Sir, - So our elected representatives in Dail Eireann are looking for an extra 29 per cent in their pay-packets. Fair play to them. All the bowsies in the State will complain, point to the brown envelopes and meetings in pubs and car-parks, whinge about the number of days on which the Dail actually sits, scream about astronomical expenses and carp about foreign junkets, but they are missing the point. The chattering classes should realise that a TD's salary of £38,000 compares most unfavourably with that of a middle manager in the private sector.
Do we want to be governed exclusively by people who either have so much cash that they do not need an income or by those whose own talent and ability would not put them in the running for well-paid jobs? I sincerely hope not. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin McPartlan, Shelbourne Village, Dublin 2.