The Labour Party – finding its place

Sir, –I look forward to The Irish Times publishing just one of the apologies to which you referred in your editorial "The Irish Times View on the Labour Party – finding its place" (March 28th), which urged the party "to stop apologising for its past". Some of us have been waiting for an expression of remorse from any senior figure for the social welfare changes introduced in 2012, which deeply affected the lives of one-parent families and unemployed young people. Instead, a decade later, the party continues to hide behind the skirts of the troika. Privately, many of its members and supporters are willing to acknowledge that neither group of social welfare recipients was identified in the "memorandum of understanding" signed by the then government, and that the subsequent cuts were cruel, unnecessary and unforgivable. It is such a pity that four leaders on, the Labour Party itself cannot follow suit. – Yours, etc,

FRANCES BYRNE,

Dublin 15.

Sir,– There are now as many former leaders of the Labour Party (seven) still in the land of the living as there are Labour TDs in the current Dáil. Is this a record? – Yours, etc,

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PAUL DELANEY,

Dalkey, Co Dublin.