Madam, – The Government has indicated that it wishes to pass the budget before calling an election. Is it too much to ask that the Dáil should sit on Mondays, work a full five-day week and take a short Christmas break to expedite this matter and reduce the period of uncertainty? In other words, they should behave like everyone else does now that the country is in crisis. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Article 13, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the President “absolute discretion” to “refuse to dissolve Dáil Éireann on the advice of a Taoiseach who has ceased to retain the support of a majority in Dáil Éireann.” The Constitution does not specify the yardstick by which loss of majority is proved, so a vote of the Dáil is not required.
After weeks of ministers insisting it would be irresponsible to hold an election before passing a budget, the President would be fully within her rights to refuse to allow Brian Cowen to go to the country at once. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Too many column inches and too much air time has been given to the possibility of a general election. This is not the time for a power struggle, this is time for the country and politicians from every party to work in unison, and figure out the best way to lead our country away from the financial abyss. Let us concentrate on getting on the road to recovery, and in 2011, we can resume the power struggle. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In 1941 Winston Churchill formed a national government in England into which he brought (among others) Clement Atlee, leader of the Labour party as lord privy seal, Ernest Bevin as minister for labour and Stafford Cripps also from Labour. This government ruled until 1945 when the Allies were victors in the second World War.
Have we something to learn here? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – John Gormley calls for a general election in January. That’s a reason to be hopeful. You could say green shoots and leaves. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As we enter a period of political turmoil and the expectation that Fine Gael and Labour will form a new Government, I appeal to their party leaders, in a gesture of magnanimity, to invite Brian Lenihan to remain in office as Minister of Finance, thereby providing continuity and stability towards implementation of the budget and four-year plan. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – An election now, not in January. The purpose will be to bid a courteous farewell to the IMF. In January it will be too late. Ireland will then be ruined by Brian Cowen’s monumental folly. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The letters from Michael Dolan and Owen Corrigan on the issue of the forthcoming general election highlight the contempt of so many people for the democratic institutions which we have inherited from our forebears (November 23rd).
Michael Dolan tells us that we need only “20 politicians” in the Dáil. Owen Corrigan complains about the role of the “parish-pump” in causing our problems.
It was not the people around the parish-pump that have caused the problems from which this country now suffers. That was achieved by a small number of this country’s most influential citizens around the Cabinet table and by its most powerful vested interests on the boards and management of banks, building societies, etc.
Giving the same small number of people and the same powerful vested interests that caused our problems even more power than they already have would be madness. Just because I or indeed Michael Dolan and Owen Corrigan do not approve of the public representatives that other people elect does not make their election invalid.
Our problems were caused behind closed doors by a powerful insider elite. We should not, therefore, damage the democratic institutions which give power to the ordinary people of this country.
After all it is the ordinary people who are going to pay for the mess. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I have never voted for Fianna Fáil in my life. However if Labour and Fine Gael refuse to support the budget, I guarantee I will never vote for them. It is time for politicians to forget about their own political ambitions and for once put the people of this country first. We deserve a budget, a bailout and a four-year year plan. Not political gombeenism and posturing that risks wrecking it all.
The politicians are excited about the prospect of an election in mere weeks. I’m worried about the rest of my life — and my children’s. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I write as a totally disgusted and disillusioned member of the Green Party. We, the party, as well as the parliamentary Greens, still seem to be in a state of collective delusion that somehow there is important work that must be done: well there is – hold an election immediately.
A delay in the budget at this stage will not make any material difference to the mess we are in. There are huge questions of democracy and transparency that need to be addressed right now – I would like to see what the small and large print is on the bailout loan. Are we being pushed, by a discredited government, to finally and irrevocably take on the debts of the senior bondholders? This is madness, as mad as the night of the bank guarantee. And the sums, once again, don’t add up.
This administration continues to show its moral bankruptcy (as well as its actual bankruptcy) by clinging on. Any budget passed in these circumstances is totally illegitimate. For all our sakes’ go now, go tomorrow! I am sick of this – I resign from the party. – Yours, etc,