LETTER: People should not be afraid to punish incompetent politicians

SIR –This Budget is a farce by the Finance Minister – months and months of endless submissions and lobbying followed by a fiver increase that would not even buy you a pint of beer at today’s prices and still hiking up prices of utility bills, car insurance, the price of houses out of control for the ordinary Joe Soap, people sleeping in doorways throughout the country, our health service in total disarray. 

It’s a do-nothing government telling us we have a rock star economy, which may be true for politicians, but on the real ground, it’s not so. Most people feel powerless to punish incompetent politicians, but when we get the chance in elections to send a clear message we do not – which is a shame.

There is an increasing disillusionment with politics with this glued-together government and Michael Martin’s blame game at the Fianna Fáil Árd Fheis was absolutely sickening by all accounts. His party brought this country to its knees in recent years and there was mass emigration and suicides by people who could make ends meet. 

Nothing has changed since then with their out-of-date politics, which only favour the well-off and, hopefully, they got the message from the people on the street during the water charge protests that they won’t fool the people for much longer. Farmers and fishermen are terribly affected by the policies of this present government, with Brexit down the road and nothing prepared as yet. 

Gerry Adams, TD, and his party brought peace and stability to this country, north and south, and to other countries as well. 

Noel Harrington, 

Ardbrack, 

Scilly, 

Kinsale.