Letters

Testing times for Coalition

Policy and communication

Sat Jul 16 2022 - 00:08

A chara, – Stephen Collins suggests that what the Coalition needs for an election is a positive message that can be summed up in a slogan for a 2025 election (“Government has two years to save itself”, Opinion & Analysis, July 15th).

I have a suggestion: “We built 70,000 houses in two years and solved the housing crisis.”

The slogan is the easy part. Achieving it might be more of a challenge. – Is mise,

KATIE HARRINGTON,

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Chair,

Labour Galway East.

Sir, – Stephen Collins makes the case that the Government is doing a wonderful job, with a booming economy roaring back after the last recession.

But what good is a roaring economy, when few can afford to buy, or even rent, a house, when waiting lists in hospitals are years long, and when we see the elderly and the youngest children waiting for many hours in an emergency department, or that childcare is another mortgage on top of the already excessive house mortgage or rent?

These are the things that really matter to ordinary workers on ordinary wages, the majority of workers.

These problems precede Covid and are just as much the fault of Fianna Fáil as Fine Gael.

What Irish people want is affordable housing available to buy, not enforced rental for a lifetime, or if unable to buy, affordable rental accommodation with security of tenure, provided the rent is paid, of course.

Affordable housing frees up money for other areas of the economy to flourish.

Medical staff won’t stay in Ireland because of the cost of housing and living.

How can the hospital system be improved if it cannot retain its newly trained staff?

Affordable housing to purchase is what the Coalition needs to solve if it does not wish to see Sinn Féin in power. – Yours, etc,

DAVID DORAN,

Bagenalstown,

Co Carlow.