Election posters and donations

Sir, – In a spirited defence of election posters, Barry Walsh (January 27th) claims that without them, “a sizeable portion of the electorate wouldn’t know that an election was even taking place.” He may be right. I suggest, though, that those who require posters for this information are unlikely to be engaged enough in politics to bother casting a vote. Furthermore, primary school parents don’t need posters to alert them to an imminent national polling day, as they merely have to ask their children to explain why they have another day off. – Yours, etc,

RONAN McDERMOTT.

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – In the interest of providing full clarity on income and expenses, shouldn’t political parties of all persuasions now be subject to a full independent audit, the details of which could be published in full online so that the public can have full confidence in their public representatives? This may also encourage those of a “holier than thou” nature to have a clean set of books before casting the first stone. – Yours, etc,

Michael Palin on the loss of his wife of 57 years: ‘you feel you’ll never have a friend as close as that’

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Fintan O'Toole: We are facing the terrifying result of the West’s three stupid mistakes in the Middle East

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Annuities or ARFs: what’s the correct decision?

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Tokyo Letter: ‘Pacifist’ Japan is tooling up for war

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RORY J WHELAN,

Drogheda,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Any word on how the Dáil printer is doing these says? The one that cost €2 million and was too big to fit through the door (News, December 11th, 2019). Or did it qualify for early retirement? – Yours, etc,

CATHERINE L MURPHY,

Dublin 3.