Republican News · Thursday 14 November 2002

Playing Santa with our money

A Chairde,

I was horrified and appalled when I picked up the Sunday Tribune this week and read the four headlines on the front page. It would seem that the government has adopted the role of Santa Claus to the privileged this year, and has been busy handing out as much money as it can to the least deserving.

The paper first revealed that doctors have been in receipt of as much as €51 million as a result of a blunder by health boards, who were paying out medical card fees for up to 20,000 dead and ineligible patients.

The second headline stated that the government was facing a cost of €1 billion to upgrade the M50 because a decade ago it saved €65 million by cutting costs against professional advice.

Third was the revelation that civil servants are enjoying a tax-free perk of city parking worth up to as much as €350 million, and that of the 12,300 office parking spaces in the city centre, 7,380 are taken up by the public sector. These free parking spaces are provided despite the governments alleged commitment to cutting down traffic in and out of the city.

The fourth headline told us that the state will have to pay out more than €1 million in out-of-court settlements on behalf of the gardaí, to people suing for assault, harassment and wrongful arrest.

These four stomach-churning headlines have one thing in common, and that is the complete ineptitude of the authorities in this state. Health, safety, the environment and the economy are all matters of grave concern at the moment, as they all seem to be going down the toilet.

In addition, thanks to the government's fantastic cost-cutting ideas ten years ago, we now have traffic gridlock every day, gridlock the government is adding to by encouraging its own workers to drive into work and avail of their free parking spaces. This is affecting our environment, not to mention adding to stress levels citywide.

Yes, Santa has come early to Ireland, and we, the taxpaying elves, are doing all the gift giving.

Larry O'Toole,
Sinn Féin Councillor,
Dublin North East

Free to shop

A Chairde,

I grew up Irish-American here in Seattle in a family of Burkes and Conroys from County Galway and I was a grown man before I came to learn that "Goddamnbritish" was two words. Being thusly sensitised to foreign intervention I do not approve of US meddling in South America and for that reason I have enjoyed reading "Latin America resists US-led trade agreement" in your recent edition of An Phoblacht. It seemed quite accurate and resonated with everything I have learned while doing Latin American studies and learning the Spanish language in community college in the evenings. We meddle everywhere for the sake of profit.

The ethics of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson have mostly disappeared here in the USA and have been replaced by those of Adam Smith and, lately, Juan Peron. I fear that what the US government and US military have been practicing in Latin America is about to be played to perfection here in the USA. Our Latin American foreign policy is prelude to our upcoming Homeland Security (It sounds so German!) bill which is about to be debated before the Republican Congress.

To understand our American news media one need first study Gramsci. We get little real news here and our television network coverage of the attempted US led coup in Venezuela left one with the feeling that we had just liberated Paris from the Germans.

We used to be free here. Now we are merely free to shop.

John Lapham,
Shoreline,
WA
USA

Tackling anti-social behaviour

A Chairde,

As a Dubliner, the rise in violence around the city is noticeable. It is impossible to watch the news or read a newspaper without coming across reports of muggings, stabbings, shootings and even murders.

I don't believe that the numbers of young people hanging around on our streets are all up to no good. Most are there because the youth facilities in their areas are hopelessly inadequate to meet the demands of a rapidly increasing youth population.

I am not naïve. The other side of the story is that small section who bring unrest and fear to communities by harassing and using threatening behaviour. Some estates are still in the thrall of these gangs of young thugs, but why should already underprivileged communities have to accept this, when it would not be accepted for a moment in areas like Foxrock and Ballsbridge?

My point is that the government must take responsibility for its failures in tackling the poverty that is at the root of so much of the violent crime that afflicts our society. But as citizens and parents, we also have a responsibility to try to make things better, by refusing to be cowed by anti-social elements and by making positive contributions to the life of communities.

Robbie Sargent,
PRO, Crumlin Sinn Féin
Dublin