Sir, - As Kieran Allen correctly points out ("Hypocrisy of Social Partnership," February 14th), once any group of workers act like Oliver Twist and ask for a little more, they are told they will destroy social partnership and kill the Celtic Tiger.
The sheer brass neck of Bertie Ahern. He can lecture teachers on their outlandish claim and then enjoy without a murmur a pay rise of £36,000 p.a. - twice the average industrial wage. Who do Mr Ahern and his cabal think they are fooling?
The past decade has been a one-sided class war where there has been a determined effort to redistribute wealth to the already privileged. Research by the Economic and Social Research Institute shows that budgetary policy favoured higher earners in the years 1994 to 1999. Lower income groups fell further behind. In Tax and Welfare changes, Poverty and Work Incentives in Ireland, Professor Liam Callan and Brian Nolan found that, in contrast to previous years, the income of the poorest in society rose more slowly than average wages between 1994 and 1998.
The Health Service is in crisis e.g last Monday 31 people were lying on trolleys in the A & E Department of Cork University Hospital. Students from poorer backgrounds are still grossly under-represented in third level education. The student maintenance grants are a joke, with all the paper work and red tape that goes with them. The Celtic Tiger has not delivered for students from poorer backgrounds - a two tier society is still very much in evidence.
The Celtic Tiger is a myth that has been foisted upon us. There is a touch of the "Marie Antoinette - let them eat cake" about it all. Again, congratulations to Kieran Allen for a truly inspiring article. - Yours, etc.,
Deirdre Kenneally, Glanmire, Co Cork.