SOLUTION IN SOMETHING CALLED N.A.M.A.?

Dear Sir,

Unless Ireland is an exception or I am greatly mistaken the entrance exam for the civil service is one of the toughest a student can sit for. This ensured that the calibre and the ability of the people who were successful were top class and should be allocated to the departments that their abilities suited.

This was to ensure that should a minister seek advice he was dealing with someone whose intelligence and skill was available to counsel him.

The question is, can a civil servant, unasked, step in and tell a minister that a particular policy is unsuitable or does he have to wait to be asked? Some of us think that it was an illusion. What was real was the amount of fools gold that was pouring into the exchequer.

This large bonanza caused a very naive finance minister to embark on a spending spree unmindful of the source and reliability of this windfall. Belatedly we are now recognising that Bertie Ahern’s and Brian Cowen’s lack of business ability was a very expensive error.

We were fortunate to be spared the cost of the Bertie Bowl but we have been lumbered with abandoned decentralisation, useless voting machines, thousands of rented porto cabins, the ill considered agreement to bail out the R.C. errant fathers and utter loss of competitiveness that is costing hundreds of jobs every week. Jobs being lost everywhere except from that band of idiots in the Oireachtas.

Mr. Colm McCarthy demonstrated in simple mathematical business language the ineptitude of those very expensive goons who created this mess.

Because of the nature of Irish politics and the unsuitability of those we elect to govern us, we have guangos of politically chosen advisers whilst ignoring civil servants with the ability of Mr McCarthy.

It is surprising that we are not christening those guangos with the names of saints. The Government tells us that they have the solution to our financial problem in something called NAMA.

The attitude of foreign owned banks to the promised assistance in recovering what is owed to them is not encouraging. They seem to regard NAMA as a white elephant or worse as a Nam-Ass.

Thank you,
Richard Prendergast,
Mondaniel,
Rathcormac,
Co. Cork.

JUST A BELIEF

Dear Editor,

Brian Crowley’s assertion that ‘he believes’ that legal agreements clarified by EU governments regarding the Lisbon Treaty, will not affect the protections in the Irish Constitution in relation to the right to life, are no more than just that: “a belief” as distinct from a legal fact. (Letter’s to the Editor The Avondhu 30th July ’09).

Politicians cannot be trusted on promises or ‘beliefs’. The so called ‘declarations’ agreed by the political bosses of Europe, are not legally binding, and will only last until ‘Lisbon’ is in the bag.

Take the English electorate for example, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister promised his people that if re-elected to office, at the last general election, he would give them the opportunity to vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

The voters trusted Tony Blair and returned him to office. Once safely returned to power, Tony Blair and his Government bypassed the people, refused to honour his promise, and instead of giving a referendum, Gordon Browne subsequently ratified Lisbon through the Houses of Parliament.

Tony Blair knew that with the growing hostility to the EU, because of the obvious lack of democracy, the English people would never consent to the new Constitution for Europe, that is being legally created by the Lisbon Treaty.

Tony Blair and Gordon Browne were not prepared to risk jeopardising the political plan, that would take democratic control out of the hands of the people and transfer it to the political elite, so the people were denied a vote. The English people were fooled, they had a ‘belief’ that Blair would do as he had promised.

That was the rock that they perished on. They were deceived. They could not do a thing about it, not even legally, because the politicians, having got what they wanted, were not legally bound to fulfil ‘political promises’.

I don’t doubt that Brian Crowley sincerely ‘believes’ what is being fed to him, by the more senior politicians, ‘the inner circle’ in Brussels and Dublin. No doubt, Tony Blair’s foot soldiers believed too, that a referendum would be held when they canvassed with sincerity on his behalf.

Unfortunately, Brian Crowley and others can ‘believe’ what they like, but the fact remains that the so called declarations aren’t worth the paper they are written on and the Irish people know it!

Like all political promises, they can be dispensed with, without any legal recourse for those who are foolish enough to have been ‘taken in’ by them, in the first place.

Ireland has fought long and hard for the right to be free. We have fought tirelessly to protect the right to life, against every snare that the political establishment set, in order to trap us into legalising the killing of the unborn.

Now, as we face a renewed attack on the right to life, through the Lisbon Treaty, including a direct attack on the right to life of the elderly and others, through euthanasia, we need to shout ‘no’ to Lisbon, much louder and far clearer that we did before.

Yours sincerely,
Mairead Scannell,
Dublin Road,
Fermoy,
Co. Cork.

CAN WE STILL TRUST?

Dear Editor,

Having been convinced by government and Fine Gael prior to Referendum 1 on the Lisbon Treaty that Ireland could no longer enjoy a permanent seat on the EU Commission, yet when the Sovereign people rejected with their votes that Treaty, it is now agreed by the EU that we retain a permanent seat on the Commission and also clarified accommodation on other matters, including our military neutrality.

That is if we can still trust the judgement of the political parties and vested interests promoting a yes vote in Lisbon Treaty Referendum 11 for which I say thanks and congratulate the wisdom of the electorate who achieved the present position.

The ability and credibility of government and the main opposition party to fully represent and protect the interests of this State within the EU, must be seriously damaged in the light of the positive outcome that has emerged from rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, in Referendum 1 as we face into Referendum 11 on the amended Lisbon Treaty, a treaty they solemnly alleged was sacrosanct, they tell us after all, it now embraces what they alleged to be impossible to get.

The sovereign people require honesty, competence, reality, commitment, commonsense, true patriotism and above all truth from all their politicians, as we face into a battle to retain our economic and financial independence as a state, over the next five years.

Dail Eireann has not endeared itself in recent years as a percentage of members are perceived to suffer that malaise of greed, also evident among some people in a number of highly remunerated professions, who have bled the taxpayer and the people in general.

The country needs open debate and transparency and above all the facts in plain direct language, instead of political speak and vested interests propaganda, in this key campaign prior to the Lisbon Treaty referendum day.

The vital decision that the sovereign people of this republic must make, will be for the island of Ireland, as the people of the Six Counties of the North East are denied a vote on the Lisbon Treaty by the writ of the British Crown.

Think well on how you should vote and above all do not surrender, ever, your sovereign status and our military neutrality as citizens of the Republic of Ireland.

Yours sincerely,
John J Hassett,
President Irish Bardic Federation,
Croke Street,
Thurles.