Sir, - John Waters is correct to say (Opinion, September 11th) that the public anger surrounding Hugh O'Flaherty's candidacy for the vice-presidency of the EIB has been gleefully stoked and directed by the media.
Where he is wrong is in his assertion that the scale of the public outcry is somehow out of proportion with the basic issue which gave rise to the whole affair - i.e. that one reason the law exists and should not be implemented haphazardly is to ensure that access to leniency is not a random privilege donated by friends of friends.
Once this is acknowledged - as it appeared to have been when the Government forced Mr O'Flaherty to resign - the acknowledgement should not be effectively withdrawn by generous compensation for the "fall guy".
Mercy was shown in the Phillip Sheedy case, as we all naturally hope it would be if it happened to us; but unless serious sentences are followed through and unless people are made examples of (whether it be Sheedy or O'Flaherty), however heartless this may sound, then the laws against drink driving and its always potentially fatal consequences are meaningless. - Yours, etc.,
Suzanne Byrne, Arnott Street, Dublin 8.