DISCREDITED SYSTEM

Dear Editor,

Wherever I have travelled on this small planet and whoever I have met, I have never passed up an opportunity to eulogise my home town of Fermoy and the people who have the good fortune to also claim it as their home. I have praised their generosity of spirit, their inclusiveness and their fierce loyalty to all things connected to Fermoy.

But the report in The Avondhu last week (June 18th) that a majority of local councillors had ganged together to prevent one of the three remaining elected representatives on the Fermoy council who have never been given the honour of being elected as mayor of the town, from becoming deputy mayor for the ensuing civic year, may require me to revise my opinion.

The councillor in question, Peter Merrigan, is an articulate and committed champion of the town he represents and of the community in which he lives. And while he would not claim to be anymore conscientious or hard working than any other of his councillor colleagues, he is still entitled to ask himself why he was excluded from being given the opportunity to represent Fermoy as its first citizen especially since the person chosen to be deputy mayor has already filled the role in the past.

I’m sure that the majority of Fermoy people hate to think that snubbing Councillor Merrigan in this way was no more than a piece of petty spite which would not be worthy of any Fermoy representative. But if that is the case, then it is reasonable to ask what other reasons could there be for preventing him from performing a function that he would have carried out with dignity and dare one say it, with a fair degree of style.

But for now, at least it is back to the old guard and a display of political arrogance that does them little credit. No doubt some of them will seek refuge for their actions behind the cliche that all they were doing was exercising their democratic right to vote for the person of their choice.

Does the fact that they control a majority on the council entitles them to behave in this way? It does not.

First of all, the test of a healthy democracy is not measured by the monopoly actions of a majority but by the respect in which it acknowledges and accedes to the legitimate claims of a minority.

Secondly, the election of a mayor and deputy, particularly in a local authority where party politics takes a minor role, should not be decided by the wielding of a majority sledgehammer, but by agreement and consensus among grown up people.

Is it too much to suggest that the office rotates on an equal basis among all councillors who have served not less than three years as one of the town’s public representatives. In Fermoy’s case that would simply mean that the next three holders of the civic chain should be those representatives who have not yet held the office in the past.

This is not a criticism of individual councillors but a questioning of a discredited system that refuses to value all councillors equally or acknowledge not just their abilities but more importantly their willingness to serve.

For any Fermoy person to behave in a mean spirited way is exceptional, for the majority of representatives to do so is shameful.

Yours sincerely,
Nick Nolan, Ballylanders.

WE’VE BEEN GOING AROUND IN A CIRCLE

Dear Editor,

With your kind permission, may I continue the theme of my letter published in The Avondhu 19 June last in which I stated that having been guided by our ministers we have reached the destination called straitened times.

To us older people it seems we have been going around in a circle. Do we get what we deserve? Managing a country is big business and needs competent trained people to run it, not like Bertie whose only contact with business was making entries in a ledger book for a year at the Mater Hospital and later, collecting union dues as a shop steward.

Then we had Mr Cowen, whose previous occupation, excellent it may have been, was a solicitor, far removed from making business decisions. We are now reaping the results of their labour.

If the manager of a large private business did not foresee that the source of his company’s profitability was fast approaching exhaustion and did nothing about it, he would not hold his position for much longer.

In this country we promote them and pay them the highest salary in Europe for a similar position. I hope that you are all learning from your mistake and will choose something better than this riff raff in future. Your children deserve a better future legacy than uncertain employment, bloated mortgages and negative equity.

If the EU can reduce its number of commissioners from 26 to 18, Ireland with a small adjustment to the constituencies should be able to reduce the number of TDs from 160 to 80+. As they only work 93 days per annum, smaller number of them could work a bit longer and perhaps earn their money.

Remember the €83,000 claimed by many of them, that is €1,000 a day almost if they only work 93 days. You have not seen this year’s claims yet.

You did a good job in ignoring your ministers and TDs in the referendum. If you want to change the number of TDs do not expect any help from the ministers.

Thank you,
Richard Prendergast, Mondaniel, Rathcormac.

ETHIOPIA IS STILL WITH US

Dear Editor,

In recent weeks while the Burmese cyclone and Chinese earthquake have been dominating the headlines over 4 million people in Ethiopia have been trying to live without enough food because of recent crop failures, which has left 75,000 children severely malnourished.

Trocaire’s staff is reporting increased numbers of children and young babies dying both in remote villages and in the therapeutic feeding centres, which our partners have set up to provide emergency food, shelter and medicine.

But the needs of the population are escalating each day as people struggle to cope with this crisis. In the context of the global food crisis and export bans on foodstuffs from several countries in the East Africa region, this emergency needs to become an international priority.

The world must make every effort to help the Ethiopian government and aid agencies on the ground address the needs of the suffering population.

Yours sincerely,
Justin Kilcullen, Director of Trocaire Maynooth, Co. Kildare.