Madam, - I agree with many of the points made by Vincent Browne (Opinion, May 14th) about the continuing inequalities in our society. In Ireland today about 100,000 children live in consistent poverty. There are over 43,000 people in acute housing need.
In addition, workers are being badgered by the Government about the need for "wage restraint" while many of our wealthiest citizens continue to avoid taxation through a multitude of mechanisms.
It is time this society faced up to serious choices and in my view it is time that ideology ceased to be a dirty word in political discourse. The only way to address these issues is through a new approach to political economy and a new politics. No government led by a conservative party will ever possess the political will needed to tackle the huge inequities in the distribution of wealth and power in society today.
After 20 years of almost uninterrupted power it is time Fianna Fáil was held to account for squandering the boom. What we really need is not a changing of the guard but a change of government. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK NULTY, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15.
Madam, - While it is welcome to see Vincent Browne focus so persistently on questions of socio-economic justice, it is regrettable that he has brought so little intellectual heft to the discussion.
Inequality is clearly an important issue, but it is not a simple one. It raises difficult political and philosophical questions, yet Mr Browne appears to have decided to wade in with little more to keep him afloat than a few notes jotted down after a cursory reading of Rawls's A Theory of Justice.
His column of May 14th is a case in point, well-intentioned but not much more than waffle. For example, he makes the claim that "5,400 people die prematurely here every year because of inequality". What can this possibly mean? I can see how people might die prematurely due to a lack of resources of one kind or another. But to die of inequality?
Similarly, he bemoans the fact that Ireland's politicians and media have chosen to focus on employment rather than on inequality. A less trenchant analysis might have conceded the possibility that rising employment levels might be connected with levels of inequality.
A more coherent analysis would have noticed that this is a point made by the west Offaly research Mr Browne goes on to cite: "West Offaly is a disadvantaged area, partly because of the decline of the peat industry and agriculture".
For a range of reasons, questions of distributive justice aren't debated in the Irish public sphere with the level of rigour or sophistication that is to be found in some other countries. It is a pity - and an opportunity missed - that Mr Browne's contributions seem unlikely to alter this fact. - Yours, etc,
AENGUS COLLINS, Istanbul, Turkey.