Bertie and the boom: a rare chance wasted

I HAVE a question regarding Bertie Ahern and the successive governments he has led over what is generally acknowledged to be the greatest boom this country has ever seen.

How has the country Bertie and his ministers were charged with managing kept up?

Policing — station after station in village after village closed down, and we wonder why drugs are now freely available in these places.

Education — teacher-to-pupil ratio is still one of the worst in the developed world, despite specific (but broken) promises to improve it.

Infrastructure — there is still not a complete motorway between the country’s two largest cities, Cork and Dublin. In the capital, two separate Luas lines don’t even link up.

Health — the most important of all, it couldn’t be in a worse mess.

By whatever standard you chose to use, Bertie and his ministers should be ashamed of themselves for squandering the greatest opportunity this country has ever had, or is likely to have again in the near future. Shame on us all.

Tony O’Connor

Garranereagh

Kilbrittain

Co Cork