Madam, - Ryanair has adopted a policy in recent weeks of buying advertising space in some of our national newspapers (The Irish Times being an honourable exception) to attack the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and SIPTU for allegedly supporting monopolies and opposing competition in public transport.
I should declare my own interest at the outset by saying that I have acted as a media adviser to SIPTU and some of the other unions involved in the debate.
I am not primarily concerned here with challenging the obvious inaccuracies in the Ryanair-sponsored ads, although the claim that SIPTU closed down CIÉ on the "No Fares Day" is patently ridiculous.
Commuters that day saw traffic was unusually light, presumably because people left their cars at home to avail of free public transport and would no doubt welcome union demands for a low-fare regime and more space on our roads for buses.
What does cause me concern is the way in which one of the world's largest and most profitable airlines is using its overwhelming financial resources to distort the debate on the future of public transport.
In at least one instance a newspaper carried the Ryanair advertisement but no news coverage of the "No Fares Day" protest.
Anyone relying on such a publication could be forgiven for thinking that CIÉ closed for business that day.
Trade unions do not have the resources to buy similar acres of space to promote their messages.
They must rely almost entirely on the vagaries of news coverage to communicate members' views to the public.
A result of this imbalance has been a paucity of informed debate on the economic arguments for and against privatisation.
The mantra of the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, and of Ryanair, that "Competition Works, Monopolies Don't" now seems to be accepted as revealed truth by many.
To children reading Animal Farm as part of their Junior Cert course this will have echoes of the chorus used by Napoleon's supporters to shut down critics: "Four legs good, two legs bad".
Apart from the pig Napoleon, this tactic ultimately benefited very few residents of the farm.
It is ironic that Ryanair should now be trotting out a simplistic anti-monopoly argument to discredit the legitimate concerns of SIPTU and other transport workers' unions about the proposed break-up of our State-owned companies, when the airline itself has become the dominant player in this country's aviation sector.
This is not to deny Ryanair's tremendous commercial achievements, with State assistance, over the past decade; but people need to be alerted to the very real dangers that blind market forces can generate for the economy and for informed democratic debate when left unchallenged.
Accurate information, balanced coverage and transparent structures are the basis of democracy and intelligent decision-making.
Ryanair's current campaign in pursuit of ever greater market share is a threat to all of these. - Yours, etc.,
PADRAIG YEATES,
Howth,
Dublin 13.