Sir, – The supposed paper of record gave a partial, biased and relatively uncritical “performance” report on the individual ministers of the Coalition (Home News, July 27th). Perhaps the Irish Times political journalists are suffering from a version of Stockholm Syndrome, a phenomenon where hostages develop a certain empathy with their captors.
Two macro economic/social facts: 1. Inequality in Ireland has worsened since the Coalition entered office. 2. Forty per cent of persons under the age of 25 are now unemployed (this figure would be higher were it not for the huge numbers of young people forced to emigrate every week).
Perhaps the analysis of Ministers’ performances would have been better served had these two statistics formed the backdrop to their individual reports. It is also worrying that the 40 per cent youth unemployment story was relegated to page 5 of the business supplement (Business This Week, July 27th).
A true paper of record would have recorded the story as the lead or second lead on the front page, followed by detailed commentary, analysis and perhaps even an editorial. – Yours, etc,