Madam, - Paul Bowler (June 23rd) seems to suggest that Dáil Éireann now reflects an Ireland at home with naked self-interest and hypocrisy. It was not always so.
In 1987 Fine Gael, led by Mr Alan Dukes, put the national interest ahead of party interest and cleared the way for the survival of the State through the so-called "Tallaght Strategy". It did this after five years when Fianna Fáil, led by Mr Charles Haughey, vehemently opposed with seemingly naked political self-interest and without discrimination every single measure the Fine Gael-Labour government introduced in its efforts to improve or reform Irish society.
The reward for Fine Gael's patriotic action is that in 2007 we will have seen 20 years of almost unbroken Fianna Fáil rule.
The brief hiatus beginning in 1994 was the result of an insult to democracy so grave that even the Labour Party had no choice but to part company with Fianna Fáil. But the ultimate question which has to be answered is whether the hypocrisy that troubles Mr Bowler is inside Dáil Éireann or outside.
In my opinion, it is the electorate that has been hypocritical, by repeatedly returning Fianna Fáil to power, while bleating about low standards in high places thereafter. - Yours, etc.,
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford on Slaney, Co Wicklow.