Sir, - Tax cuts alone, rather than better public services funded from our Exchequer surplus, is the stall set out by the PDs heading into the review of the Programme for Government.
We can now afford to provide quality services for those in the forgotten corners of our society, for people with a mental illness and mental handicap, for communities ravaged by long-term unemployment and the drugs menace, for the homeless and the growing numbers on housing lists. We can afford to eradicate poverty - that is, if those are the choices and the priorities set in the disposition and allocation of State resources.
Vincent Browne's column, and several correspondents to this paper, have contrasted the State's expenditure on Farmleigh (£23 million) with the continuing underfunding of mental handicap services. There has been a curious silence, however, about money forgone to the public purse by selling Telecom at 20 per cent below its market value. Allowing a more modest discount, say 5 per cent, would have netted the Exchequer an extra £500 million, which puts the cost of Farmleigh rather in the shade. Telecom investors repre sent half-a-million votes. Better services for the mentally handicapped appear to appeal to a smaller constituency. - Yours, etc.
Eithne Fitzgerald, Clonard Avenue, Dublin 16.