Sir, - Citizens of this country - indeed, most countries - have long expected that essential public services would be paid out of taxation. The recent Ministerial statement that rural post offices will have to be closed or radically altered (for the worse it seems) because they are not economically viable shows that this is no longer true.
Are we to see this attitude spread further? Will garda∅ have their salaries paid out of on-the-spot fines and the contents of the Criminal Assets Bureau? Clearly the Army can't be made viable - it will have to go.
And I have serious doubts about the economic viability of the Dβil - perhaps we should go back to the early years of the last century when members of parliament weren't paid?
With these thoughts in my mind, it was good to read in your issue of August 2nd a politician, Michael D. Higgins, speaking out against the near-universal worship of the free market. - Yours, etc.,
Joss Lynam, Ardilea Estate, Dublin 14.