Sir, – Fintan O’Toole expertly exposes the failure of successive modern Irish governments to maximise the opportunities presented by the “embarrassment of riches” that currently populate the fiscal purse (“The blue-green smoothie ruling the country has no plan and even less passion”, Opinion, October 13th).
Observers regularly draw comparisons with other countries and how they have handled their modern wealth windfalls to benefit current and future generations. Whatever about prospective Irish citizens having to display an intimate knowledge of their adoptive country, perhaps it should be made compulsory for aspiring/sitting politicians to study how other countries have dealt with windfall wealth so they can apply that learning in their functions.
Otherwise, they strive to reinvent the wheel themselves, which, to date, remains decidedly square. – Yours, etc,
HUGH MCDONNELL,
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Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.
