Age diminishes thought processes

Terry Prone’s article (Opinion, July 7) on ageism is right on the mark. There is no substitute for experience and knowledge which, very often, comes with age.

However, age can also bring with it lack of drive and energy, and an inability to keep our feet on the ground, not to mention a diminishing of our thought processes. This matters greatly when you control two vital portfolios in Government.

Lest the reader gets the wrong idea, and as Terry Prone mentioned Pat Rabbitte’s name a few times in her article, it is important to note that whether Minister Rabbitte is ‘fit for purpose’ or not, he and the Cabinet have presided over the selling off of Bord Gáis together with a ready-made customer base of nearly three quarters of a million; the pay-out of €54m to Bord Gáis workers; the sell-off of the modern power plant at Whitegate for less than half the €400m it cost to build it. Future governments will rue those decisions, despite the fact that the troika are waiting at the door to collect the interest on our unsustainable debt.