Dear Editor,
Garth Brookes has a line in his song saying “sometimes we thank God for unanswered prayers”. At the moment every one is shouting “let’s get this government out”.
Well those prayers are about to be answered in the next general election.
Fianna Fail is at the helm during the most disastrous time in our history and has brought this country and politics to a new low in the eyes of the public.
So what can the opposition do to change our country? To listen to the media and the entire phone in programmes all we need is this change of government and the good times will return. No more taxes, no more pay cuts, no more job losses and all our deductions in our wage packets will return
Let’s look at some of the main figures in the next government,
Enda Kenny is a nice man but even half of his own parliamentary party has publicly stated they have no confidence in him and yet they want the electorate to trust him with the position of leader of our country. A man who stated on RTE that there are 40 young people in their office working on the IT for Fine Gael and providing jobs is his priority and yet it was a Miami company that hosted his web page not an Irish company.
Dr James O’Reilly claims more expenses than any other Dublin TD. In a recent Irish independent article it showed him claiming 135k over the period studied. His new great plan to remove people from trolleys and waiting list while in opposition but now that he will be the next health minister it will take 10 years. Have we found the male Mary Harney? And the deal for the GPs payment he complains about was actually put together by the very same Dr James O’Reilly.
All our public service workers are shouting ‘out out’ to this government and who could argue against this, but FG in power intend to get rid of 30,000 employees from the public service — that’s 12,000 more than Fianna Fail — 12,000 of their workmates that are now calling for Cowen’s head.
Eamon Gilmore may be the next Bertie as he will say yes to anyone if it will get a vote for his party. Rumour has it he must go to A&E to get the splinters removed once a week of the fence he sits on. Remember the Croke Park agreement?
Poor Joan Burton was spokesperson for finance in opposition but now that the mercs and perks are here the two sleepy boys at the back Ruairi Quinn and Pat Rabbitt have expressed their interest. Having said that, how could Joan sell Ireland abroad, on the numerous junkets available, when she thinks our country is banjaxed, our economy is a corpse and our bonds are junk?
To the Greens who want us all to cycle to work and grow lettuce and live in eco-friendly houses... These are the ministers who cycle to work but have a garda to drive their Merc behind them to deliver their briefcases to the office. And of course there is Dan Boyle (who failed in his attempt to get elected but got the consolation job of a well-paid Senator to help him through the bad times ) spends the whole day tweeting and when he tweets, the government jumps. Ask ex-Minister Willie O’Dea. A failed politian rejected by the people still calling the shots. Now that’s democracy Irish style at work!
This Government has ruined the country by being asleep at the wheel and not because it was connected to big business or banks as Fine Gael proclaim, remember when last in government Fine Gael wiped out its party’s debt.
We do not elect our Taoiseach or ministers but the party in power decide who gets the well paid jobs, and Enda will have to reward those and the half of his party who supported him whether they are the right people for the job or not. It’s just like he has signed another contract in this election but this time to his party and not the public.
Why doesn’t each party put forward a candidate for each ministry i.e. FF Brian Cowen, FG Edna Kenny and Labour Eamon Gilmore etc for the position of Taoiseach and we vote on this, and the same for all other positions. Then we would end up with a real government that represents the wishes of all the people and not just one party or a coalition of a few. Each county could have two TDs to represent it in our parliament and that would mean we would have a house of 67 TDs a reduction of 100.
Now, on the question of reform does anyone really think that the Seanad will go and TDs numbers will be reduced as Fine Gael propose? Not a hope. A committee will be set up to review the reform, which will meet twice a year and cost the tax payers more money in expenses. They will eventually report back (if at all ) and find we need extra TDs to cover our growing population.
Remember a turkey won’t vote for Christmas. And remember after the upcoming election the ordinary man’s position on the street will still be the same except we will have a different government telling us we have turned the corner.
Yours,
Murty Brennan,
Kilderry,
Kilkenny
