Sir, – Fintan O'Toole may be right or he may be wrong when he says that the Economic Management Council is "dominated by civil servants and policy advisers" ("Gang of four rule tramples Cabinet and Constitution", Opinion & Analysis, December 16th).
We could have done with an Economic Management Council, dominated by civil servants and policy advisers, during the years of the boom. It might have prevented the people at the head of the government, financial institutions, etc, from bankrupting this country and contributing to its needing an €80 bilion bailout. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – Given the refusal of our “democratic” politicians to give up the power which they took for themselves with no reference to the citizens of the Republic, it is clear that we were very wise to refuse to grant them the powers they asked for in the rushed and ill-prepared referendum of October 2011 on the 30th Amendment to the Constitution [Oireachtas inquiries].
In assuming that we would approve the amendment simply because we were asked to do, Fine Gael and Labour appear to have begun to lose touch with reality at a very early stage in this Dáil. I seem to remember that the Taoiseach complained that it was not passed because we of the non-elite did not understand the terms. It probably never crossed his mind that we refused because we had so much reason to distrust politicians.
Pundits regularly lecture us on the need to behave as a grown-up electorate. I believe that most Irish voters are much more grown-up than our senior politicians and, I hope, much less hypocritical. – Yours, etc,
MAEVE KENNEDY,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.