A Chara, - I welcome Pat Rabbitte's late and Pauline conversion to the benefits of low taxation, but surely what makes it controversial is not its effect on the Government's election campaign but its appropriateness in the current stage of our economy's development - and, more importantly, what it says about the credibility of the Fine Gael/Labour nominee for Finance Minister.
At almost every turn over the past 10 years, Pat Rabbitte has railed against the Government's focus on using tax reductions to stimulate the economy. He who wished to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" insisted year after year that no further reductions were needed and that funds should instead be diverted towards investment in infrastructure.
How is it credible, then, that just as that change in Government focus begins to happen, Mr Rabbitte decides he is going to divert €1 billion a year away from schools, hospitals and gardaí towards further reducing an income tax level which is already one of the lowest in the developed world?
Had Charlie McCreevy announced he was becoming a socialist, he would have been laughed out of office. Conversely, can we reasonably be expected to put Pat Rabbitte into the Department of Finance as a PD? - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.
Madam, - After promising cuts in the top rate of tax if the Progressive Democrats are returned to Government, Tánaiste Michael McDowell has attacked Pat Rabbitte for pledging cuts in the standard rate of tax.
Proposing tax cuts for the rich, and denouncing tax cuts for the less well-off: surely this sums up the Progressive Democrat ideology. - Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH, Brooklawn, Clontarf, Dublin 3.
Madam, - Welcome to the five-yearly auction of the nation's government. This Government is now on the market. It has to be gone by June. I have a bid of a €300 pension from the far right of the room. Do I hear a better bid from the centre or the left? - Yours, etc,
DAVID JORDAN, Sundrive Road, Kimmage, Dublin 12.