Madam, - It is kind of you indeed to allow the Labour Party to use your pages for its navel-gazing. While is not for me to intrude on a bitter internal feud, I must take issue with Willie Penrose's claim that the Labour party is on the side of the people - "whether it's about pensions, or childcare, or jobs, or health or education" (Opinion & Analysis, May 10th).
Well, if the people have friends like this, they don't need enemies. Under each and every heading, this Fianna Fáil-led Government has delivered much, much more than the Labour Party ever did.
Willie Penrose has some neck to mention pensions. Who can forget the paltry €1.80 increase in the first Labour budget? The average increase since 1997 has been €10 a week. For childcare, just €3.3 million was allocated for services in 1997. And €506 million was spent on child benefit in 1997 compared with an estimated €1,916 million in 2005.
In our schools, the number of primary-level children being taught in classes of over 30 has been halved. The final Labour budget proposed to cut teacher numbers.
Since 1997, we have had a Government that has doubled public expenditure while halving the national debt. It is also a Government that has halved unemployment while doubling social welfare expenditure.
I hope this clarifies who is really on the side of the people. - Yours, etc,
BILLY KELLEHER TD, Government Deputy Chief Whip, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.