Sir, – The Irish people have shown incredible restraint over the six years since the emergence of austerity government in the wake of financial irregularities in the Irish banking system and we need to recognise this as tempers threaten to run out of control in the political struggle over water charges. There are two parties to such disputes in any democracy and two parties against which accusations of blameworthiness can be directed.
Dignified protest about the bailout has been present from the beginning, particularly in the inspiring Ballyhea campaign. I believe that there have now been no fewer than 194 serious but entirely law-abiding protests. But what is the attitude of the political establishment to Ballyhea? Little more at its best, it would seem, than benign neglect or indifference. A government has a duty to respond to peaceful protest. A failure to do so in the long run will lead to protests that are far from peaceful.
In the general election of 2011, the Irish people placed their trust to an unusual degree in Labour on the basis of a manifesto which, for example, opposed water charges.
The receipt of water charges that cannot be paid because of previous austerity measures is a threat in itself to people who try to live without debt. This threat seems to have escaped the notice of political elites that are themselves cushioned from such debts.
Finally, Irish taxpayers are not responsible for the debts of foreign bankers or indeed of Irish bankers. It is a failure of democracy to impose these debts upon them. And indeed they are unsustainable as well as intolerable. – Yours, etc,
Dr GERALD
MORGAN, FTCD
Dublin 2.
Sir, – For the last few months hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland have protested about the water charges and the handling of the issue. The Government and politicians duly ignored them. I believe that out of a sense of frustration some people have resorted to violent protests. I don’t condone violence, in particular the violence of the protests experienced by the Tánaiste in Jobstown and the Taoiseach in Sligo.
However, the Government and our elected representatives need to hang their heads in shame at what they have driven the people to. Listening, engaging with and treating the people with common courtesy would have had a much better effect than totally disregarding the more than 100,000 peaceful protesters. – Yours, etc,
MAURA RYAN,
Achill Island,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – Stephen O'Byrnes's article is rather odd ("'Peaceful protest' over Irish Water is truly a charade", Opinion & Analysis, November 19th). If there has been such a radical revision of the water scheme, is it not right to assume that protest was justified, and necessary, and that the Government is now acknowledging that its original plan was flawed?
As for his “iPads and iPhones” comment, is it that journalists may use them, but not the demonstrators they are covering? Mr O’Byrnes may as well say that the protesters were “well fed” or had “homes to go to”. As for the lead statement “fomented by extreme left-wing factions . . . to undermine democratic politics”, is that not an adage used by any establishment under pressure?
As for the Joan Burton incident, yes, of course it is bad stuff, inappropriate for this dimension of agitation, and invalid, not least because she clearly has been the most sympathetic voice inside Government of those opposed to the water blunder. Yet if people “lose it” in response to what is felt as unjust, it may be shocking, but isn’t that an occasional feature of politics, and of history? – Yours, etc,
FINTAN VALLELY,
Rathmines, Dublin 6.