Sir, - Brian Cowen, the Minister for Health, still does not get it. He blames the nurses - the victims - for his own failure to deal with the problem constructively in the first instance. He seems to be oblivious to the fact that it was his own churlish intransigence and patronising attitude that left the nurses with virtually no other option but to strike. By playing hardball, he forced them to take this drastic action and then he has the gall to suggest that they, not he, will be responsible for any ill-effects that may ensue.
But then one can hardly be surprised, considering that it was this same Minister for Health who, at moment of indisputable crisis in the health services last winter, commented: "I represent the taxpayer." - Yours, etc.,
Myles Crowe, Old Brewery Lane, Clonakilty, Co Cork.