the first place. That’s because a big proportion of the electorate really have not seen any improvement. Many sectors have been left behind in Ireland’s recent growth.
He also writes that a majority of voters is simply not prepared to believe anything from established politicians even when they are clearly telling the truth. Was Enda Kenny telling the truth when he promised he would never introduce a tax on people’s homes? Was Labour telling the truth when it said it would be Labour’s way, not Frankfurt’s way, and then spent five years in government without even applying to the EU for a retrospective bank bailout?
Is it just possible that “a majority of voters is simply not prepared to believe anything from established politicians” because they have shown they cannot be trusted to tell the truth? – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.