Madam, - I note with considerable interest the comments attributed to Tom Parlon in a recent edition of your newspaper in which he railed against the "naked self interest" of the trade union movement with respect to the current National Pay agreement. Indeed.
This is the same Tom Parlon who elevated naked self-interest to a new level when, as leader of the IFA, he seemed to consider it an article of faith that Irish and EU taxpayers were a proverbial cash cow from which farmers were to extract as much as possible and contribute as little as possible in return.
The same Tom Parlon transmogrified into a zealous free-market liberal in his capacity as a PD deputy when he ditched his adherence to big-state intervention and instead espoused low taxation, minimum state regulation and all the sundry attributes one would expect from someone committed to allowing the free market to reign unfettered and supreme.
More recently this chameleon of Irish public life has undergone another change and ditched his avowed commitment to public service and is now wearing a hard hat in his capacity as advocate for the Construction Industry Federation.
Few figures in Irish society represent naked self-interest quite as effectively as Tom Parlon and his selfish and snide comments about the hard working PAYE workers of this country are offensive in the extreme. - Yours, etc,
KARL McGOVERN,
Hillcrest Way,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.