Our apathy is appalling. I don’t want to return
He expressed my views on how the country has been appallingly mismanaged by our so-called representatives. We have seen another 'Terrible Beauty' arise from the ashes of the Celtic Tiger where, once again, the only people keeping warm at the edge of those ashes now are the politicians and the fat cats.
As a student in the US, and an Irish citizen, I have no wish to return to my homeland because I have grown to despise the State and all that it has become.
Our apathy is appalling.
Our leaders, current and past, have systematically mismanaged our industry (tax breaks for multinationals which pull out when the going gets tough), our agriculture policy (ask any Australian or New Zealand sheep farmer about the lunatic economics of CAP), our fisheries (our seas have been fished out look at New Zealand's policy of fishing bank rotation to preserve stocks), not to mention our tattered health and education systems.
Like the Australians, we should make voting mandatory.
Some argue that you should have the right not to vote.
Well, I'd like the right not to pay car tax or parking fines, but there are things we have to do whether we like it or not.
When we have less than half the population voting, something must be done.
Our democracy is withering away as a result of apathy.
Compulsory voting would result in a real mandate for those elected, while more independent TDs would do the right thing by the country and keep the bigger parties in check.
We should also look at New Zealand not south-east Asia as a model to build a better country.
Philip J Crosbie,
Portland,
Maine,
USA.
