JASON O'MAHONY,
Sir, - Dick Walsh says (Opinion, February 16th) that the present Government is the worst the country has ever had to endure. He also lambasts the PDs for being a nasty right-wing party of the well-off.
When he's finishing whinging, he might look at the details of the thing. In government, the PDs have slashed unemployment, increased pensions and health spending by unheard-of amounts, introduced a minimum wage for low earners, cut taxes for ordinary workers and taken thousands of low earners out of the tax net altogether. Which of these policies are the stuffed shirts of the alleged Irish Left opposed to?
We did cut Capital Gains Tax too, and Dick Walsh and pals attacked us for that. Why? Because by cutting CGT we increased the tax take and the amount of money government could spend on social services. But the Left would actually have preferred to keep CGT high even if it reduced State expenditure - because it was the left-wing thing to do.
In other words, taxing business for the sake of it was deemed a better outcome than raising revenue for wealth redistribution through social welfare provision.
And you dare to call us ideological? This is real social justice in the flesh, in euro and cent, and it just kills Dick Walsh and his mates that we did what they would only talk about. - Yours, etc.,
JASON O'MAHONY,
Secretary,
Progressive Democrats,
Dublin South-East,
Dublin 4.