Sir, - Mary McAleese has announced that she would, if elected, set up a website so that citizens could link into the Aras for a chat with the Head of State as the mood took them.
This may seem a bridge too far, but with two more tribunals on the way the idea could have potential. Sleepless citizens who are troubled by further revelations about the Haughey governments could surf the Aras in the wee small hours seeking assurance that all was well. Though prevented by the Constitution from entering into political discussions, the President would, with a click of the Presidential Mouse, download a prepared government statement advising the citizen that the Taoiseach had investigated each revelation three times and there was no need to worry.
Beyond the scope of the Presidential Mouse, and probably of greater concern to many people, might be the current and mysterious Government decision to have the £38 million Ansbacher accounts excluded from the Moriarty Tribunal. So much for the Taoiseach's undertaking in the Seanad that his Government would follow through fully on the findings of the McCracken Tribunal. The decision not to investigate Ansbacher was rightly described in an Irish Times editorial as being nothing short of scandalous.
It was then hinted that the Central Bank would be looking into Ansbacher and reporting to Mr McCreevey. Last week, however, after his head-hunting safari to New Guinea, the Minister calmly announced in the Dail that he had not even asked the Central Bank to look at Ansbacher and was not expecting to hear from it about these accounts. We are now left with a strange silence on the matter, instead of public outrage.
Perhaps one day the reasons behind this particular Government decision will be revealed by yet another tribunal. - Yours, etc., N. Cummins,
Dublin 14.