Sir, - I could not agree more with Inez McCormack's comments on the Budget (Opinion, December 8th). I am a working mother who will benefit from the allowances for two-income families; but I feel that the real issue in this Budget is the growing gap between the haves and the havenots.
Ireland, the country that I have lived in for the past 37 years, was always one that had limited social divisions and people in the main were treated as equals. However, with the advent of global media and the access we have to the American philosophy on life, a growing number of people in our society are creating a social divide where people who are less well-off are called the "lower class" or the "underclass", terminology that I feel is particularly offensive.
We are all born equal and we will all die equal. Mr McCreevy, get your act together and get the social partnership talks back on track before we lose sight of what real values are. - Yours, etc.,
Fiona Nolan, The Warren, Malahide, Co Dublin.