Time for the political gravy train to derail

OF late I have also arrived at the conclusion that our country does indeed require an immediate and severe crackdown on those contemptible individuals who cheat, defraud and effectively loot our public finances due to our well-established culture of entitlement.

However, those cheats I refer to are namely retired politicians who have the sheer audacity to abuse the system by drawing on their government pensions despite being significantly below the age at which ordinary citizens are entitled to claim a state pension and in many instances are still in full employment in state, semi-state and EU positions. There is absolutely no justification for the misappropriation of public monies on these extremely well off yet morally bankrupt individuals at a time when many citizens cannot provide for their own basic physiological needs. The display of tokenism by our Fine Gael / Labour government must be replaced by a proper redress of this extraordinary situation. With the austerity programme firmly on track, it is high time that this gravy train derails.

Mairéad Mullen