Talks sabotaged by mob hysteria and editorials

I WISH to express my disappointment at the first section of your editorial (‘Taoiseach must stick to his guns’, December 4) and also your failure to call for patience and calm at a crucial time in our country’s history.

We had the pathetic spectacle of a baying mob hysterically screeching for public service pay cuts rather than unpaid leave. Is this how decisions are now to be arrived at in this country? By the Government caving in to those who shout loudest for longest rather than working in a spirit of cooperation and partnership to arrive at fair and equitable solutions to our difficulties? It is particularly ironic that you follow this with a reference to the Institute of Public Health’s pre-budget submission on fuel poverty, with no acknowledgement that the root cause of the threat to all cutbacks in the public sector budget is the same – €4 billion to Anglo Irish Bank, €4bn now being sought in cuts. Only a fool would argue that the amount is completely coincidental.

You talk of inequity at a time when the people to blame for all these cuts are not contributing anything like their fair share to try to correct the damage that has been done to our country. Instead the bill is being foisted on the innocent and vulnerable. Where is the equity in that?