Government wings its way high above the needs of ordinary people
With plans to extend their fleet to three jets, Mr Ahern said that SleazeeJet, the new State-owned airline, would be concentrating strictly on the executive end of the market.
"This is not just a low budget airline. It's an absolutely no-budget one and there will be plenty of frills on it," he said when he launched the new exclusive service in the Gold Circle Club.
The airline at the moment has only a dodgy Gulf Stream IV, which cost 44 million and seats just 14 people, and might have problems in passing an NCT inspection.
However, Mr Ahern said they intend to buy a bigger jet for about 60 million and a smaller nine-seater model for about 20 million and they would be keeping the Gulf Stream as well.
In the event of all three being in service or broken down he pointed out that they could also rely on the fishery protection plane which proved very handy for Tánaiste Mary Harney when she had to rush to Leitrim on the urgent Government business of officially opening her friend's off-licence.
It has to be said that it is imperative that the country spends tens of millions on creature comforts for our Taoiseach and his Cabinet members, especially if it saves him the embarrassment of hanging around an airport because of a technical fault, or missing the odd appointment.
The fact that the money being squandered on a fleet of jets could solve a lot of problems clogging up the health services, put more gardaí on the street or obviate some of the expense involved in education, is a matter of absolutely no importance to the Government.
The money which is being spent is being done so on the savings of the 2,000 phantom gardaí and the extra 200,000 medical cards invented before the last general election.
While our Taoiseach and his Cabinet are flying high in the lap of luxury, hospitals are being forced to cancel kidney dialysis treatment, limit cancer services and close beds because of health cuts.
The Beaumont Hospital in Dublin is currently looking at ways of saving 21 million through a number of cost-cutting measures, including closing down its night-time kidney dialysis service.
In the same hospital, Owen Power, a 59-year-old unemployed father of two, had to wait five days on a hospital trolley in the accident and emergency ward. He eventually discharged himself.
What was he waiting for? Oh, just treatment for an irregular heart beat.
A report published during the week found that Crumlin Children's Hospital, which treats 120,000 children a year, is seriously outdated and needs to be replaced.
The report, which was an independent one, showed that the hospital was relying on temporary prefabricated buildings to deliver vital services.
In what was probably the understatement of the year so far, Minister for Health Mícheál Martin accepted that the year ahead would be a "difficult" one. He then had the temerity to add that there was a need for "tight management" of hospital activities.
Did it ever dawn on him to point out to his leader that there is a need for "tight management" at Government level and that wasting over 100 million on a fleet of jets amounts to arrogance of an unbelievable order.
In an article in this newspaper yesterday, Fianna Fáil TD Jim Glennon defended the inane decision on the jets. Among the reasons he gave for endorsing the splurge was that Ireland will hold the EU presidency next year and the Government will have to be in a position to travel to meet with leaders from the 25 other countries involved.
Did he ever hear of scheduled airline services, which more than adequately service the countries to where our revered leaders will be travelling?
Ireland will hold the presidency for six months so, alternatively, the Government could lease the jets to cover the period of extensive travelling.
Better still, the EU should cover the cost and the aircraft could be available to whichever country holds the presidency.
But at the end of the day, the Government decision to buy the jets is an unconscionable one. It is completely indefensible because it has nothing to do with anything else but the collective egos of a Government totally and utterly out of touch with the ordinary people of this country.
Given the daftness of that decision, we should not be too surprised if sometime in the near future it could become a condition of getting a publican's licence that an applicant would have to complete the garda course in Templemore.
Alternatively, a law degree might be deemed a suitable alternative instead of having to spend a few months with Ireland's potential finest.
Given the complexity of existing legislation and the policing needed to decide who may or may not be served, whether on ethnic grounds or of age, a publican's lot is not a happy one, even allowing for the ridiculous price of drink.
It obviously does not strike Minister for Justice Michael McDowell as odd that one certain way to cut down on street violence on weekend nights is not to extend the opening (or is it closing) time of the pubs.
Despite the incontrovertible fact that since weekend closing was extended to 12.30am, plus drinking-up time, public order offences have dramatically increased, the minister is considering extending it even further to 2am. I appreciate that all the trouble is not caused by people coming out of the pubs, but it doesn't help.
The minister is of the opinion that local authorities should be given the power to decide when the pubs should close between 11pm and 2am. He said that it would allow communities to help curb late-night violence, or allow publicans to meet greater demand for alcohol in popular tourism spots.
Offering overtime to drinkers is most definitely not the way to curb the violence and it is extremely naive of him to suggest that longer drinking sessions is a glaring way to stop it. If he thinks this is a way to allow communities to help curb late-night violence, it merely goes to show that the minister, like other Cabinet members, is totally out of touch with the community.
The pub closing times proposals are just some of several which may be included in new legislation aimed at updating Ireland's liquor laws, some of which date back 200 years. If the minister's proposal is accepted, it would be back to the dark ages.
Allied to this example of perverse thinking, Mr McDowel has come up with another brainstorm whereby people between the ages of 18 years and either 23 or 25 he's not sure which will soon have to carry ID if they want drink in pubs and clubs.
When he announced this, he was speaking at the presentation of Ferdia, a six-year-old Irish draught horse to the Garda Siochána mounted unit in Dublin, so it was almost out of the horse's mouth.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
