LIAM O GEIBHEANNAIGH,
A chara, - Helping to bring peace of Ireland, through the medium of the Belfast Agreement, is the enduring legacy of this Government. Already, many lives have been saved and a stop put to long years of murder, oppression and piteous funerals.
As Government leader, Bertie Ahern deserves unstinted praise and gratitude for this achievement. Another success has been his competent handling of the economy, with its many knock-on benefits, including the important one of increased employment.
However, in matters relating more intimately to the lives of citizens, this Government has been much less successful. The failure to provide an adequate health service for all, or to assert and defend the civil rights of the disadvantaged and the aged, are obvious examples.
In fact, some policies appear lacking a national vision or likely to undermine the values and cohesiveness of traditional Irish society. Tax individualisation has made it less attractive for mothers to take on the traditional role of homemaker/child-mentor, and could even be seen as subversive of family values. Indeed, Mr Ahern's own behaviour, indulging in a most public extra-marital affair, has also diminished the status of the family in Irish society.
The recent tax concessions to professional sports stars will undermine the amateur status of the GAA, an organisation whose principles this Government purports to cherish and support. The standing of the Irish language has also suffered, as the Minister cannot speak Gaeilge.
Later still, the long awaited Irish Language Bill was dealt a fatal blow with the re-allocation of Junior Minister Ó Cuiv. And then the new chief executive of Foras na Gaeilge was appointed to chair a highly demanding anti-racism campaign, as if resurrecting the Irish language was not a sufficient task on its own. - Is mise,
LIAM Ó GÉIBHEANNAIGH,
Áth an Ghainimh,
Co Átha Cliath.
