Sir, - Political pronouncements in the wake of the McCracken Report have been long on platitudes and short on specific proposals for reform.
Surely it is obvious by now that all political donations should be banned forthwith and that political activity must in future be financed entirely from the public purse (with suitable safeguards such as limits on expenditure, arrangements to ensure equitable distribution and, of course, total transparency).
To reduce the burden on the hard-pressed taxpayer I would suggest:
that a special public fund be set up to which donations could continue to be made by all those altruistic people who previously made political donations "for which no favours were sought or given";
that the number of TDs should be reduced to 100, the Seanad abolished and the number of State agencies cut by about 50 per cent;
that measures be taken forthwith to cut the appalling waste of public monies caused by what you recently described as "a lamentable catalogue of maladministration and incompetence across the public service";
that the Revenue Commissioners be empowered to take whatever measures are necessary to collect the huge amount of unpaid taxes mentioned in successive reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General and clearly inherent in the Ansbacher Accounts.
Irrespective of the precise measures to be taken, the time has come to stop tinkering at the edges and pussyfooting around. Drastic surgery is essential if the damage which has been done to the body politic is to be repaired. -Yours, etc.,
M. D. Kennedy,
Silchester Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.