RUARI NEVIN,
Sir, - I'm taking a three-month break in Ireland - between contracts, recharging my batteries - and hoping to make the stay permanent. I've been at home for just a week and already I'm afraid that if I don't stop shaking my head in disgust and dismay it may fall off.
In 1988, not long after one of Mr Haughey's soundbites, the one that assured the young people of this country they were its greatest assets, I boarded a flight to London. I joined countless thousands, forced to leave an almost bankrupt State with no future. We were shown the door and, I suspect, the Government was secretly glad to unburden itself and shorten the dole queues.
Now I feel cheated that some people lined their pockets as the health system was decimated, honest taxpayers robbed and our greatest assets had to fashion a life elsewhere.
I'm talking about Ansbacher and similar schemes, of course - ingenious, absurd and frightening. If some people had invested as much time and energy developing the country as they did dodging tax, we'd be in a much healthier state, able to weather any economic downturn and have better provision for the poor and old.
And forget the "Celtic Tiger" before anyone pipes up - I viewed it as a handy label for an unplanned set of circumstances that allowed high-tech sweatshops to prosper. How many multinational corporations have pulled out in the past year? It pained me to see some of my fellow countrymen accepting the "boom" times, prepared to forgive and forget certain indiscretions. Tax evasion is a crime, isn't it?
I'm very bitter and angry and I demand retribution. I want to see the guilty do time - I did mine. - Yours, etc.,
RUARI NEVIN, Boyle, Co Roscommon.