JOSEPH MARRON,
Sir, - Vincent Browne is swimming against the current again but only dead fish swim with the current. In his column (May 1st) he seems to be the only journalist in Ireland prepared to consider the issue of political corruption and how it should influence your vote. Even if many readers disagree with his conclusion about which political parties you should vote against, nevertheless, in a healthy democracy, surely the issue of corruption should be an election issue worthy of debate after all we heard from various tribunals.
If the issue of political corruption does not matter, then it does not matter whether you can trust a particular party or a specific candidate. The people who will not vote claim all politicians are the same and that they are all corrupt. If politicians want to challenge that myth then the party spin doctors will have to allow the issue of political corruption onto the political agenda for reasoned debate.
I will vote in the election but I have not yet decided who I will vote for, or even who I will vote against (using the Vincent Browne logic). The political spin doctors, by keeping the issue of corruption out of the debate, may discover that they have pushed me and other voters into voting against their political masters. - Yours, etc.,
JOSEPH MARRON, Rathmines, Dublin 6.
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Sir, - The bus lanes are the best transport innovation in this city bar none in recent years. Dublin Bus are to be congratulated. I, for one, have abandoned the company car in favour of the bus and have halved my commute time. Thus, I am appalled at the Fine Gael proposal to let cars use these lanes. This proposal must be resisted. Fine Gael have lost my vote on this issue alone. - Yours, etc.,
ROBERT LIDWELL, Glasnevin, Dublin.
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Sir, - A hospital wing not completed at Mullingar Hospital for lack of funding; young people sleeping rough in our city streets; school children in schools that have been condemned as health hazards, etc.
Fianna Fáil in its manifesto has stated that if returned to government it intends spending one billion euro on the ego bowl at Abbotstown for the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
May 17th is the acceptable time to give our Government a reality check. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN SCALLON, Castleknock, Dublin 15.
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Sir, - I think the PDs have a hard neck objecting to the campus row. They must have given their consent to the removal of the Veterinary Research facility to Celbridge. The new site is beside Mr McCreevy's home, so it is reasonable to assume that Charlie made the arrangements. The cost of the move was estimated at £200 million - not an inconsiderable sum.
I do not remember being told how much the site owner got from Charlie for being a good citizen and allowing us to have the site "in the national interest". Perhaps someone will inform us now. - Yours, etc.,
SHAUN ROONEY, Drogheda, Co Meath.
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Sir, - No minister should be allowed to spend an inordinate amount of lottery funds on his own constituency to bolster his chances of re-election. This is an abuse of taxpayers' money. An independent body should be set up to allocate the grants. Then there would be no temptation to "buy" a seat in the Dáil and the likelihood is that the money would be divided more equitably. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL McGUIRE, Burnfoot, Co Donegal.
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Sir, - Does anyone else find it amusing that Sinn Féin are preaching to the Government about continuing the process of ratifying the Nice Treaty in "direct defiance of the expressed wishes of the Irish people". It must have slipped my mind when a mandate was given to them and their cohorts to perpetrate acts of violence in our country's name over the last 30 years. - Yours, etc.,
JAMES COLLINS, Glasnevin, Dublin 11.
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Sir, - The elderly and the infirm lying in corridors on hospital trolleys while the Government of the day builds a football stadium is perhaps just the scenario Aristotle had in mind over two millenia ago: "It remains true that the greatest injustices proceed from those who pursue excess, not from those who are driven by necessity."(The Politics) - Yours, etc.,
ALAN BRADY, The Crescent, Inse Bay, Laytown, Co Meath.
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Sir, - I am wondering if Dana becomes elected as an Independent and thus has a voice in the next Government, will this coalition be called "All kinds of everything"? - Yours, etc.,
DAVID LYONS, Sorrento Road, Dalkey, Co Dublin.
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Sir, - Our present Taoiseach embraces Padraig Flynn while Ms Beverley Cooper-Flynn, uncowed and unbowed, beams beside them.
Be afraid, be very afraid . . . - Yours, etc.,
EITHNE MacFADDEN, Carrigart, Co Donegal.
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Sir, - The situation currently as regards the Taoiseach and his refusal to appear in more than one debate starves the electorate of a democratic choice between two leaders who are being put before them as potential heads of government. It is my firm belief that the dictating of the Taoiseach as to when and where such debates take place is unfair and displays arrogance and a failure to hold himself accountable to the people. The opposition have stated that they want to contest this election on the issues and the outgoing Government has tried to bog down this debate in a dull debate on economics that was higher on histrionics than credible hypothesis.
I take issue with the irresponsible way in which the outgoing Government are putting themselves before the people by avoiding discussion and seeking to pressurise the media. I also note with some interest that the self-proclaimed "Alternative Taoiseach" spoke without briefing notes in considerable detail with Mark Brennock in the series you did on the party leaders. As the correspondent noted, this contrasted significantly with the Taoiseach's approach where he was prompted at various stages. The Taoiseach refused to debate on the referendum; he has turned down a multi-party debate and has turned down a series of head to head debates. The one-off will come at a time when people have made up their minds.
I believe this country deserves more than one hour to decide the nature of leadership on offer for the next five years of government. If he has nothing to hide and is proud of his record then he should stiffen his backbone and come out to debate his vision for the country and defend his record. If he does not do this we can but assume that he is afraid to and is trying to slither back into Roinn an Taoiseach in much the same manner as he dissolved the Dáil. It will represent a travesty for democracy and for representative politics where clear choices must at all times be given a full and frank airing. The voters are entitled to a fair view of what the leaders of their elected representatives' visions are for the governance of the State. - Yours, etc.,
ROSS MCCARTHY, Howth Rd, Clontarf, Dublin 3.