Madam, - The concern that Brian Cowen expressed for his Taoiseach at the Humbert Summer School, as reported in your edition of August 25th, was touching but misplaced. His lament for what Bertie Ahern had "endured" leading up to the general election was entirely distasteful from the viewpoint of an ordinary voter.
A general election is a time for the public to hold their chief executive to account. If Mr Ahern didn't want to "endure" criticism from the public, perhaps he should have made his financial affairs above reproach. Instead, in the early 1990s, despite the knowledge that he would probably soon be Taoiseach, he stored £50,000 in a personal safe for years, accepted accumulated payments from friends adding up to about £100,000 and played financial merry-go-rounds with £30,000 that was not his - all this subsequent to writing a whole batch of blank cheques for a man who appeared to be living beyond his means.
I regret that a Taoiseach has to be dragged through the tribunals due to his finances being suspect: it does the office of Taoiseach nor the profession of politics no good. However, unlike Mr Cowen, I feel no sympathy for Bertie Ahern. He made his own misfortune. - Yours, etc,
DAVID GARRAHY, Santry, Dublin 9.