Madam, – I despair at how out of touch our ministers and politicians are. The citizens of this State are not stupid and most are feeling the pinch in the current recession. Households and companies are taking steps to cope. I myself was made redundant late last year.
A reduction in the number of Ministers of State will not save a huge amount of money, but it will send a clear message that nobody is immune. The “jobs for the boys/girls” have got to stop.
Ministerial cars should be available only for Department business, and not for constituency or family use. In the UK there are no state cars, but a department car is available to a secretary of state for departmental business.
If the minister lives outside London the car drops him or her to the train station. How many times have we seen UK cabinet members in the UK being interviewed on trains, as they return to London from their constituency? Here we allow the minister to fly in a state aircraft to his constituency, while his car and driver head off by road to pick him up at his local airport. To add insult to this, none of the State car users pay any benefit-in-kind for car or driver.
On the Opposition side we have almost daily calls for the Dáil to be recalled. The latest bit of nonsense is the call for a general election, as if this is going to make any difference. Personally I think it might be better if the Dáil was suspended. I fail to see how hurling insults across the chamber helps the present economic situation in any way at all. surely now is the time for our politicians to pull together in the national interest. – Yours, etc,