Sir, – Daltún Ó Ceallaigh (Letters, February 20th) points out that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil got 43 per cent of the vote between them but then asserts that 57 per cent voted against those parties. He then concludes that the most democratic outcome would be a coalition led by Sinn Féin.
However, as Mr Ó Ceallaigh himself points out, Sinn Féin got 25 per cent of the vote so his own argument would imply that 75 per cent of the electorate voted against them.
Neither of these “voted against” assumptions is correct; voters for Independents such as Michael Lowry will have very different government preferences to, say, voters for People Before Profit.
Philip James, in the same letters page, astutely points out that it is not at all clear exactly what change the electorate voted for so any incoming government of whatever hue will have to implement a mix of policies. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.