Madam, - The Taoiseach has justified the current mass exodus of Government ministers by saying such trips "provide a framework to showcase modern Ireland".
Assuming that this is the Ireland of widespread contaminated water supplies; 18-month colonoscopy waiting lists; imprisonment of the mentally ill; 15-year-old X-ray machines; inadequate public transport; a two-tier health system; vanishing rural post offices; four-year-long medical consultants' waiting lists; crumbling primary schools; overcrowded A&E units; the second-highest death rate in Europe for respiratory diseases; ditto for sufferers from cystic fibrosis. . .one wonders if perhaps Mr Ahern actually meant to say such visits "provide a framework to make a show of modern Ireland"? - Yours, etc,
ANNE CAHILL,
Laurel Park,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.