Madam, - Dick Roche (April 11th) is very keen to point out facts. The most relevant fact is that, as Minister for the Environment of a first-world State, he is presiding over a third-world problem.
The supply of clean water in an economy such as ours should be a given. But that this problem has occurred should come as no surprise when one looks at some other facts.
The first is that a Government should provide leadership and exercise that leadership at local level. It is the Government that is ultimately responsible for clean water supplies, not local councils.
The second fact is that funding never built anything. Drive, vision and leadership also need to be added to the mix. Where was the Minister's drive, vision, and leadership in 2002 when funding was made available to Galway City Council?
The present Government of which Minister Roche is an integral part continues to be reactive instead of proactive on many issues. Post-Celtic Tiger Ireland has a capital which suffers from infrastructural problems usually associated with third-world countries.
As someone born in 1960s London of parents who emigrated in the 1950s and returned in the 1970s, I heard about historic political leaders. About Sean Lemass and Donough O'Malley, the ideal of free education, the success of Bord na Móna. Where are such visionaries and leaders now - the people who can really shape a country? What might those men have done had they the funds available to the politicians of today?
Who knows? But one can never say they lacked leadership, a quality of which Mr Roche and the present administration are sadly bereft. - Yours, etc,
ASHLEY HAYDEN, Ballythomas,Gorey, Co Wexford.
Madam, - With regard to Dick Roche's letter in defence of FF's lack of performance on yet another major issue, it was not Fintan O'Toole who "overlooked a number of facts" but Mr Roche himself.
The major fact is that after 10 years of FF/PD Government, the people of Ireland cannot be guaranteed freedom from crime (anybody remember "zero tolerance"?), decent health care, decent waste disposal, decent education or even, in this case, water fit to drink.
The next major fact is that nice words, such as those always trotted out by FF to blame the latest disaster on somebody else, do not stop people getting ill and dying or even being killed.
Actions, please, Mr Roche, not the perpetual empty words of your party after the event. Mr O'Toole was and is no more "biased" than I am in trying to work towards a better Ireland to live in. If that's bias, I'm all for it. - Yours, etc,
DICK BARTON, Kevin Street, Tinahely, Co Wicklow.