Madam, - If Michael McDowell thinks the Government currently does not need the amount of revenue being generated by stamp duty, perhaps he might talk to those working with homeless people, or drug users, or children with special needs, or people with disabilities, or to teachers in deprived areas, or. . . - Yours, etc,
Fr PETER McVERRY SJ,
Jesuit Centre for Faith
and Justice,
Upper Sherrard Street,
Dublin 1.
Madam, - We read with interest Michael McDowell's comment that the Government does not need the €2.7 billion generated annually by stamp duty.
As advocates on behalf of older people, may we suggest that any spare funds could be used to raise the basic State pension? Even if the Government honours its commitment in the Programme for Government and increases the basic pension to €200 in this year's Budget, it will not lift many pensioners above the poverty line.
Equally, older people living alone are among the poorest in society and would benefit greatly from an increase in the Living Alone Allowance.
Or how about bolstering the country's patchy community care service? This would not only help improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of older people by enabling them to continue living independently in their own homes, but it would also take pressure off the health services. - Yours, etc,
EAMON TIMMINS,
Head of Advocacy
and Communications,
Age Action Ireland,
Lower Camden Street,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - The Progressive Democrats say they are concerned about those who are second-time buyers and have to pay stamp duty. But just a few years ago, this Government said the first-time buyers' grant had outlived its usefulness, so it was scrapped - without a word out of the PDs.
We are in for a season of this stuff before the election. The usual consumer advice should apply: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. - Yours, etc,
KATHRYN MULREADY,
Calderwood Road,
Drumcondra
Dublin 9.
Madam, - What has happened to political integrity in the Progressive Democrats since Des O'Malley took a back seat? Since the 1997 election, the survival instinct may have forced them to cling to Fianna Fáil, holding their noses in the face of tribunal scandals and ministerial incompetence. In those circumstances, some compromise of their supposedly high standards could be regarded as inevitable.
However, the McCreevy-Parlon decentralisation plan, unveiled in the 2003 budget, was as shameful a piece of political cute-hoorism as you'll ever see. The PDs were seen to be involved in the divvy-up of public service jobs, scattered to various constituencies with little or no regard to the same Government's much touted National Spatial Strategy, published only a year earlier.
This exercise exposed the PDs as being just as morally bankrupt as their FF partners in crime. You only have to think of "Parlon Country" to conjure up an appropriate image of gombeen politics in action.
Now we have the attempt to buy the middle-class vote in urban centres by promising a major reform of stamp duty on houses. I was expecting a giveaway pre-election budget from the Fianna Fáil wing of the current coalition, but they've been outflanked by the PDs.
Mr McDowell claims the Government doesn't need the money raised annually by this tax, at a time when there are clearly insufficient funds going into psychiatric hospitals, refurbishing school buildings, providing social housing, caring for the elderly, services to the handicapped and those with special needs, etc, etc.
The party's name should be changed from PD to SS - Shameful and Shameless. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY,
Haddington Park,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.