Sir, – I strongly protest your newspaper's grossly unpatriotic act last Friday by front-paging this corporate tax matter when Dublin was hosting so many European People's Party leaders, many of whom would have strong views on this vexed and often misinterpreted issue of our corporation tax incentives for both domestic and foreign-owned corporates here ("Apple paid $36 million tax on $7.11 billion profits at Irish unit", March 7th).
I am all for freedom of information and freedom of the press but with those rights come responsibilities, and I would put it to you that to put these matters on the front page at the end of last week was both irresponsible and gravely unpatriotic in an economic context.
This matter could have just as easily been dealt with in the following day’s edition, insofar as you still considered it a matter meriting such prominent coverage, but to highlight it last Friday was disgraceful and cannot be seen as having been remotely in the national interest. It was not a time-sensitive news item that you had scooped ahead of everyone else. – Yours, etc,
JOHN B DILLON,
Eglinton Road,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – It was great to see Bono addressing the European People’s Party congress (“St Bono wows EU leaders”, Home News, March 8th). Perhaps we could follow this up by getting Jedward to address the next congress. – Yours, etc,
TIM O’SULLIVAN,
Maywood Avenue,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – I’m sick of the snide asides and downright derisory comments when Bono speaks on topics important to this country. On March 7th he packed the Convention Centre and, with passion and power, he outlined the sacrifices and the endurance of the Irish in this awful austerity programme. And they hung on his every word.
Bono sees a wrong and tries to right it.
Stop with the denigration, already. He’s our greatest ambassador.
Leave him alone and let him get on with it. – Yours, etc,
PATRICIA R MOYNIHAN,
Castlegrange Park,
Castaheany,
Co Dublin.