Full credit to Charlie McCreevy

FOLLOWING Charlie McCreevy’s recent nomination to a post as European Commissioner, there were many newspaper reviews of his performance as Minister for Finance since 1997, and most gave him some credit for his long performance over some difficult years.

However one notable exception was one has-been politician, Proinsias de Rossa, who delivered a diatribe in the European Parliament it was a pitiful performance.

One of the areas in which Charlie performed very well was in the field of social welfare. When I checked my records of contributory old age pension from the time he took over Finance I found that at that time the weekly pension was the equivalent of €163.17 in today's money and from January, 2004, this had risen to €302.90.

I often say "thank God for Charlie".

Finbarr O'Brien,

Glenview House,

Tower,

Blarney,

Co Cork.