Madam, - Your Irish Times/TNSmrbi opinion poll of (appropriately) Friday 13th makes depressing reading.
Despite Garda corruption, an extremely ill health service, tribunals of inquiry, payments to politicians, vast Government overspending on various infrastructure projects, the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, the e-voting debacle, the Leas Cross report, the death of Pat Joe Walsh in Monaghan Hospital, the number of deaths on our roads, the lack of school places for children in Laytown, the ever-rising cost of housing, the price increases in gas and electricity, the traffic problems around the country, etc, etc, the Irish electorate is apparently happy with the Government, and Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
If it's true that you get the Government you deserve, then we have certainly hit the jackpot here. Your poll shows us to be shallow, uncaring people who don't expect our representatives to have high standards - moral or otherwise. Shallow government for a shallow people. - Yours, etc,
ADRIAN MARLEY, Medebawn, Dundalk, Co Louth.
Madam, - Your Editorial entitled "A poor reflection of ourselves" is reminiscent of the pronouncements from the court of Versailles in the last days of Louis XVI. Your breathtaking arrogance in dismissing the views of the Irish people is as out of touch with reality as that other great Madam who said: "Let them eat cake"!
You mistakenly see a rise in support for FF and the PDs as a sign that the "culture of corruption" is once again acceptable in Irish society. You could not be further from the truth.
The poll found that most people agree that Bertie Ahern was wrong to accept money in the early 19990s. However, the poll also shows that the Irish people are more than capable of understanding the difference between taking money in return for favours (corruption) and taking money for help in a difficult personal situation.
It seems that Tánaiste Michael McDowell correctly gauged the public mood. His insistence that Mr Ahern account for his actions to the Irish people, coupled with his measured stance that it was better for the nation that the PDs stay in government with Fianna Fáil, has been vindicated. - Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNY, Monkstown Valley, Co Dublin.
Madam, - The advice to stay in bed when Friday falls on the 13th day of the month was ignored with devastating consequences. A surge in support for the Government, says the Irish Times poll. Despite the inequities, the sleaze and the porkies, the electorate are gushing in their support. I simply don't get it. There must be a conspiracy afoot. Or are we all really lost in the "greed is good" mire?
I intend to swaddle myself in the comforting conclusion that the message from the electorate is that, like our national soccer team, the Opposition couldn't kick snow off a rope. - Yours, etc,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.
A Chara, - The return of Fianna Fáil's poll ratings to close to their level at the last general election is really not such a big news story. It represents how people really always intended to vote when they were forced to think about it. It is is a - dare I use the word? - vindication of the performance and conduct over his entire term of office of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Despite snide, pompous taunts from the Opposition about low ethical standards, Fianna Fáil TDs have in fact been more in tune with the majority of Irish people who neither believe nor insist that their politicians are all immaculate saints without any human failings, but are far more concerned with having decent honest men and women who can identify with them, working hard and doing their jobs competently.
A few of your correspondents, myself included, suggested a couple of weeks ago that the media and Opposition might come to regret the day they put the spotlight on Bertie Ahern. In trying to get him out of the picture, they have locked the focus on him instead, and if it stays that way until next May, there'll be no happier man in all of Drumcondra.
Congratulations, Madam, on a job well done. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Bertie Ahern was right about one thing: the electorate is indeed bewildered. - Yours, etc,
ROSEMARY O'SULLIVAN, Tipper Road, Naas, Co Kildare.