A chara, – What is the “dependency culture” that the Fine Gael leadership contenders were so concerned about? Who are those “dependents”? Is it our thousands of pensioners who “depend” on their state pensions for which they will have paid PRSI for 40 years? Is it the 300,000 public servants who “depend” on a state wage or salary? Is it the women of Ireland who “depend” on child benefit? Is it the army of the homeless and badly housed who “depend” on society to help them out?
But maybe I’ve got it wrong. Maybe its the well-off who “depend” on the state to pay the salaries of teachers in their exclusive fee-paying schools? Maybe its the car-owners who “depend” on the state to build motorways for them. Maybe it is the really affluent who “depend” on the state to pay most of the cost of their children’s expensive third-level education?
Or maybe I’m wrong again. It is probably the unemployed who when the economy collapsed around them “depended” on the social insurance fund to keep them from starving. Because the new youthful Fine Gael only identifies the poor as “dependent”? – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN RYAN,
Montenotte,
Cork.