Howlin’s defence of Government policy is near Trevelyan in attitude

It is often slightly embarrassing reading what many see as Fergus Finlay’s hollow criticism of his colleagues in the Labour Party on matters to do with social justice, and particularly the impact that regressive policies pursued are having on children.

A recent report indicated a doubling of the numbers of children living in poverty, a scandal that would bring a blush to the most ardent right winger-but not to the faces of the leadership of our Labour Party it seems.

Brendan Howlin’s defence of government policy (Irish Examiner, October 29), following Finlay’s latest pillow slap, was cringe inducing.

He actually proffered that the rising poverty levels and inequality are somehow acceptable because the government is focused on the “size of the pie to be divided” rather than the division of what we actually have.

So if the pie is not of a certain size, unfair division of it, to the point where children suffer deprivation, is acceptable according to Howlin.

It rather sounds like something Trevelyan would have uttered during the famine period in defence of the laissez-faire approach to poverty taken at the time.

Jim O’Sullivan

Rathedmond

Sligo