The scenes in Stormont last Monday have been described as a pantomime and they were but against that background I detected a desire to end the abuse of the assembly as a soap box for arrogant members who thought they could do what they wished with no consequences. Heading that category surely is Arlene Foster who relinquished any respect she may have had among nationalists as First Minister when she headed down the road from Stormont a few weeks ago to get her picture taken with Dee Stitt and his friends in Charter NI.
Yesterday surely was a wakeup call for Arlene and others with similar tendencies that she doesn’t own the assembly any more than Sinn Féin does.
On reflection surely it is obvious to her that the other parties elected to that forum must be treated with respect. She simply cannot expect them to sit like mice and listen to her wriggle her way out of a tight spot when there is diminishing respect for her on an unprecedented scale.
Whatever happens in the new year, what passed for politics in Stormont in recent times cannot continue because it only contaminates the place and wider society and, in a warped way, runs the risk of making Dee Stitt relevant again after decades of murder and mayhem carried out by the UDA that he allegedly heads up.
The cash for ashes scandal is shocking but in real terms is it any more costly than the damage done to the institutions of democracy created under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and endorsed by the people of Ireland north and south?
Those who lost loved ones would provide an answer. I imagine that John Hume, Seamus Mallon, Brid Rogers and others will tell you that you cannot put a price on the peace process which should not be about two parties doing their thing but healing the hurt caused by generations of violence and indeed arrogance on the part of people who yearn power but lack the humility to achieve it.
Perhaps when the scandal is well chewed over there will be a wake-up call that there is a need to rediscover why members are there and what their role is. It certainly isn’t about abusing power, blaming others, allowing special advisers too much rope or leaving important decisions to well-paid civil servants.
Yes, the Public Accounts Committee will do its job and there may well be an independent inquiry but if the culture of arrogance that exists there continues there are surely many more train wrecks coming down the line.
JOHN DALLAT
Kilrea, Co Derry
Food for thought for teacher dispute negotiators
The teaching unions are balloting members to vote for strike action to obtain a large pay rise for all teachers. One of the best ways to get a pay increase is to vote for a large pay increase for the teachers in the top 50 schools as published in The Irish News school league table results. This way the teachers in the top 50 schools would be given large pay increases as a reward for topping the school league tables and showing that they are the best teachers in Northern Ireland and richly deserve their pay increase. Then the teachers in schools lower down the school league tables, from 51 to 100, should receive a much smaller pay increase, while the teachers in schools at the bottom of the league tables from 101 to 170 should not get a pay increase until they demonstrate their teaching ability by improving the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level results of their schools and moving their schools higher up The Irish News league table of school results.
Awarding pay increases in this manner would quickly weed out the bad teachers and give the remainder a big incentive to improve their standard of teaching so that their school would move out of the failing group at the bottom of the school league tables and into the better paid upper regions.
This would be a win, win situation for the teachers and improve their standing in the community who would applaud the better ‘O’ and ‘A’ level results in their schools and this could be achieved without pay strikes or school closures and also save millions of pounds on the education budget.
This is something that the various teaching unions and the Education Minister Peter Weir should consider during future pay negotiations.
SEAN BRENNAN
Belfast BT12
Electorate sometimes gullible but never stupid
By any standards the relentless personalised attacks on Sinn Féin, and in particular its leader Gerry Adams, regarding the killings of prison officer Brian Stack in 1983 and Jean McConville in 1972, are bitter and incorrigible attacks on democracy. The sheer level of malice, prejudice and political bile which has been hurled at Mr Adams in regard to these issues, enthusiastically peddled in the political arena, go far beyond accepted parliamentary discourse. Whereas I unequivocally support demands from the families of all these victims for justice and their right to speak wherever they choose, the alacrity with which some politicians and political parties have exploited these horrific crimes, while ignoring other appalling killings, leaves me with the impression that these events are being played out for their full political value.
There appears to be a steely determination by opponents of Sinn Féin in Dáil Éireann to form a cross-party consensus to create a political atmosphere where Sinn Féin is rendered politically toxic and impotent Opponents of Sinn Féin seems to have forgotten something about the electorate. We may be sometimes gullible, but we’r not all stupid.
TOM COOPER
Irish National Congress,
Dublin 7
Breaking with tradition
In the quest to establish responsibility for a wasteful heating scheme, we see people on the ground united in demanding greater accountability and transparency from people they voted to govern.
I would ask readers, however, that even with the prospect of us all paying long term for such incompetence, something positive is emerging – that people will break from traditional voting habits which tend to be sectarian, to vote in whoever they assess as most capable.
PATRICIA MALLON
Belfast BT9
Interesting take from FF leader
I refer to Micheál Martin’s passionate defence of the people of the north who voted Remain and in particular his vow to defend the rights of those who hold Irish passports. Interesting take from the leader of a party that only recently blocked discussion in the Seanad on the rights of Irish passport holders in the north to vote in Irish presidential elections.
MARTIN KEENAN
Belfast BT11
Wearing of the green
I thank Martin Lowry for the history of the Ireland soccer team’s dalliance with the colour blue, much of which I was aware of (December 16). He claims that the IFA is only reflecting the fans use of green white and blue on their scarves (the blue most certainly not in honour of or representing St Patrick). That being so, when the fans drop the green I assume so will the IFA.
If by his plea for the FAI and the Ireland fans to see the error of their ways and rejoin the IFA he is promoting the idea of an all-Ireland team then I would wholeheartedly support him and would also welcome some blue on the shirt.
JOHN McLAUGHLIN
Derry City
