HUGO BRADY BROWN,
Madam, - €100 million for Mr Ahern's new aircraft, is it? Because he's worth it? - Yours, etc.,
HUGO BRADY BROWN,
Stratford on Slaney,
Co Wicklow.
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Madam, - So, we are going to have another Government jet in the air. We are told this is necessary because we are a modern European nation and our Taoiseach, Ministers and senior civil servants must look and act the part.
But we are not a modern European nation. We are a State that has one neurologist for every 300,000 adults. A modern European nation has a neurologist for every 20,000 to 30,000 adults.
We have one immunologist for every 2 million people - not very modern when you consider that one in three Irish people now has an auto-immune condition.
Nor can the facts that we still hide away our mentally ill and disabled adults in psychiatric lock-ups and that our special needs children must fight in the courts for even basic education qualify us as a modern European nation.
If our ministers are meant to represent Ireland and the reality of life as they govern it, it's not jets, giving a false impression of modernity, they should be taking to Brussels. Far more representative of the reality of life in Ireland would be a method of travel that involved begging and waiting. Perhaps hitching a lift would be an appropriate expression of our national modernity as experienced by the vulnerable in our modern European nation. - Yours, etc.,
KATHY SINNOTT,
Ballinabearna,
Ballinhassig,
Co Cork
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Madam, - For a long time now there has been almost daily an item on the front page of your paper that helps to push me towards emigration. Wednesday's front page must surely be the best ever. First, a lovely new Government jet, to help our elected servants race around the world; then, permission from the Garda Commissioner (law minder) to the Government (law makers) to break speed limits at will and race around this country without any fear of recrimination.
On second thoughts, maybe I should stay here and go into politics! - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL HEALY,
Newtownpark Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
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Madam, - Given that the new Government jet is unlikely to be used every day, may I respectfully suggest an alternative use for this expensive toy? It should be seconded to the health boards and used to ferry patients who find themselves languishing on waiting lists to the United Kingdom, where they can be treated and cared for by the British NHS.- Yours etc.,
KENNETH B. ROBINSON,
Curragh Hall Drive,
Tyrellstown,
Dublin 15.