Sir, - As usual, Kevin Myers is a pillar of common sense in his criticism of the critics of Charlie McCreevy's "left-wing pinkos" statement (An Irishman's Diary, April 20th). Charlie McCreevy is trying to reduce the personal taxation of everyone in the State because people are entitled to have more power over their own money. It has been shown by the Irish experience of the 1980s, that higher rates of taxation are a disincentive to work. How many of the unemployed didn't look for work because the take-home pay would have been less than their dole payments?
Besides the economic reasons for the tax reductions, how can there be any philosophical reason for denying people the utmost freedom to take care of themselves? The dependency culture of Ireland has been a curse on its citizens for years. How can individuals be inspired to go into the world and take risks and improve their self-worth when it's so easy to let the State take care of your life? There's no sense to it.
Let people have more of their income to decide how much they would like to pay on health insurance. Let people who have no desire to work suffer the consequences of a subsistence State handout. This is not to deny the genuinely needy the help required for a decent standard of living. "Genuinely needy", however, is a concept that was forgotten in the rush to grab as much free money as was being thrown at us.
I hope the tax cuts continue giving all Irish citizens the opportunity to see more of their own money, and hopefully make sensible decisions with it. At least the State will be relieved of any blame. - Yours, etc.
Paul Keohan, Arapaho Road, Dallas, Texas, USA.