SCRAP ROAD TAX

Dear Editor,

I’m not, I’m sure, the only person that feels the consumer should pay and civil servants should be treated fairly.

Why is it then that, for instance, older couple who want a good safe (heavier) car who only use it to go to church, doctor, family etc and/or a couple with children who need a big car must pay the same rate of road tax as a person who buys a large car for status/business/speed.

All pay the same (high for the service) tax, but then some only use the car occasionally while others drive two to three times the national average kilometres per year.

My suggestion is to scrap all road tax. Add 20% to all road transport fuels. This will; Free up thousands of civil servants, free up office space/computers of same, allow some of same to retire and seek their fortunes in the real world, ensure “user pays” and not hit older/pensioned/less well off who need a good car but only occasionally, help cut down on unnecessary fuel usage as was evident during recent high prices, cut down on fuel-laundering and smuggling as Irish fuel prices come more in line with our European partners and encourage; eco-friendly fuels, cars, style of driving, public transport - a better world for all.

Of course some road hauliers and taxi drivers will complain but their bookkeeping should be in fact easier. And, as a cherry on top since it will take a little time for all of us to adjust, the Government will make a significant windfall which in turn can be used to help city taxis to change over to more ecological based cars.

Peter J O’Connor,
Glenribbeen (Eco) Lodge,
Lismore.

‘GOD HELP US ALL’

Sir,

Obama supporters around the world are to-day numb with shock as news filters through of what their idol has inflicted on the world’s children, and all we can say at this point in time is ‘God help us all’.

The president, on whom so many people had pinned their hopes for a new dawn for human rights, has wasted little time in using his new powers to legally enable the killing of innocent unborn children, not just in America, but throughout the world.

Just three days into his presidency, Barack Obama signed an order “that will put hundreds of millions of taxpayers money into the hands of organisations that will aggressively promote abortion in the developing world”, according to the US National Right to Life committee.

Obama’s order overturns the “Mexico City Order” under which funds in the US ‘population assistance’ programmes went only to those organisations that pledge not to perform or actively promote the killing of unborn children.

Now, all has changed, changed utterly. Many world-renowned human rights activists have joined in the condemnation of Obama’s action. LifeSiteNews.com tells us that Dr. Stephen Karanja, a prominent consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist from Nairobi, Africa, has expressed his frustration at the American people.

“They have no business electing a person who is going to destroy our countries”, he said. “The truth is that they have put a bad man in the most powerful office in the world and are putting people outside [their] borders in danger”.

Dr Karanja continued: “There is something we have in Africa that they should come and learn, something they call respecting the family, respecting the elders, respecting the children”.

Once again, the inalienable and fundamental rights of the child are under attack, and not a whimper, not a whisper even, of condemnation from Barnardos, from One-in-Four, from the ISPCC or other Irish state-funded self-proclaimed defenders of the Rights of the Child. What hypocrisy! And what a tragedy!

Mairead Scannell (Mother and Grandmother),
Dublin Road,
Fermoy,
Co. Cork.

A TRUER PICTURE

Dear Sir,

Is it any wonder now that we have a truer picture of the state of Anglo Irish Bank and the empty coffers of the exchequer why dear old Bertie kept his hard earned pennies under his bed. He was far more astute than we ever credited him with.

Our present Taoiseach is in a spin and rotating faster than some of the planets in his quest to counter the growing international distrust of Irish financial systems. The absolute necessity of the creation of homegrown jobs is apparent and so is the lack of it.

Just to prove it, prior to a vote a few years ago for some kind of an election or referendum the lampposts were festooned with placards advising voters to vote yes for EU and job creation.

A recent survey has shown that the EU created very few jobs for us, even less than we created for ourselves. We had to rely on the USA with bribery of lump start-up sums and tax concessions and then we failed to keep an eye on keeping costs down and lost competitiveness. Sadly when concessions ended, so did the obligation of the company to remain here.

Did we learn a lesson? It seems not because we are unable to keep pace with the quality and quantity which the hi-tech company demands. Mr John Herlihy, the vice president of Google’s Irish operation has quite recently stated in a straight forward manner that the Irish Government is over estimating the calibre of its second and third level graduates and that we will continue to lose hi-tech jobs unless we raise the standards in our universities and cut our spiraling business and manufacturing costs.

There is a huge amount of dumbing down at second and third levels making it easier to acquire a certificate of attainment. This state of affairs is compounded by the idiotic proclamation by the Minister for Education, Mr Batt O’Keeffe who, in order to enhance the exam results of students, is granting 40% extra marks if they do their exams through the medium of Irish.

Let us be honest, Irish is a language that is native to Ireland but it is not its spoken language, except in a few cosseted and heavily subsidised areas where money is pumped in without any true assessment of what it achieves other than sentiment. By all means preserve the Irish language. Put it in a time capsule and bury it. We must realise that we are competing in an international market.

Google is endeavouring to handle business in 53 different languages and apparently are having difficulty in recruiting staff to cope. No one individual is expected to speak 53 languages.

Ireland being a small country has a limited internal market and has to rely on the exporting of its goods and skills at competitive costs. It needs companies that are fit and sleek and not encumbered with dead wood hanging from them.

To counter the inability of our students to progress up the academic ladder and provide those skills and, because of the necessity of dumbing down, Mr O’Keeffe may have to introduce a new subject called ‘shovelology’ and the oral exam, where students have to expound their knowledge of the benefits of short handle shovels over long handled ones and square mouthed against rounded’ and which are the best for leaning on, can be taken in Irish to gain the extra marks.

They should also be made aware that there is a lot of science required in the correct way to repair potholes. Now would you expect your donkey to be a Nijinsky or a Shergar?

I am afraid that you do, especially when you elect your politicians. That is why so many of them when they become ministers or Taoiseach turn out to be more Humpty Dumpty’s than leaders.

Thank you,
Richard Prendergast,
Mondaniel,
Rathcormac.