Madam, - As a European citizen, I was in total shock and dismay on budget day when Ms Coughlan defended her Department's cuts in the Back to Education Allowance programme.
Ms Coughlan stated that it was because "foreigners" from other EU member-states were coming over here for "a bit of crack" and availing of the scheme. I do hope that when Ms Coughlan travels to the other EU member-states, she can travel there as a EU citizen with all the rights and privileges that it entails. I would not like if the French, Spanish, Italians or Germans see Ms Coughlan as a "second-class citizen or foreigner of the EU" but as a full and equal fellow citizen. It is ironic Ms Coughlan's fellow EU colleagues in Brussels and citizen of the EU do not share such a narrow vision of the EU's funds and resources, which have literally built the transport, educational and almost every other structure in the Republic of Ireland. Shame on you, Ms Coughlan, for such a desperate, poor and disturbing defence. Ms Coughlan and the current Government's view certainly would not seem to be in the full spirit of the EU. - Yours, etc.,
MATTY O'LEARY, Blessington Street, Dublin 7.