The Bureaucrats and the Serfs

I am dismayed at how much control over our lives is been taken away from us on a regular basis. The government has removed from control so much power from local government, health services, roads and many other aspects of our lives that we are becoming Serfs at the mercy of faceless overseers with power over our towns, roads and health.

Ireland's democracy is being curtailed on a massive basis and no-one seems to care. I have written the following letter to the local papers to highlight my concerns.


Dear Sir/Madam,

We are living in the age of the bureaucrat and the 21st Century Serf. Once we fought for our liberty and right to self determination. Now we sit back and allow ourselves to be dictated to by bureaucrats.

Only two weeks ago Mayo’s only Fianna Fail (and thus our government TD) Dara Calleary wrote in the Sunday Tribune newspaper of his frustration at trying to ask questions of the Health Minister about the HSE in the Dail.

The Minister for Health has no direct control over the HSE because Section 6 of the Health Act 2004 states that the Health Services Executive is a corporate body. So Deputy Calleary’s questions go unanswered in our national parliament.

The NRA tell us when are where our roads are going to go and when we are going to get them. The HSE tells us which Health services we will get in our area when and if it decides to supply them and it makes cut backs when and where it likes without consultation with communities or patients.

In our local government system Town, City and County Managers run our areas on a day to day basis exercising executive powers over a huge range of local authority functions.

All of these bureaucrats wield enormous power over our lives and our quality of life yet they are totally unanswerable to us as individuals or as communities.

They are appointed by central government and are answerable only to them and not to the Dail or local council.

The definition of Democracy is “Of the people, for the people, by the people” but can we apply this to life in Mayo today? Are we citizens or consumers; or worse again are we 21st century Serfs awaiting the decisions of our (government appointed) masters?


Yours sincerely

_____________
Keith Martin
Councillor