Mis-allocation of resources fosters murder.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 13, 2002 19:47 by GluttonMan

Lack of hostels, drug treatment puts homeless at risk

A young drug addict has been found murdered, Gardai are injured by joy-riders, cancer treatment is unavailable in our country, yet the economy is booming. What is going wrong?

We have been raised upon the myth of trickle-down economics, we are told that the times that are in it are the best for Ireland. Our economy is growing, the Celtic Tiger is roaring. Yet for an ever increasing number of us our living standards are lower. We have less chance of owning a house, we spend longer commuting, we work longer. And we're the ones doing well!

Our wealth, the wealth that we are working longer to produce is being mis-spent: it has been withdrawn from health-care. It has not been spent upon the provision of hostels for homeless people. It has not been spent upon drug-treatment centers.

One of the tangible results of this are the large numbers of homeless, many of whom are drug-addicts, living in a dangerous demi-monde where they cannot be easily helped. A 17-year old girl has just been found murdered with a pair of garden shears. I want my share of the taxes to be spent upon hostels and voluntary drug-treatment centers to stop something like this happening in the future. I don't want it spent on subsidising motorway construction so that someone can drive faster up to the country cottage in an imported Merc or Beamer. I don't want it spent upon an upgraded Irish army to take part in the New Europe. I want it spent upon public transport so that there aren't vans for joy-riders to steal. I want it spent on decent wages and decent housing so that joy-riding is less attractive.

All the law-and-order guff being talked in the elections with promises of an extra 2000 Gardai can't cure these problems. Gardai rarely prevent murders or assaults. They can't stop someone taking drugs. They can't stop a child growing up into a young man that would happily kill them with a car. Only a just society can minimise those problems.

The Gardai can, on the other hand, beat the crap out of peaceful protestors.

More order, Less law.