DONEGAL Daily is your news website.
We know that because we know up to 30,000 of you visit the site every day, from here and abroad.
We welcome contributions from readers.
This one is from a mum in north Donegal. It is a very powerful view of life here in this county now for many parents whose children have been forced abroad.
You can read it here – and respond below:
Dear Sir,
I honestly do not know where to start. I have never written to a paper before in my life. I am a mother of four children, three of whom have taken the emigration trail to Australia, and the fourth is waiting to finish college, having received no help whatsoever from the State. When he’s finished, I have no doubt that he will follow in their footsteps.
I’m so angry and frustrated that at times I could pull my own hair out.
I listen and watch the news at every opportunity and feel utterly betrayed by the shambolic decisions made by the previous government, which are being rubber-stamped by this administration.
It’s all about big business and profit for bondholders, with people’s well-being coming a poor second to all of that. The elderly and the infirm are being seen as a drain on the State’s finances by faceless bureaucrats.
You only have to look at the way that carers are being forced into accepting voluntary work as part of their package. Their hours have been cut so much that most, if not all, carers do more hours than they get paid for.
Meanwhile, Minister Reilly continues to take every last bit of meat off the bone that is the public health service.
My husband has worked in freezing conditions, where his fingers were stuck to the shovel, trying to provide for his family.
These are the people who deserve lump sums when they retire, not some Fine Gael or Fianna Fail politician who is getting a big wage and will retire on two or three pensions to live in luxury that I can only dream about.
When I go to visit a sick relative or friend in hospital, it sickens me to think that I’m paying a parking fee to keep some private car park operator living a Celtic Tiger lifestyle. Car parks in public hospital grounds should be for the benefit of the hospital and its patients only. I do not claim to be a genius, but I think that such a scenario is pure common sense.
The problem, in my eyes, is that those running the country have no experience of living in the real world.
These people need to come down off their pedestal and realise that they are not superior human beings to those they are treating as lesser mortals.
We are a very weak and oppressed society with no avenue for redress at the moment, especially here in Donegal.
I am tired and running out of words because those at the top are not listening, or do not care.
Donegal Mother,
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