Madam, - I am an instructor on a Fás-funded course for people with disabilities. On Monday morning I was instructed by a representative from Fás that any student absent from class for a day, with or without a doctor's certificate, is to have 80 cents deducted from their €4 trainee weekly meal allowance.
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - Our public representatives in Leinster House should get their own house in order before throwing stones about expenses and wasted money.
TDs enjoy some of the highest salaries in the world for sitting in parliament for less time than their opposite numbers in most other countries. The Dáil is grossly overmanned and hopelessly inefficient due to archaic procedures and conventions.
TDs enjoy excellent allowances and related perks which are not necessarily taxed or even vouched for. On top of that, they have extraordinary pension deals and are free to employ relatives at the taxpayers' expense. They throw patronage around like confetti by creating non-jobs for ministers of state and committee chairpersons and appointing friends and camp followers to the boards of quangos which are often used to shield them from accountability.
If our representatives were paid on the basis of results, they would now be hugely indebted to the taxpayer. Maybe they will reflect on their own value-for-money during the forthcoming six-week Dáil recess.
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - I listened yesterday morning to Leo Varadakar's protestations about Mary Harney's hair-do at the expense of Fás. It seems that whenever a Fine Gael spokesperson pops up like the Duracell Bunny their message can be summed up in three lines.
1. This is a disgrace/waste of taxpayers' money.
2. It would not have happened if we were in charge.
3. The Taoiseach/the Minister/the CEO [delete as appropriate] should resign.
I suggest that you do your bit for the environment and save newsprint by publishing these three lines every time Fine Gael makes a such a statement.
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - In light of the Fás revelations, should the recent Slán report not also be shown up as another waste of our money?
Did it take the expense of a beautifully presented report on a survey of the health and lifestyle of 10,000 Irish people to tell us that we are becoming more obese and that to live longer we need to quit smoking, exercise more, eat more vegetables and fruit and drink less?
If the answer is yes, may I suggest that the following equally valid and important surveys be commissioned immediately:
1. A survey on the attitudes of us Irish to our weather patterns. Do we think it rains too much?
2. A report on our current spending patterns and attitudes. Have we less money now than we had before?
3. Perhaps a timely Department of Agriculture survey on the attitudes of our turkeys. If given a say, would a turkey vote for Christmas?
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - If Mary Harney needed a hairdo before attending a public function as a representative of the Government and people of Ireland, I don't think it unreasonable that the taxpayer should pick up the tab.
Of all countries, America is obsessed with style over substance. It's crucial that our public representatives look their best when on duty.
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - The current fury directed at Mary Harney is a little baffling. Cabinet members the world over must be suitably coiffured for official engagements. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a huge amount of money and it was directly related to her work.
No such clamour seems to have greeted the amount Bertie Ahern spent on make-up during his terms as Taoiseach.
Yes, the management at Fás needs to examine its procedures for expenses but this fractious squabbling seems more to do with the Opposition and the media encouraging the public to direct their ire in troubled times at unrelated actors.
I'm half expecting Enda Kenny to start chanting "Witch! Witch! Witch!" in the Dáil.
- Yours, etc,
Madam, - The calls for the Minister for Health to resign over a hairdo are, em, overblown.
There are very good arguments why this Minister should resign. She is incompetent; she has put the lives of many young girls at risk by her myopic and cruel decision to "postpone" the cervical cancer vaccine programme for 12-year-olds; she has presided over far too many health scandals, and she represents only a tiny fraction of the electorate.
She deserves to lose her job for these reasons, not because she got her hair done.
- Yours, etc,