A chara, – Your Editorial (January 17th) almost suggests that we excuse the petty playground antics that are already beginning to surface in the Cabinet. Surely we had more than enough self-indulgent fun and games and worse with the truants who led us into the current disastrous mess? We had been led to expect a different level of dedicated application from the class of 2011.
Now more than ever we need the sort of mature responsibility so articulately epitomised by young Rory Crean (Education Today, January 18th). The members of the Cabinet are confronted with the most formidable job of governance ever faced by this State, but we must not forget that all of them are veterans of one of the most privileged “playgrounds” in the State and are still cosseted by the legacy of past extravagances.
We, the ordinary citizens of the State, are in a very different place and fun and games does not figure on most of our stormy horizons, but some are still relaxed and playful in the luxury of the Kildare Street lifeboat. We simply cannot afford the petty inter-party and inter-ministerial jousting that is patently already taking place in Leinster House. It must be nipped in the bud right now, today! The Budget produced a raft of profound decisions with short-, medium- and long-term consequences taken without proper research and impact assessment.
Already there have been too many (free?) fire brigade call-outs to douse the flames of ill-considered decisions. There were many citizens who were appalled at the “road to ruin” signposted by Bertie Ahern, yet we did not always speak out vociferously for a halt to the madness of tax-breaks, zoning obscenities, bench-marked excesses and decoupled regulation.
Those same concerned citizens must now get vocal and demand that the Cabinet return to class and get on with the job in hand, focusing on ministerial group projects (taking example from our fantastic young scientists).
It is never too late to learn, but Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore may need to consider something stronger than gentle chiding to bring our cosseted Ministers to their senses.
Otherwise, we might begin to wonder if the proposal to abolish the Seanad is merely intended to distract us from the seemingly more pertinent abolition! – Is mise,