Before I begin this I need to point out that I nor any other member of my family is affilliated to any Irish Political Party.

Pat Rabbitte the leader of the Labour Party in Ireland has declared today that the Irish economy is doomed. This is spite of the fact that we have record employment and the government recorded a €5billion surplus in 2006, (which I assume will be used to ferry rural drinkers to pubs).

Apparently according to "The Rabbit" the States balance of payments deficit is at present €13billion and will rise to €21billion by the time "this self-satisfied coalition leaves office".

First point to "The Rabbit" is that the reason why we import more goods and services is because producing such goods in Ireland is to expensive, and we as consumers would like to buy things at a reasonable price.If I am not mistaken "The Rabbit " is a strong supporter of the minimum wage of €8.25 in Ireland. So could I suggest that if he would like this deficit to reduce that he proposes to reduce the mininmum wage so that cost of production and therefore selling prices would also reduce.

Secondly could I suggest that "The Rabbit" explore a bit of "self-satisfaction" for himself as this may clear his head.

"The Rabbit" went on to criticise former Taoisigh Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey, what ever you think of these two men and their politics is a matter for you, but to criticise two men who are dead and unable to reply is pretty low even for a rabbit. I should also point out to "The Rabbit" that Ireland is a very different place in 2007 than it was in the 1970's and 1980's.

Perhaps "The Rabbit" was caught in the headlights of a passing minibus on its way to the pub when he penned his address. Can I suggest to "The Rabbit" that the Irish electorate are an intelligent bunch and we will not be fooled into half truths and gossip when we are asked to vote in the coming election. He would be better off sitting down in his hutch and developing reasonable policies that people may vote for.

In July of this year the Irish Government introduced "Random Breath testing" on Irish Roads in an effort to stop the endless carnage and death that was happening particularly in the early hours of the morning.Since this has been introduced many rural pubs in Ireland have been closing, and I think that the figure is somewhere around 100 in 2006. It is expected that this figure will be higher in 2007. The Irish Vintiners Association has blamed the introduction of the new laws in the demise of the Irish Rural Pub, saying that people are not prepared to drink a few pints and then drive home due the higher probability of getting caught. They also dragged out the "smoking ban" again to support their claim.

From the above it would appear that the Vintiners were happy to serve drink to anyone who wanted it and then once they left there was no responsibility on them. This conjures up in my mind something like "well I did'nt give him/her the gun, but I loaned him a few bullets, what was done with those bullets is nothing to do with me".

Now a Government Minister Eamon O Cuiv has announced that the Department of Transport is considering extending the rural bus service to later at night in order to facilitate bringing rural drinkers to the pub for a few pints and a chat.

He said it could be extended further in the evenings for a "modest sum of money".

I find this unbelieveable, here we are in a society that drink is taken in huge amounts causing injury, death, damage to lives and families and this muppet Government is drawing up plans to bus people around that countryside so that they can go for a few pints and chat and line the pockets of the local friendly publician.

Why can't the pubs adapt to the change in the market, every other business that I have being involved with has to change and adapt in order to continue in business. No not the Vintiners, they are special if they are losing customers its the Government who will introduce measures to bring the customers to it. It should be noted at this point that this is the same Government that basically told BUPA to "feck off " or operate in the market that was there, why can't the Government turn around to the Vintiners and tell them "feck off"?. The reason is that there is a General Election in May of this year and there are a lot of votes to be had in rural Ireland and these votes are very important at present as the election will be close.

Another thing what defines "a modest sum of money"? will we ever get an answer? I doubt it, so you and me, the taxpayer, can look at the money that the Government takes from us and be content in the knowledge that rather than been spent on Health or Roads etc its going to be spent on minibuses up and down the country ferrying locals to the pub. Its only when you right this down to realise how feckin annoying this is.

Of course the government has denied that it is encouraging drinking, but if you are paying or subsidising the transport of people to pubs what are you doing? If the people are drinking lemonade they d'ont need the bus.

If the argument is that this will help people to socialise why d'ont the people organise for one person to drive and rotate this on a weekly basis?

Finally will the bus stop for chips on the way home and if so will the government issue all the merry bus passengers with a voucher for a bag of chips and a carton of mushy peas to round of a perfect evening?