Taoiseach gives VHI a free run

THE Taoiseach showed his loss of touch with ordinary citizens in his outburst against BUPA last Friday. His venomous rantings and ridicule of a respected company with a huge customer base here contrasts with his joy at rubbing shoulders with fat-cat developers in the FF tent at the Galway races, some of them known tax defaulters.

He appeared to sympathise with older people who were supposedly getting ‘screwed’ by BUPA, forgetting he had just given VHI a licence to screw everyone, young or old. I am a VHI member, and while I have had good service from them I predict premiums will go sky-high. Unlike Bertie, most people do not have friends who can give them a ‘dig-out’ when their VHI is renewable.

Poor Micheál Martin ran like a headless chicken to Fermoy last Monday to douse the flames of dissent in north Cork. Unlike other layoffs, the jobs in Fermoy will go directly as a result of Government policy.

But we ordinary Joe Soaps will have forgotten that by election time. Looking at the opposition, I can see why.

Still, I wish we had more than a Bass-drinking, Man United-following wannabe Joe Soap as Taoiseach. Give us a visionary, someone who leads by example, takes on vested interests and make decisions for the common good. I’d even settle for someone who can complete a coherent sentence.

Jim Mullins

‘Cois Coillte’

Gurteen

Inniscarra

Co Cork.