Madam, - Last weekend's newspapers suggested that Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan may reduce pension tax relief from 41 per cent to 20 per cent for those on the marginal rate of income tax.
At a time when many people in the private sector have under-funded or non-existent pension arrangements, this would surely serve as a further disincentive.
One wonders if this plan is the brainchild of civil servants in the Department of Finance who have no such pension concerns? - Yours, etc,
PETER STAUNTON, Raphoe Road, Dublin 12
Madam, - There appears to be a growing consensus that the public sector must be made to bear the brunt of the pain in the budget, with a pay freeze, a ban on recruitment and voluntary redundancies all being mooted. Why, I wonder, should the public sector suffer most to restore the country's finances?
Surely the ones who made most from the boom years and who got us into this mess should also bear some of the pain - the bankers and property developers, most of whom earn far, far more than any public servants.
As the OECD recently noted, Ireland has an efficient public service for relatively little cost. Surely it would be fairer and more efficient to increase income tax for all (especially for the wealthiest), rather than unfairly target public sector workers or damage public services? - Yours, etc,
DAVID LAWLOR , Bogota, Colombia.