Bloated bureaucracy at root of our problem

I AGREE wholeheartedly with John Mallon (Letters, October 15). It is unbelievable that article 45 of the constitution is so quietly being ignored in the interests of free competition by this Government and its legal advisers.

Free enterprise I am against only when it is at the expense of protecting such essentials as health, energy and (because we are an island), travel.

It is not surprising the Government tries to blame our present dire state solely on the global economy when it is blatantly obvious the problem has been the disastrous mismanagement by successive finance ministers since and including Bertie Ahern — the same man who as Taoiseach solved all problems by throwing taxpayers’ money at them or, just as bad, created another committee to “look into the problem”. The result is an overblown administration that the taxpayer has to pay for now.

Earlier this year (Letters, July 31), I wondered about dual administration, ie, Department of Health and HSE doing the same job. If one administration ran the health service, maybe there might be some money left over for the over-70s’ medical cards and special needs. This Government has 31 ministers and ministers of state for four million people while José Manuel Barroso has 27 commissioners for nearly 500 million EU citizens. Still, the 10% reduction in ministerial salaries is a start. Hopefully, we taxpayers will be seeing more of the same in future.

Hart Dorsch

Coosheen South

Schull

Co Cork