Madam, - Why has Willie O'Dea been passed over again for the justice ministry? It's not hard to make a case for him: he is a former barrister of note and a well-regarded law lecturer/academic. Moreover, he possesses the insight into crime and social hardship that comes from being a long-serving Limerick TD, to put it bluntly.
Yet he is never even among the speculated candidates for promotion. I would be fascinated to learn why. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL KEARY, Monaleen Heights, Castletroy, Limerick.
Madam, - I wish Brian Cowen and his new Cabinet good luck. He's going to need it, not least because he failed to replace Mary Harney as Minister for Health. It is simply horrendous that she, a representative of the doomed PDs, will continue to go through the motions of pretending that she has control over the HSE monster that she created, while periodically telling us that all will be well in the end.
But the end is nigh for the PDs and the life-support machine will be finally switched off by Senator Cannon, the in-house undertaker, after the local and European elections next year. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'BYRNE, Shandon Crescent, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.