Cowen talks business, but not in the Dáil

ON January 21 last we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the first sitting of Dáil Éireann.

As a primary school principal, I did my best to explain to our senior classes the momentous nature of the occasion in the battle to secure our status as a sovereign republic.

The many media outlets that covered the event spoke of the centrality of the debates in Dáil Éireann in those early years of our statehood.

On February 3, the Taoiseach of our now sovereign republic looked sullenly into a jargon-filled script and mumbled his way through a speech which asked a substantial number of the State’s workers to give up almost one-tenth of their earnings to pay for an economic mess not of their making.

And then on February 5, Brian Cowen finally decided to get passionate about the crisis we find ourselves in.

Having ignored the democratically-elected opposition in our parliament and having overruled the social partners, he decides to become animated in... a five-star Dublin hotel to the capital’s business people.

Eamon de Valera, Michael Collins, WT Cosgrave, Tom Johnson and Seán Lemass must be spinning in their graves.

Cllr Seán Ó hArgáin (Lab)

Sceilg

Greenshill

Kilkenny