Madam, - At a time when there were no telephones, internet, motorised transport and aircraft, when journeys between towns were measured in days rather than hours, it was possible to hold parliaments in a wide range of towns across the country, e.g. Limerick, Kilkenny, Naas, Kildare and Carlow. Perhaps medieval government should be used as our blueprint for decentralisation. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN HODKINSON, Annaholty, Birdhill, Co. Tipperary.
Madam, - Both John McDwyer and Thomas Kelly (December 11th) take a hard line on the proposed decentralisation of the civil service. John McDwyer compared the security of a civil service job to his own career in the bank during which he and his family were moved nine times. He was working at a time when the marriage bar was a reality for many women and they did not have careers outside the home. He admits that the compensation he received afforded a comfortable lifestyle.
That is not necessarily the case for all grades of civil servants who will be affected by the proposed changes. The situation today is that many women work and many of the civil servants who are facing this disruption have wives, husbands or partners who cannot simply change their place of employment to suit the Government.
I am not saying that decentralisation is necessarily a bad idea and I'm sure many will welcome the opportunity to leave an expensive and congested capital city but the method of announcement seems incredibly high-handed.
Thomas Kelly says that in the real world people either move with their employer or find a new job. In the real world good employers have some kind of consultation process with their employees as they know it is their best employees who will have the confidence to leave if the new situation is unpalatable. If this happens, we the taxpayers will be the ones to suffer. - Yours, etc.,
GRÁINNE MADDEN, Glen Drive, The Park, Cabinteely, Dublin 18.
Madam, - Your columnist Dr Garret FitzGerald (December 13th) laments the failure of Fianna Fáil Governments to implement the recommendations of the Buchanan Report, published in 1968.
I seem to remember that Dr FitzGerald was a key figure in a number of Governments post-1968. It would be interesting to know why those Governments - he presided over one of them as Taoiseach - did nothing about the Buchanan Report. As was his wont, in most areas where he was in a postion to influence decisions, they did nothing. -Yours, etc.,
DECLAN BRENNAN, Claristown, Julianstown, Co Meath.