Sir, - Do banks' representatives read the Letters page? Have they no response to criticisms raised? I guess not. They are too arrogant to bother with Joe Public. Why aren't we all outside our local branches protesting? Between the ICI debacle and the way we were made to pay for the mistakes of Allied Irish Bank, non-resident accounts and tax evasion and the special treatment for taoisigh and other politicians, we have much to scream about. Yet not a birdie is disturbed by the quiet, apathetic absence of clamour. "We have lost our sense of outrage," as Fr Peter McVerry says.
Of course, the churches have other issues to occupy them, apart from the few brave souls such as the champion of the young and homeless mentioned already. Humanae Vitae really needed revisiting by all those old, male, celibate, sexually-obsessed preachers, pedants and polemicists, who are now having a field day. They can rejoin old battles gleefully while ignoring the real issues and imagine themselves being crucified for their moral stand on a point of principle. They concern themselves with women's bodies, especially their sexual organs, which must be carefully monitored in case pleasure is pursued for itself (rather then for the creation of more Catholics they can control). Who was saying it's all about control last Friday on the Late Late Show?
If all taxes were properly paid and the deplorable standards in public morality we now know about were replaced by government (and planning) for the common good of society, we would then be able to do something about the real issues of deprivation and inequality. But it requires both of these changes. More money on its own or good will of itself will not work.
To repeat what Fr McVerry said on these pages before: "If we had £1.8 billion to give away in tax breaks, why did a 13-year-old boy with cerebral palsy have to spend a weekend sleeping on the streets because there was no accommodation available?" - Yours, etc.,
Michael Power, Springlawn Road, Dublin 15.