PATRICK DONOVAN,
Sir, - I am bewildered by the findings of both the recent MRBI and IMS polls, which indicate a substantial rise in support for Fianna Fáil and more so for their esteemed leader Bertie Ahern. I am a nurse, living and working in the Taoiseach's Dublin North Central constituency. For the life of me I cannot understand where this supposed rise in public support for FF has emanated, given the contempt with which he and the party are held by almost all with whom I am in contact in my daily life in my local Dublin 7 area.
Given the absolute contempt for nurses that Ministers Cowen and McCreevy, as well as the Taoiseach showed during our recent strike for improved pay and conditions, this reciprocated by a great majority of my nursing colleagues and many other people in the locality. Given Fianna Fáil's corrupt history, the endless allegations of sleaze, the continuing tribunals, the party's disastrous health and education legacies and policies, the Taoiseach's own dreadful mismanagement of the 1992 currency crisis, his condescending attitude during the recent Nice Treaty referendum, I ask again: where is this so-called rise in public support coming from?
Since the late 1980s we as nurses and other public servants have had to endure the so-called "hair-shirt" policies of successive Fianna Fáil-led administrations (while the infamous Mr Haughey at the time was wining, dining and shopping in esteemed Parisian outlets). We witnessed the almost total devastation of our health care system, the merciless slashing of hospital budgets, nurse training schools closed or severely curtailed, recruitment of permanent nurses abolished, with many thousands fleeing our shores demoralised and disgruntled.
Next time such polls are conducted, please ask nurses, teachers and other voters in the Taoiseach's own constituency exactly what we all feel about Fianna Fáil, its policies and its legacy of corruption and sleaze. I believe a more accurate and realistic indication of the level of support for the party will then emerge. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK DONOVAN,
Kirwan Street Cottages,
Dublin 7.