Madam, - Not for the first time, the Taoiseach seems to be out of touch.
Mark Brennock reports Mr Ahern, speaking on the bin charge controversy, as saying, "An awful lot of people don't pay them because of the waiver scheme" (The Irish Times, September 12th).
Mr Ahern had just spent two days in the Borough of Sligo where bin charges are the highest in Europe and there is absolutely no waiver scheme in place.
It appears those in government who have a far-right-wing fiscal policy have many friends and admirers on Sligo Borough Council. The silence of local elected members on this blatant discrimination against the less well-off in Sligo is deafening.
Mr Ahern then goes on to tell the nation why we must pay service charges on an individual basis. Ireland has the lowest tax take along with "Japan and Korea" (South).
What the Taoiseach did not tell us was that these two nations are the children of capitalist mandarins who walk the corridors of the Pentagon.
The consequences of the low-tax economy can be seen in the ghettos and back streets of any American city. The United States, the richest country in the history of humanity, has also the highest levels of poverty.
Everything has become a commodity. Justice and equality are available only to those who can pay.
Is this what this Government is aiming for? - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo