Sir, – Well done to Diarmaid Ferriter for his excellent contribution "Public connivance in cute hoorism casts a long shadow" (Opinion & Analysis, April 15th). This is a salutary reminder of how poorly we have been served by our politicians over a long period of time. The piece should be read into the records of both Houses of the Oireachtas, and become mandatory reading for every member, and aspiring member. It is time, too, that we the electorate took much more responsibility for the quality of governance we expect and are entitled to receive, by exercising greater selectivity when we cast our precious votes. – Yours, etc,
EAMONN McKEON,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Diarmaid Ferriter’s article on the “long-term implications of reckless promises” raises an important issue but his charge of “public connivance in cute hoorism” is missing the point.
Blaming the ordinary people of this country for the problems caused by the reckless decisions made by the powerful is wrong.
Diarmaid Ferriter uses the handling of the water charges issue as an example of something that is “unlikely to serve anyone’s long-term interests”.
But he fails to mention that the water charges issue is just one of the issues that grew out of a much bigger problem.
That is the bankrupting of the country by the reckless decisions of a small number of its own most powerful citizens in charge of government, financial institutions, etc, during the pre-2009 Celtic Tiger period.
Those reckless decisions were not adequately challenged by either media or academia at the time.
On the contrary they were lauded and the all-too-few people who had the temerity to challenge the conventional awash-with-cash “wisdom” of that period were scoffed at.
The consequences of the recklessness of the pre-2009 period are still with us in the problems in homelessness, health, housing, etc.
Yet we have many powerful people from that period being unchallenged when they are pontificating daily about the consequences of their own actions and blaming everyone else.
So-called cute hoors only get away with it if the powerful people in media and academia, who have a big influence public opinion, do not challenge them.
That is not in the long-term interests of the ordinary people of this country and only serves the interests of the cute hoors. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton, Dublin 13.