Sir, - As a PAYE taxpayer in the 1970s and 1980s when tax was taken at rates of 60 per cent, I feel a cold and abiding anger against those who cheated me and my family. I well remember how the farming community was used as a scapegoat to divert attention from those sections of the community who considered that taxes were only for the little people.
Mr Ruari Quinn has suggested that any tax recovered should be used to compensate the PAYE taxpayers of those years and, although this idea has been received with deafening silence from the rest of the political establishment, it would seem to be a reasonable proposal. Many of the over-taxed of that period must now be pensioners and would be glad to see a little extra cash - particularly as, morally speaking, it is their money.
If any of your readers feel the same way perhaps they would like to contact me with a view to taking concerted action to obtain some measure of fairness even at this late stage. - Yours, etc.,
Gerard Palmer, 17 Taney Rise, Dundrum, Dublin 14.