Madam, - One knew after reading a few words of Martin Mansergh's piece on the estimates (Opinion, November 22nd) that the two fingers that his colleague Charlie McCreevy showed to the less well-off recently were now to be firmly shoved up their noses.
The challenges that he sets to assess the success or otherwise of a Budget do not even mention things like social cohesion, fairness or equity.
One can to some extent live with McCreevy, for we know he is an extremist, but Mr Mansergh's hypocrisy is difficult to swallow. He must know perfectly well that this Government is governing by numbers in the same fashion as dictators and monarchs of old. The favoured are allowed to feed off the rest in return for services rendered.
In a week when those who survive on special diets were told that they will have their assistance withdrawn and lone parents were informed that their lives are to be made immeasurably more difficult, Mr Mansergh is calling on the Minister to reduce excise duty on wine. I have no doubt that the Minister will oblige. Here, Mr Mansergh unwittingly shows us the priorities of this loathsome bunch of charlatans that masquerade as democratic government.
And given those priorities, are we that far away from having a horse in the Senate? - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.
Madam, - I am appalled at the savagery of some of the cuts that will take place in the Budget.
They will mean more people driven to quiet despair, breakdown or worse, more people who will not be able to afford medication because the figure at which they become free is too high. They will mean more people turning to charity for funding needs which the Government will not meet. They will probably mean a few more suicides.
As for "shopping around", I invite our Tánaiste to stay a while in some of the more isolated districts in Kerry in mid-winter. I would like to see how she would implement her own advice in areas where there is no public transport and getting to any shop is a problem if you don't possess a car.
Not everybody lives in suburbia!
Then I read of the almost unquestioned hand-out to the equestrian brigade in Kildare, while stallion fees are still tax free! I became more than appalled, I became angry at the way the poor are being insulted by our present Government.
I am even beginning to understand, ever so slightly, how the peasants of pre-revolutionary France and Russia felt! I have no wish for anybody to lose their heads. Their seats will do - and the sooner the better. - Yours, etc.,
Canon B. LOUGHEED, St Mary's Rectory, Killarney, Co Kerry.