Madam, - The position with regard to the Taoiseach accepting quite substantial payments from "friends" while a member of the Government of this country is perfectly simple. He was wrong to accept those payments, wrong to deny them and wrong now to attempt to justify them. If he didn't know this at the time he was, at best, a fool and didn't deserve then to be in high office. If he doesn't accept it now, his concept of ethics is perverse and he doesn't deserve to be in high office - or any public office for that matter.
Bear in mind also this is the man who signed blank cheques for his former boss, appointed his former brother-in-law an Appeals Commissioner (who controversially upheld an appeal by that same former boss) and nominated his former girlfriend to the board of the National Consumer Agency.
Man of the people? Come off it. - Yours, etc,
GODFREY SHAW, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7.
Madam, - The wrangling about Bertie Ahern's finances highlights, yet again, a matter that has damaged this country for far too long: payments - beg pardon, "donations" - to politicians.
If I offered our local Garda superintendent €5,000 "to help him with his career", I would expect to be promptly arrested and hauled before the courts. Ditto if I tried it on with a tax inspector or customs officer. Yet one can always offer money to one's political masters without fear of retribution or rebuke, regardless of who's in government.
The north-of-England saying puts it bluntly: "Them as gives money wants money's worth". The mere offer and acceptance of a substantial sum implies a quid pro quo.
The answer is to make it a criminal offence carrying mandatory imprisonment to offer or give money to politicians, and for them to solicit or accept donations: an Alexandrian solution to a Gordian knot. Of course, there isn't the remotest possibility of any such thing; our legislators aren't likely to slaughter any of their golden geese, now, are they?
When the canvassers come round during the next general election, should I ask how much they'll pay for my vote? - Yours, etc,
IAIN MacCÁRTHAIGH, Duncairn Avenue, Bray.
Madam, - I am trying to understand how a practising solicitor would seek loans from his client's friends to meet his fees and that the solicitor would do this having received instructions from his client, the Minister for Finance, not to do so. It is a strange and possibly novel response to a poor client's situation. How could a breach of confidentiality be avoided, not to mention the obvious professional difficulties? - Yours, etc,
SEATHRA O'DONOGHUE, Holmwood, Dublin 18.
Madam, - Notwithstanding the beef tribunal, some of us (naively perhaps) felt tribunals were a way to the truth. In recent weeks, a serious leak has sabotaged the value of tribunals.
Madam, you are a party to this destruction of the public trust. Mo náire thú. - Is mise,
DÓNALL Ó MURCHÚ, Teach Pháirc an Tóir, Baile Átha Cliath 6W.
Madam, - I am undecided on what Bertie Ahern's political fate should be. I am not and never have been a supporter. However, there is one thing I know for sure and that is that begrudgery and bitterness are alive and well in Ireland. Those people expressing shock and taking offence are not being entirely honest, I fear. I believe that, far from being outraged, they secretly wish that they had friends like Berties' of their own. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY, Ushers Island, Dublin 8.
A chara, - It was a remarkable revelation that Bertie Ahern managed to have both the financial means and the dogged willingness to make sure that over €90,000 was paid in the space of a few days in repayment of loans/gifts he received in the early 1990s. It seems it was only when public and political pressure came to bear that Mr Ahern decided that it would be best if he made sure the money were repaid immediately and without equivocation. It raises the question as to when he would have paid back this money, if the affair had not come to light.
Mr Ahern has made many statements in the past about politicians being indebted to outside interests. This highlights his blatant hypocrisy. I'm tired of the righteous indignation coming from John O'Donoghue and Willie O'Dea. I'm tired of the cronyism and corruption that seem to emanate from certain elements within Fianna Fáil - the party of the Charvet shirts, the blank cheques, the tax-evading builders cosying up with top politicians.
It seems, in light of recent events, it was quite fitting that Bertie Ahern gave such a glowing eulogy to his former mentor Charles Haughey. A man cut from the same cloth? - Is mise,
ERIC CREAN, Shandon Gardens, Dublin 7.
Madam, - While I agree with A Leavy (October 2nd) that we are privileged to live in a democracy, the hullabaloo over the past several days has been an extraordinary price to pay.
Wall-to-wall spinning as an election looms is nothing to be surprised at but you, Madam, should examine your own conscience and role as well as that of our politicians. Seven full pages in last Saturday's paper suggest you are not only reporting on the news; you are trying to make it. - Yours, etc,
GREG SCOLLAN, Skerries, Co Dublin.
Madam, - To escape hearing any more on our troubled Bertie, I poked my nose into the crossword in Monday's edition only to find: "16 Down - That's a fishy class of a drink (4)".
Is there no respite? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O'NEILL, Prince of Wales Terrace, Bray, Co Wicklow.