Sir, - Mary Harney's demand for more tax cuts shows that she still believes in the crazed economic policy followed by the US, UK and New Zealand economies and by recent Irish governments containing the PDs. It is hardly a coincidence that all of these countries have found themselves in the top five in the UN's inequality index. The PDs held up New Zealand as an example to be followed. Congratulations, Mary. Thanks to the policies espoused by your party we have managed to generate greater inequality than anybody bar the US.
Recent actions to halve Capital Gains Tax, aggressive reduction of the top rate of tax and the provision of ever more elaborate Government-sponsored tax-avoidance schemes will widen the gap between rich and poor even further. The privatisation of Telecom contributed to this inequality by deliberately underselling which allowed one fifth of the value of Telecom, around £350 million - remember that the cost of solving our chronic social housing problem has been estimated at £400 million - to be transferred from the entire population of the State to the richest 500,000. No politicians and only one economic commentator (Colm Rapple) noticed this stunt while the trade union movement tried its best to get its snout in the trough first.
It is quite obvious that the PD Government (with its Fianna Fail lapdog and its raggle-taggle of so-called independents) intends to continue on this destructive economic course. It will continue to repeat the mantra that "a rising tide lifts all boats", even though the evidence of the economies managed by the PDs' role models shows that it only makes the water deeper for those who don't have boats. - Your, etc.,
Ken Hall, Prince Arthur Terrace, Rathmines, Dublin 6.