Madam, - In his letter of May 22nd, Mr John O'Donoghue neatly sidesteps the people's perception that they were deceived by the Fianna Fáil party during the last general election.
He does so by offering a different explanation of why his party was returned to power. The parties that brought Ireland to her knees in the 1980s were not considered by the electorate a credible alternative to Fianna Fáil, according to the Minister.
But the electorate knew, even if the Minister did not, that the primary reason for our financial problems in the 1980s was the disastrous financial policies pursued by the Fianna Fáil governments of Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey in 1977-81. The most the subsequent coalition government of Garret FitzGerald could be accused of was failure to completely rectify the situation, in the face of virulent, irresponsible opposition from Mr Haughey.
Our current financial problems are caused somewhat similarly, not so much by current mistakes as by poor financial management by the 1997-2002 Ahern Government. This is what gave rise to the need for deception by the Fianna Fáil Party in the 2002 election, when Government expenditure moved merrily along until after the election and then was reined in abruptly. This is the point that Mr O'Donoghue did not address. - Yours, etc.,
TOM RYAN,
Leoville,
Dunmore Road,
Waterford.