Sir, - Just about everyone - Government, Opposition, IBEC, trade unions - appears to be calling for massive tax cuts, not just for the low paid (for which there is justification) but in the higher rate. Yet on the front page of your issue of October 29th you report that there are at least 1,477 patients waiting for heart surgery, and that at least 60 have died in the past five years (18 in the last year-and-a-half) while on the waiting list. The surgeon Mr Neligan said there would need to be a further 250 operations a year to make any impression on the list.
There seems to be a similar situation right across the Health Service: waiting lists, lack of accommodation, poor facilities. How can we possibly justify major tax cuts when our health and other public services are so poor? We can't afford it? The Celtic Tiger can't afford it? I write as one who was fortunate enough to have a heart bypass on the VHI without delay. Where would I be now if I had had to rely on the Health Service? And, yes, I do pay the higher rate of tax! - Yours, etc.,
From Joss Lynam
Ardilea Estate, Dublin 14.