The Big Issues - We'll Get to Them

The government are showing an increasing lack of awareness when it comes to the critical issues facing this country and it's people. To the ire of the majority of the electorate there is an ever widening chasm beginning to emerge between the electorate and those charged with governance. The recent headshop debate is a case in point. Here is a small growing industry selling products which by their definition and make up are classed as legal. These shops therefore contribute both VAT and PAYE to the revenue. Further, they will in many cases be providing employment thus contributing PRSI. Here we are with unemployment at 12.5%, small businesses closing by the day and the government are falling over themselves to close these shops. The juxtaposition here is both striking and worrying. It suggests a government willingly distracted by matters which have no right to the frontpage headlines. All of this isn't to underscore the obvious dangers of some of the products sold in these shops. Scientific research, commissioned by the government could go towards addressing this issue and steer away some of the more hyperbolic comments doing the rounds. A regulated system allowing the operation of head shops should take precedence over a burgeoning illegal drugs trade.
The government should be doing better than pandering to the worries of a few people who are misinformed on the subject at hand. Their time should be spent on getting people back in to employment which is by a long shot the most pressing issue in Ireland today.