Wallace banned hunt to save own skin

Dear sir - I am amazed by Deputy Mary Wallace's declaration in last week's issue that her decision to support the Government in the "national interest " and ban stag hunting, was the most difficult, of her 20 years in politics. Deputy Wallace painted a picture of sheer personal anguish, between her choice of protecting stag hunting, or supporting her own Government, in the "national interest" - her seat. What amazes me, is that Deputy Wallace found this choice more difficult, than supporting her other decisions, in Government, such as increasing waiting lists in our hospitals for vital operations and treatments, increasing the bed less numbers on trolleys, up 150 per cent, and chairs in hospitals, by effectively taking almost 3,000 thousand beds out of our Health Service, and cutting frontline staff. In Meath, the promise of a €500 million super hospital in Navan, to be built, if ever, was used to hypnotise the people of Meath, while services in Navan are removed and offered in an overcrowded more remote Drogheda instead. Social Welfare has been slashed, carbon taxes levied on those who struggle to survive, class sizes increased even in draughty prefabs, access to third level for children of the new poor has been restricted, tens of billions have been squandered on zombie banks and bondholders, viable business have been starved of even minor borrowings, and policies were pursued that have caused 370,000 people to lose their jobs, and tens of thousands banished in tears, due to a Government designed and constructed, four year long depression. The most ruthless decisions of her Government has been to cut respite services for carers, and to cut the services that offer so much hope to children with special needs and learning difficulties, while the failed greedy management of banks, and failed mega-reckless borrowers were rewarded, while the little borrowers are nailed by high interest charges and threatened by, or subjected to committal to prison. And yet, Deputy Wallace found her decision to ban stag hunting to be her most difficult in 20 years in politics. The Green party are on a mission to target and ban a range of practices in rural Ireland from hunting, fishing, racing, turf cutting, rural housing, and animal husbandry. They plan to get what they want by a slice by slice approach. Fianna Fail should know that these Green turkeys will not vote for Christmas, no more than Fianna Fáil deputies will themselves. Yet Deputy Wallace and her party colleagues, including deputies Brady, Byrne, and Minister Dempsey failed to call the Green bluff, failed to say no to ransom politics and, have given the Greens their first slice, off the rural way of life, and the rural economy. The Greens will be back for more slices, thicker ones, to complete their agenda, now they know they can make, their green tail, wag the once proud Fianna Fáil dog, clogging up the Dáil time, that should be devoted to getting our country, out of this mess and concentrating, on the opportunities that are still there, to be grasped. Yours, John Callaghan, The Cloisters, Oldcastle Road, Kells.