Hopefully Ahern’s farewell is end of era

BRIAN Cowen is correct in saying that the news of Bertie Ahern’s retirement is indeed the end of an era.

The hope is that the era in question is that of cronyism, gombeen parochial politics and the maintenance of the vested interests of the self regarding elite of Irish society.

While Mr Ahern can rightly take some credit for his participation in the ending of the internecine conflict in Northern Ireland, I feel that this does not do enough to balance the books in the context of the economic wreckage that he is walking away from.

He was at the head of affairs when policy decisions were made to incentivise the property bubble and loosen regulation at the behest of his banking friends. He also did not have the bottle to drive through reform of the public service during the bench marking process as he needed to be the appeaser of all.

Barry Walsh

Church Rd

Blackrock

Cork