Sir, – It seems the policy of Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton is to have the shopkeepers and other retail businesses and workers pay tax to provide money for social welfare so that, you have guessed it, the social welfare recipients can purchase goods from (inter alia) the very shops and businesses that provide the taxes.
Why not burn the city centres to the ground so that we can provide work via rebuilding programmes? While we are at it we can smash hospitals and schools to rubble so that we can provide employment rebuilding them too.
When is it going to dawn on those in charge that part of the way out of this mess is to provide opportunities and incentives for those currently unable to find work to provide goods and services at costs below their market prices?
Modern western economies depend upon trained and skilled employees and managers to create value, with the creation of jobs being a side-effect of the value-creation process. Re-skilling, training and education must surely be central to this process.
Irish people want to work. They have proven this historically across the world and during our own ill-fated boom. Surely it is the duty of the Government to facilitate the creation of viable businesses by the provision of training, marketing, risk capital and tax incentives in a responsible and considered manner. Only when this is the case will we have any chance of getting Irish people back where they want to be – in work. – Yours, etc,
ARTHUR HENRY,
Balally Drive,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.