Latest Laois Opinion: Letter to the Editor
The Laois People Opinion Page
Dear Editor,
Back in 80s Ireland a Dublin punk band snarled that Ireland was a banana republic.
Pressing fast forward on time Ireland has ripened into a country that is beyond comprehension, devoid of a functional democracy and steered by a political class lacking intelligence and foresight.
The evidence: the allocation of tax payers’ money to fund recreational activities with minority appeal trumps the allocation of money aiming to solve genuine human and animal welfare issues.
Allocated in Budget 2023 was €91 million to horse and greyhound racing – that’s €18.2 million for Greyhound Racing Ireland and €72.8 million for Horse Racing Ireland.
This legal squandering of scarce public money is particularly deplorable at a time when our country’s health and housing is in crisis standing alongside many worthy social causes pleading for adequate funding.
Money extracted from the citizen’s purse is being dished out to support two minority recreational interests that have a seam of animal cruelty, illegal drug use and financial malpractice running through them.
Despite the fact that Ireland is in financial hock coupled with a systemic lack of investment in human/animal welfare services the greyhound racing and horse racing community with their grubby fingers encased on the government’s financial levers are able to strong-arm the taxpayer to financially inoculate them.
Double standards and political cowardice is the balm for the people by our elected representatives.
Issuing an enormous amount of taxpayers’ money to cruel activities while offering a sippet amount of financial aid to those trying to help the vulnerable in our society, both human and non-human, is something that can only be squared in the mind of a ditch-thick Irish politician.
At Budget 23 time the Boomtown Rats said it all by singing, “Like Clockwork” Irish politicians show themselves to lack the nous to recognise that funding animal cruelty is a case of taking from the starving to feed the hungry.
Yours,
John Tierney
Campaigns Director
Association of Hunt Saboteurs
PO Box 4734
Dublin 1