A good time to take stock of how the country is progressing

This is a good time to take stock of how we are progressing as a country.

Time to reflect on our values, traditions, and our beliefs. Are we happy with how all the citizens are being included and well cared for, or are we angry at how those suffering are being pushed further to the perimeter?

So let's look at a few of the burning facts. Is it alright for vulnerable people to be homeless, or living with small children in hotel rooms, where they are living in accommodation not fit for purpose?

Is it alright for so many poor people having to have Christmas dinner in centres, being served by those charitable enough to give up part of their Christmas day to ensure those hungry, lonely, and have to leave their dignity one side because they can't provide for themselves?

Is it alright for people left on trollies and then sent home from the hospital without being well?

Or is it alright for those waiting for mental health services to be left waiting for up to two years to get the help they need?

Or for children with disabilities not be able to receive the equipment that would make their lives easier and that of their parents?

We may find excuses for the loss of all of these facilities until we look at how other citizens gain from the taxpayers of our country, most put to the pin of their collar to repay inflated mortgages or be liable to lose the roof over their heads, by vulture funds to make more profit at our expense, for example; our Taoiseach drives a car that's of the highest spec, 735i BMW, way beyond what's needed, and the most expensive car ever driven in the history of the state by a leader. His ostentatious lifestyle not even commented on by media or otherwise.

Or the inflated salaries of those who run the country when compared with every other country across the EU. In some cases 300% more with far multiple more citizens under their care. Or for people in the plushest of offices in Dublin making laws that inflict hardship on both the youth and those in isolated places that live in rural Ireland?.

We are now back to pre-boom years, with packed out bars and restaurants, shocking waste continually in public funds, and a return to excessive displays of wealth, forgetting that we are the most indebted country in the world.

The obscene wealth that is being displayed by some, versus the poverty and the pain of others. The waste and destruction of our land and oceans continue at an alarming rate, but who appears to care?

We need only look at the fields used for the PICNIC concert and see the wanton waste of perfectly good tents and equipment being cleaned up after the revelers, no one batting an eye, only taken to the landfill without one in authority, passing a remark it appears.

The now constant everyday drug seizures and the rise in addiction, affecting so many across every section of society is a real reflection of the example that is being given by those who should be giving exemplary service and well paid to do so.

We are now returning to the Christmas markets in New York, and across Europe to do some Christmas shopping, as well as the 25% of our spend going abroad buying on-line goods, that can be got in Ireland to support workers and other taxpayers.

We look at the constant and relentless of charities seeking funds from the public trying to be of assistance to those they give a service to.

So if the economy is supposed to be on the up every year, why have we such long waiting lists for hospitals for the sick and elderly, or lack of new housing at affordable prices for the younger generation.

We have now come to accept that it's alright to change cherished values and legacies, left by those who lived simple but exemplary lives, and brought our state to where we are in years gone by. The erosion of the Church, for no good reason only to satisfy the liberal agenda, will come home to roost before too long.

The shelving of morals and rules to live by, are and will be in the future the downfall of our country.

Our children will be left bereft of sacredness and a moral compass, that will inflict untold suffering in the future. The obscene delight and celebration at the removal of the 8th amendment was surely a low point for many, and the ending results and laws being now implemented way beyond what was proposed originally.

So maybe now is the time to reflect and examine our consciences and see what legacy we leave for future generations, in a land that was often described as the Emerald Isle, and so many countries longed for the traditions and values that we held.

Every one of us has a part to play and remember that all it takes is for good people to keep silent for those with liberal and destructive agendas to flourish.

Are we going to allow this to happen?