Medical Card

As one who is approaching the 'seventh age ', 'sans eyes , sans teeth ..etc' , and not considering myself 'comfortable' , either financially or physically , I can understand the anger that has arisen due to withdrawal of the medical card for the over 70's Most people who are objecting also point out what the Government DIDN'T do , , taxing the super -rich , telling us whats really happening with the Banks and most of all apparently doing nothing about curbing public expenditure .. , . If such action had been taken at least my age group would be less outraged . , and more prepared to take the 'hit' . But , of course that would have meant the Government taking on the public sector and in particular the civil service . What are the chances of ANY elected Government taking on the very people that they depend on , to stay in power , as Sam Goldwyn would have said '' they can be summed up in two words.... imm.-possible.''So if anything .is to be done it will have to done by a group of people who are outside and above politics . Say 10 or 12 people who have already shown their worth and served the state honourably , whom we all know and trust , who have nothing to gain by their involvement ... . Make hard decisions that politicians cannot . Seanad Eireann should be the pool from which this group are drawn , of course , but unfortunatly the Senate has become so polluted by has -been , and wanna be politicians, and miscellaneous appointees , that is not feasable. There are some in the Senate who would be acceptable , but not many . Not the Council of State , these would have to be an executive group . This group could be appointed for a fixed time , say , eight years , and the general public fully informed about who they are and what they are proposing An Emergency Cabinet , if you willWe , the public , and the fourth estate , could allow the elected Government to get on with the day to day job of running the country without continually calling them to task at every turn . .We can all call to mind the type of people we need ....one suggestion woild be Peter Sutherland , who got himself into trouble recently for speaking out of turn on school teachers , his critics ignoring the fact that he was talking about only bad teachers , another and I can't believe I'm saying this , would be Mary Harney , no matter how much she is disliked in some quarters , no one can doubt her courage and commitment....she would be wasted in Europe .We could come up with this group and instead of continually harping on about greed and fat cats and bloated public servants let them guide us out of our troubles and maybe in in 5 or 6 or 7 years when we open the 'box' again we might find that the Celtic Tiger ,like Schrodinger's cat is still alive and kicking....or maybe not..