Sir, - Mr Jack Jones was not impressive in his explanation of why parts of the MRBI poll taken a week before the elections were so wrong. The survey had Labour and Fine Gael forecasts correct within the error margin of the survey. The Fianna Fail prediction was wildly above the actual outcome, giving that party substantial encouragement in the days before the election, as you pointed out in an editorial.
Something very similar happened in the run-up to the last general election, again to Fianna Fail's advantage.
It is a very unpleasant feeling that somewhere, somehow we are being manipulated. Will someone please write and tell me this is not so, that this is impossible, that the problem is merely a recurrence of the paranoia that afflicted some of us during the Haughey years. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Ryan, Leoville, Dunmore Road, Waterford.