My dialogue with da Taoiseach

dublin | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Tuesday April 13, 2004 17:21 by A shocked voter

Bumping Into Bertie

On Thursady the (9th of April )last I had the opportunity to engage in dialogoue with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while he went walkabout throughout his constituency.It wasnt very pleasent Imust say, as at times Bertie liberally used the four letter word throughout our encounter,and constantly spoke to me in a patronising manner.

I made it quite clear from the outset that his party was solely responsible for the jailing of those very brave citizens who went to jail because of a double taxation his party introduced.Mr Ahern stated he agreed with the double taxation, but when I pointed out that only 15% of waste comes from households, and also why havent any farmers or industry owners gone to jail because of enviromental waste etc he looked silent and dumbfounded.I pointed out to him how quickly the State seemed to deal with PAYE workers who dare defy unjust laws.I also pointed out the still seething anger from ordinary PAYE workers in working class areas to the bin tax.

When I raised the subject of two outstanding issues that have been central to the success of the new social partnership agreement "Sustainig Progress" Mr Ahern seemed willing to address my concern.

The first issue I put to him waa why hasnt there been any new homes of the promised 10,000 been built ,he pointed out that sites have been identified and proceeded to pass on responsibilty to property developers.I repeated the question how many houses were built and was given the reply "what do you think they are built with lego".I went on to suggest that surely it is the responsibility of government is to enure these homes are built

Raising the issue of the objective of taking as many people from the top rate of tax as possible and the absolute failure do achieve this objective, in fact 60,000 more people have gone up to the higher rate of tax during this partnership deal, Mr Ahern looked again dumbfounded and silent.
It seemed at times during our encounter Mr Ahern was extremly anxious to disengage from our encounter at times he spoke to me in a very patronising manner He suggested that I should live in the real world and that he was a trade unionist even before I was born.

I was extremley willing to engage further in conversation with our countys elected leader but Mr Ahern thought fit to turn his back and walk on.I attempted to gain a reply as to why none of his former party collegues or current sitting party members involved in corruption allegations and drink driving offences have not faced jail,but Mr Aherns back was turned to me.
In our final exchange I pointed out that it was a disgrace that our National Airport was being allowed to be used for US military stopovers and that I would gladly go to jail for protesting against Mr. Bushh's visit to Ireland He went on to say I hope you go to f***ing jail
Unfortunatley I didnt have the time to exchange views on the racist referundum due to take place on the same day as the Local Elections, but perhaps if we do meet again I will express my views on the issue.But somehow I think Bertie will cross the road to avoid me.