Sir, - How revealing that our own Taoiseach (Opinion, January 16th) seems incapable of figuring out why ASTI is on strike. Might I suggest he visit an inner-city school, to see at first hand those of "our children" (in his own touching phrase) that this Government has forgotten?
There he will find teachers who are quite literally "our children's" only hope. It is difficult to see what the so-called Celtic Tiger has done for those in the sink estates of Dublin, but even the most casual observer can see the good that teachers do for the children of these communities.
Often they work voluntarily after school hours on activities such as music and sport that in any right-minded society would be properly funded. Only the selfless work of these teachers allows the Government's total abdication of responsibility in these areas. And this is to say nothing of the informal social work carried out every day by the teachers in such schools. After all, if the funding for a proper service is not there, who else can perform this task?
Mr Ahern suggests that "it is not reasonable to expect that people should be paid as normal by the taxpayer when, in effect, they are failing to deliver any service." I could not agree more. Last time I checked, education was a government responsibility. Presumably Mr Ahern is still picking up his cheque. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Farrell, Norseman Place, Dublin 7.