JOHN MINIHAN,
Sir, - Some tired old bogus rhetoric has re-emerged on your letters page in the wake of Tom Parlon's decision to seek election to the Dáil in Laois-Offaly for the Progressive Democrats.
The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, helped broker a resolution of the dispute between the IFA and the beef factories a few years ago. More recently, she played a key role in resolving the dispute between the beet growers and Greencore. These are hardly the actions of a politician who is out of tune with the needs of farmers and rural enterprise.
The Progressive Democrats believe in the power of enterprise. Some 400,000 new jobs across the whole country and an end to emigration in the past five years confirm our convictions and our confidence for the future.
We also believe in, and have promoted, the role of the State in delivering fairness in society. It was Mary Harney who introduced and increased the minimum wage. Des O'Malley set up the Competition Authority in the early 1990s to counter abusive business practices, and the Tánaiste has recently strengthened it.
She also set up a strong new office of Corporate Enforcement, to ensure that businesses comply with company law fully. She has introduced a new regime to supervise accountants. She has taken tough decisions to investigate tax and company law evasion in Ansbacher and other schemes.
It's about free enterprise, yes, but with rules and policies that ensure fair play for consumers, for all businesses, and for the less strong in society. To confuse that with freebooting, frontier capitalism is either very naïve or disingenuous.
To choose State control, higher tax and centralised bureaucracy over free and fair enterprise would damage our jobs and all our society, urban and rural. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN MINIHAN,
National Chairman,
Progressive Democrats,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - It is utterly untrue to state (January 26th) that the Progressive Democrats wish to abolish farm subsidy. There is not, nor has there ever been, such a policy.
On the contrary, since the foundation of the party, the Progressive Democrats have consistently sought to defend Irish farming within the CAP and to ensure adequate compensation for any changes to the CAP. We also support defence of the European system in world trade talks.
Our policy document "Defending Rural Ireland" emphasises the need to fight vigorously at Brussels level for adequate market clearing prices, proper compensation and support for alternative enterprises and rural development". Yours, etc,
Senator JOHN DARDIS,
Seanad Eireann,
Dublin 2.