Sir, - At first it seemed that someone might be pulling our legs with the media reports of the Government's intention to bid up to £25 million for the Guinnesses' old home. Reportedly this extravagance has been undertaken with a view to providing suitable accommodation for visiting heads of state. Have we lost the run of ourselves entirely? Is it not possible for such dignitaries to continue to slum it in whatever accommodation we have provided in the past? Can they not stay wherever it was they were going when they sped past us in their limousines while we were flagged down by motorcycle escorts like peasants standing back to make way for our betters?
While we still have marginalised groups in the land of the newly rich it is an abomination to indulge in such needless and crass expenditure. While people with a mental handicap are faced with waiting lists for essential services, while we are the laughing stock of the civilized world with our outdated mental treatment Act, while people with disabilities are without the protection of legislation, while we make potential immigrants wait like beggars for the welcome we should be extending to them, and while young people are sleeping in the shop doorways of our cities, surely to God someone will say stop before this madness goes any further.
What is going on in the minds of our elected representatives to let them consider even for a moment this widening of the gap between those who have and those who don't? It was not for this type of forelock-tugging that we elected you. Get up off your knees and have some sense and the courage of your convictions. You must know this type of expenditure at this time is a slap in the face for those forgotten people at the margins of our society.
Please do not let us be confused between saving something of our national heritage. and trying to prove that we can provide more opulent accommodation for visiting heads of state, most of whom presumably are mere mortals like the rest of us, and were not reared to expect palaces or thrones. - Yours, etc., Gerry Ryan,
National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland, Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.