Madam, – What a nuisance we oldies are.
I’m 80 now and I have a vague recollection from my schooldays of reading about a practice adopted by some tribe inhabiting the frozen wastes. When the elders reached the stage where age and infirmity prevented them from contributing to the survival of the tribe, they took a kayak out into the icy waters and in due course it floated back to the shore, empty.
Having read of the potential horrors facing pensioners in the forthcoming budget, I think there may be an opportunity for an entrepreneur to consider the production of Irish kayaks. It will not, of course, be plain sailing. Said entrepreneur will have difficulty in raising the finance and, in view of the necessity to accommodate the Spanish fishing fleet, there will be severe restrictions on the areas in which kayaks are permitted to operate.
As a pensioner I am willing to make an appropriate contribution to the State rescue fund, but not while the Taoiseach is paid more than President Obama, or the banks are permitted to shower their grossly overpaid senior executives with obscene bonuses, or senior public figures have salaries far in excess of their European counterparts, or when many of those with prime responsibility for our present predicament continue to flourish and appear to be beyond the law.
If the Government has the courage and the leadership to put an end to the rampant sleaze in our society, then count me in. If not, then I shall take to the streets, zimmer and all! – Yours, etc,