Sir, – It appears that we are about to go the way we always go.
A broad-based water charge will be off-loaded onto a narrow tax base.
Those who have fulfilled their obligations and paid the service charge may or may not have it put back in their pockets.
Our political leaders appear content that crime will once again pay. Would it not be equitable for those who have paid the charges to be placed on a substantially reduced rate of income tax?
– Yours, etc,
ANDREW ROUS
Killiney,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Why are Independent TD John Halligan’s demand for cardiac services in Waterford, and Shane Ross’s reopening of a Garda station in Stepaside, regarded as “populist” or “parish pump” politics while another Independent TD Katherine Zappone’s demand for the referendum on abortion to be reopened is seen as a more honourable price to demand for supporting the Fine Gael government?
Surely all three non-party TDs are responding to the declared demands of their constituency electors.
National interest is an aggregation of local interests.
If we were not concerned to represent local interests and make local TDs accountable to their locality, then we would more logically have just one constituency for the entire country.
– Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ANDERSON
Balgriffin,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – It would now seem probable that we will have a government in the near future.
In the event that this takes place, and as an indication of commitment to a “new way of government”, could the summer holidays for TDs be reduced by the number of days it has taken to form a government?
– Yours, etc,
HP CONWAY
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – When I was appointed a director of an English National Health Service Trust, I was warned everyone wanted a state-of-the-art cardiac hospital at the bottom of their garden.
It now seems this is a prerequisite for helping to form a government in Ireland.
Whatever the merits of providing such a unit in Waterford as the alleged price for John Halligan TD’s support, surely health-service planning deserves to be carried out in a more detached and professional manner?
– Is mise,
KENNETH HARPER
Burtonport,
Co Donegal.