Sir, – It is inconceivable in a client service business that an urgent letter dated March 10th would be left undealt with until March 24th pending the return of the director responsible from a business trip. All senior client-facing people are now equipped with mobile devices and are available 24/7 to avoid such eventualities. This policy, inter alia, greatly reduces the risk of a client fast becoming an ex-client.
Is it credible that the Justice Department did not send a scanned copy of the Attorney General’s letter to Mr Shatter when was abroad? Is it conceivable that Mr Shatter was not in telephone or email contact with his officials for almost two weeks, or if he was in contact that this vital issue was not raised? Hardly!
Others can argue the politics of the situation better than I but on a practical level, if Government departments are managed in the manner suggested by Mr Shatter similar situations will recur in the future. Yours, etc,
KIERAN McHUGH,
Woodcliff,
Howth,
Dublin 13
Sir, — I have difficulty with an assertion in Tom O’Malley’s article (“Nightmare scenario may render convictions unsafe”, Opinion & Analysis, March 27th). He declares that “Many who have found themselves in [Garda custody] have later stated that they would have been willing to confess to anything just in order to regain their liberty”. To me, this smacks of sensationalism. What relevance does it have to the general point of the constitutional right to privacy in communication with one’s solicitor? Yours, etc,
MARTIN KAY,
Lough Gur,
Co Limerick
Sir, – RTÉ is charged with reporting on national news in a fair and unbiased manner, thus allowing the listener/viewer to make up his or her mind. Since the now-retired Commissioner Callinan’s “disgusting” remarks in Leinster House, certain elements in the TV newsroom in particular have shown a distinct bias in their coverage that has been favourable to the “official” side and decidedly cool to the legitimate claims of the two Garda whistleblowers. Can this be because RTÉ TV news depends so much for its daily feed of news on the Garda Press Office? Thank goodness for newspapers. Yours, etc,
FM RUSSELL,
Lisdoonvarna,
Co Clare.
A chara, – In Miriam Lord's column ("Twin egos once joined at the hip threaten Coalition", March 26th) she wrote: "The intervention of Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar (who was being quietly congratulated by the likes of Róisín Shortall and Peter Mathews ) escalated the situation." Can you please explain what she is trying to convey by writing "the likes of ..." in relation to individuals? What are we to understand? Is she suggesting that it wasn't actually Róisín Shortall or Peter Matthews themselves who were having a chat but some equivalents, some entities of which they, Shortall and Matthews are but iterations? The Irish Times is far from alone in its enthusiastic adopting of this term, rending individuals into equivalencies. It's just that when one reads the likes of Miriam Lord adopting it, one loses faith in a worthwhile publication, the likes of The Irish Times , for example. Is mise,
MARY COLETTE
SHEEHAN,
Castlelyons,
Co Cork