Madam, - I see another acronym has been thrust upon us. You describe Tasc as a social policy think-tank (The Irish Times, June 21st). I do not like the sound of it. A lobby group like any other, it should be treated with the scepticism we reserve for any special interest group.
I suspect it is part of the loose but powerful campaign to wean us off market economics and into the arms of "social" Europe. Social Europe is a disaster area. The French, for example, cleave to their 35-hour working week, six weeks' annual holidays and a cradle-to-grave social welfare system. These are admirable benefits provided you can afford them - and France cannot.
Call it globalisation or whatever, but the world is moving on and so must France if it is not to perish. France has a persistent unemployment rate of just over 10 per cent. Ireland has nil unemployment; let's keep it that way. Keeping people in jobs is real social justice. In that sense Bertie Ahern is right to call himself a socialist even if his motives in doing so are not Simon-pure.
Tasc would drive us away from Boston and towards Berlin. Berlin is where Gerhard Schoeder hangs out - at the moment on the window ledge of a 40-storey building.
You do not tell us what the acronym stands for. I suggest Truly Awful Social Contract. - Yours, etc,
JIM DUNNE, Margaret Place, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.