Cowen showed no anger over lavish spending at Fás

READING Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s ringing endorsement of Fás chief Roddy Molloy before he resigned a day later, one can only conclude the Taoiseach had little problem with the lavish spending at taxpayers’ expense that took place at that agency under Mr Molloy’s management.

Mr Cowen should have been outraged at the abuses that had been exposed, demanding his fellow Offaly man’s resignation for being so irresponsible.

Of course this is the same Brian Cowen who took one of the Government jets to Shannon recently for the Munster v All Blacks game, while one of his State cars was there to collect him at the airport and ferry him the 13 miles to Thomond Park. How much did that soiree cost?

A few weeks earlier he and the other Brian had attempted to take medical cards off the over-70s.

The laissez-faire attitude towards taxpayer funds appears to reflect the view of too many in Fianna Fáil. Their cavalier approach to blowing tax revenue is incredible. Recently, describing the €800,000-plus paid to TDs and senators for teaching jobs they have not worked in over the past decade as “not significant”, Batt O’Keeffe exhibited similar indifference to wasting taxpayers’ revenue.

More recently, albeit on a smaller financial scale, but with an equally careless attitude, Martin Mansergh dismissed the amount spent on refurbishing Bertie Ahern’s new luxurious office as “not a particularly large sum of money”. My understanding is that the sum spent was close to the average house price in Ireland.

With financially reckless individuals like this making decisions, it’s no wonder there is nothing left in the Celtic Tiger kitty and they deem it necessary to chase pensioners or deny young girls a cancer vaccine.

Had intelligent financial management been applied, even in the most recent Celtic Tiger years, Ireland should have been in an excellent position to weather the current economic slowdown.

There should have been no necessity for cutbacks in services for several years had those in cabinet over the past five years acted more responsibly.

Brian Cowen, as Finance Minister, encountered a number of budget surpluses amounting to several billion euro. Given that these huge surpluses were unexpected, a prudent cabinet might have put those funds aside as partial insurance against the downturn that was inevitable.

Ireland has gone from having a €6 billion surplus just two years ago to an €18bn deficit at present.

Taxpayers’ money was squandered like casino chips in the hands of a compulsive gambler on a monumental losing streak.

Earlier this month here in the US, we culled the Republicans in our government who had blindly supported the irresponsible policies of President Bush. Considering recent opinion polls, maybe — just maybe — the Irish electorate are also recognising the incompetence of the present Government and its immediate predecessors.

Charles D Malone

Powell Street

San Francisco

USA