Sir, – With the reopening of the embassy to the Holy See, John F Jordan (January 23rd) asks whether harsh decisions in relation to health and welfare will also be reversed.
In order to provide excellent health, social protection, education and other services we are working to fix what was our broken economy. This can’t be done at the click of a finger. The Irish people have borne considerable hardship, as alluded to by Mr Jordan. In implementing difficult measures the Coalition has tried to distribute the burden evenly. And I believe when our economy does fully recover, which it will, that the dividends have to be distributed fairly also.
On that front, we are delivering on our promises to the public. We said we would focus on job creation – 58,000 jobs were created last year; we committed to the restoration of our economic sovereignty – we exited the bailout in December; and said that we would grow our economy and reduce our deficit. Our economy is growing again slowly but steadily and our deficit, while still too high, is far more manageable than the horrendous deficit we inherited.
Continued progress in these core economic areas will provide the bedrock on which our public services will be based. That is why we are so focused on getting these basics right. We are working to reform and run more efficiently our health service, the social welfare system and other public services that Mr Jordan refers to.
In time, as our economy improves and more jobs are created, we will be able to increase investment in these services in a sustainable manner. While it is a scandal that we were ever in this situation to begin with, I firmly believe our strategy for recovery is working and that we are making very encouraging progress towards economic recovery. – Yours, etc,
CHARLIE FLANAGAN TD,
Chairman of Fine Gael
Parliamentary Party,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.