Madam, - I was extremely annoyed with Conor Lenihan after his interview on RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland programme this morning (Friday 20th) discussing the call by John O'Shea of GOAL to the Government to re-allocate aid to Ethiopia.
Firstly John O'Shea did not call for Irish Aid to be stopped, as stated by Mr Lenihan, but to be reallocated to NGOs and missionaries. The implication that Mr O'Shea is naive or does not know the realities on the ground is simply staggering. As admitted by Mr Linehan he himself is in the job less than 2 years; Mr O'Shea is in his since 1977!
Secondly in talking about public debate Mr Lenihan said Mr O'Shea has not attended any of these public meetings around the country. I, as somebody who contributes to GOAL and paid Irish taxes up to recently, would prefer Mr O'Shea to continue using his valuable and precious time in the field rather than in politics.
Having worked in the development field in the past, and indeed with Mr O'Shea, I am disgusted with his treatment by Mr Lenihan on the public airwaves. Mr Lenihan should listen to the people who know from experience what is happening in the developing world rather than engaging in politics for his own political gain and protection. How dare he. The people who work in the field could not be more committed and earn a small fraction of what they could in other sectors including politics. Mr Lenihan is wrong to use his political office to criticise somebody personally who does not have a political platform.
I suggest Mr Lenihan takes a leaf of the book of one of his predecessors, Liz O'Donnell, and do his job for the sake of the developing world and not for his own sake. After all, saving people's lives, as Mr O'Shea spends his waking hours doing, is more important than playing politics.
Yours, etc,
Richard Collins, Heathfield South, Twickenham, Middlesex.