Sir, - I have recently been to three well-known restaurants. On each occasion my party was kept waiting for its table for between an hour and 90 minutes.
On two occasions I met visitors from the UK on their first visit to Dublin. One of the visitors said he had been kept waiting so long that he was ready to eat his menu! At this point I thought it only polite to advise him not to leave the restaurant without having the staff order him a taxi. I explained that Dublin had not quite got its act together in relation to taxis either! Let us hope that some of our Celtic Tiger arrogance will not dissuade visitors from returning to us in times of recession when they will be even more needed. - Yours, etc.,
Peter J. Fitzpatrick, Frankfort Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6.