Madam, - What an enlightening piece of reportage Mark Hennessy penned (March 29th)with his account of the Tánaiste, Mary Harney's all-encompassing pro-privatisation tirade at the PD annual conference.
As a CIÉ group employee and one of thousands of non-politicised workers in the public transport sector I congratulate the Tánaiste on her ability to use "plain speaking" as an excuse for high-handed bullying.
Ms Harney's remarks could be described as inflammatory, especially with the social partnership negotiations now in tentative session.
When taken in the context of the present fragile situations in both CIÉ and Aer Rianta/Aer Lingus then her bile-laden remarks represent a strong threat to the Taoiseach's oft-quoted commitment to the entire principle of social partnership.
It appears that Ms Harney and her party seek to have only their "most favoured individuals" included in the framework for social change and to this end she and her supporters seek to exclude me and many others.
The Tánaiste's pronouncement does, however, provide some clue to the reasons behind Seamus Brennan's persistent attempts to force through what, up to this, was supposed to be his own public transport policy vision.
Now we learn that Mr Brennan is merely acting as enthusiastic enforcer for Progressive Democrat policy and one must wonder if he is on a (political) commission to deliver it to the party leader in person.
For some time past the central question being asked by rank and file public transport workers was. . .Why? Few within the industry could see logic or indeed sense in Mr Brennan's crusade to emasculate and fragment the State's public transport system while offering only a poorly thought out and patchy profit-centred alternative depending totally on achieving returns for shareholders in the companies concerned.
Now the mist is beginning to lift and we see a very petulant Tánaiste quite obviously unimpressed at the Transport Minister's failure to deliver her dowry.
It is no secret that the PDs consider themselves and in return are considered by some to be the "party of business" and as such are in thrall to a wide range of well-heeled and articulate business types who smell a financial killing if only the sitting public service tenants can be evicted. - Yours etc.
BILLY FLEMING, Belgard, Tallaght, Dublin 24.
Madam, - Further to Mary Harney's threat to pull out of the current coalition if the Government fails to maintain resolve in pushing through reform in the transport sector, it may help if Fianna Fáil were to make a similar threat in relation to the glacial pace of deregulation in areas under Ms Harney's control. Alternatively, the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, may be tempted to emulate Ms Harney's practice of passing political "hot potatoes" to quangos such as the Competition Authority.
"We have got to embrace change," Ms Harney told the PD party conference. I applaud this sentiment but there is a distinct contrast between the evident enthusiasm shown for tackling the restrictive practices of taxi drivers and bus drivers and those of wealthy vested interests.
Ms Harney refers to a transport model that was invented in the 1920s and 1930s but meanwhile tribunal lawyers continue to be the beneficiaries of a legal model of similar vintage. - Yours etc.,
MICHAEL HENNIGAN, Merrion Village, Dublin 4.
Madam, - As I listened to Mary Harney give her speech, I could not help feeling that she had missed the point. She made no reference to either young people or to the environment. Politics is about creating the ideal future environment, ecologically, socially and economically. She only seems to consider jobs as ends in themselves, rather than as means to an end.
The young are merely workers in her ideal state. She has no vision beyond a trumped-up 19th century British liberal mish-mash of an ideology with this "Reform Agenda" craic. What about Agenda 21 for sustainable progress? The PDs need to wake up. What planet are they living on? - Yours etc,
FIONNUALA COLLINS, Freshford, Kilkenny.