Sir, - Eamon Gilmore TD and your columnist, Dick Walsh, oppose Mr Noel Dempsey's proposals for electoral reform because, they say, rich people avail of clientelism all the time; why should electoral reform reduce the access of the poor to TDs? The answer is that these are separate issues. Corruption, aka clientelism for the rich, is a feature of our political system which we have failed to deal with, but that should not prevent us from dealing with other problems. To oppose electoral reform on these grounds (although there are others) is to argue that no issue should be dealt with while more important issues are unresolved. Logically extended, it is to argue against progress on any political issue; because there will always be a famine somewhere. - Yours, etc.,
James McDermott, Uggool, Moycullen, Co Galway.