Bertie’s team knows the score

AS the election campaign hots up I am becoming increasingly convinced that voting for the FG/Labour/Green rainbow poses real dangers for the country.

Sure, Enda Kenny appears to be a nice guy, but Pat Rabbitte talks too much and Trevor Sargent is largely unknown outside of Dublin.

They are asking voters blindly to support their fledgling alliance merely for the sake of change.

But a change to what? A return to mass unemployment and emigration, loss of competitiveness for industry, the cessation of the national development plan and the destruction of the national pay agreement just to buy the votes of nurses.

What can these three completely different parties (right, left and further left) deliver to the Irish people that would come anywhere close to matching the achievements of the current Government?

The last 10 years has seen the happy return of thousands of Irish emigrants, the creation of thousands of new jobs for this generation of school-leavers, massive improvements in infrastructure, (remember how bad the roads were 10 years ago), reduced direct taxation and greatly increased payments and services to the needy and elderly.

And last but certainly not least, there was the Taoiseach’s trojan work over those 10 years in delivering peace to this island.

Compare all of this with the lack of any noteworthy achievement by Mr Kenny over the 30 — yes, 30 — quiet years he has spent in the Dáil. Sure Kenny, Rabbitte & Co hop up and down every now and then to display their moral outrage just to remind the people that they actually do exist.

But have they enough real moral courage and experience to lead the country through the difficult times ahead. I think not.

&Even his bitterest political enemies would concede that the Taoiseach is a decent, hard-working man and the fact that his personal finances of 15-20 years ago dominated the first phase of this election campaign was a disgrace.

It’s totally irrelevant to the concerns of present-day voters and whether it has any relevance at all is a matter for the Mahon Tribunal to determine in due course.

Fine Gael’s role in leaking the information to a gullible media is suspect, to say the least.

I wonder what revelations there would be if the media showed the same enthusiasm to examine the private finances of all TDs and senators.

Has anyone dared, for example, to question how the previously long-term unemployed Shinners bought their holiday homes in places like Donegal.

Sure there are many things that need to be improved and the question the voters really need to ask is who best can deliver into the future?

I, for one, will put my faith in this government and give Bertie’s team my support on polling day. I hope, for all our futures, that most voters do likewise.

Liam Lynch

Rose Hill

Ballinacurra

Midleton

Co Cork