Here is an edited selection of some of the online comments in response to Jim Glennon’s article published yesterday
Nitrate Stock:You left politics because you were exhausted dealing with all the clientelist concerns you had to address from your constituents . . . A lost passport is sorted by the intervention of a TD, a process that filters up the line to find us at the very top in the Fianna Fáil tent, where a pesky zoning problem is sorted out for a supplicant developer by a minister taking a week off to go to the races . . . Please, bring on the under-40s to flush out these corrupt, ossified cynics from government.
Chris:The system is shattered beyond repair. Eamon Gilmore is dead right . . . Brian Cowen needs to come clean and tell the Irish people exactly what is behind all of this . . . He is asking that we the people take on face value that all arrangements pertaining to Anglo with respect to official advice was verbal! Rubbish. And if it was then that is further proof of governmental negligence and recklessness. Publish all the details and do it now and we will judge how honest the process has been.
Old Codger:It's time to give the 30-something generation the reins of power says Glennon. Yeah, good idea. Let them make a hames of it for a change instead of us old codgers. As a big idea I remain to be convinced.
Rob Dowling:I agree 100% with Chris – publish all the official advice to Anglo. We are in a total emergency in this country right now. A €22 billion handout will destroy us.
Jay:This is a failed state. We most certainly need to start again. From scratch. We can. We should. But first we need justice. Anglo Irish was and is an act of national treason. Such crime must not be seen to pay.
Robert Browne:I agree that, "we just don't do ideology, do we?" And that is why we are floundering around in the dark . . . We need a government of national unity, a new judiciary and a new constitution – fast.