Madam, - The proposed new law against begging is an attempt to take our humanity away from us. It is providing us with a carte blanche excuse to turn our hearts and our minds away from those most in need - not just of our money but of the human encounter, the smile, the touch, the greeting.
No amount of rationalisation - updating the law, High Court imperatives, tourism or business - can justify this attempt to suppress and subordinate whatever remnants of compassion have been left on our shores as the tide of wealth ebbs slowly away.
How do any of us know the circumstances of those begging on our streets? How can we now teach our children to give according to their hearts, unrestricted and unhampered by some set of utilitarian rules or laws? - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Has the Government initiative to ban aggressive begging been brought in to prevent any further visits from the chief executives of the Irish banks? - Yours, etc,
Madam, - A €700 fine? How absurd! No genuine beggar has such a sum of money at his or her disposal - though there may be something quite appealing about a month's stay in an institution that will provide you with decent washing facilities, clean clothes, three square meals, a degree of recreation, and a warm, dry bed at night.
Quite frankly, the naive assumption that such a law would deter needy mendicants (no, not those destitute bankers) from accosting people on the street beggars belief. - Yours, etc,