Letters

Tubridy and Kelly under the spotlight

Committee meetings seek to find answers

Wed Jul 12 2023 - 02:15

Sir, – There is a mantra in our house; when someone is speaking, don’t interrupt and let them finish.

I would like to invite the Public Accounts Committee to come and sit in my kitchen, where they can ask questions but must remain silent while being answered. It might be hard at first, but they’ll get into the swing of it.

If they are coming, I would insist that they show some respect and common courtesy which must be significantly higher than the snide, arrogant and passive aggressive questions and remarks that we have had to listen to.

I’ll provide the Cadbury’s. It’s chocolate by the way. – Yours, etc,

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MELANIE HUNTER,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Having watched some of the work of the Public Accounts Committee, I suggest that the process would be much improved by the sessions being chaired by a suitably qualified person such as a retired judge.

The proceedings would be more dignified without the grandstanding of politicians and more effective in establishing the facts. – Yours, etc,

JOHN HICKEY,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – The Oireachtas hearings into the goings-on in RTÉ may make for riveting viewing but whether they will result in giving us more clarity or more confusion remains to be seen.

There seems to be an effort on all sides to pass the blame or, at least, to spread the blame. The bottom line remains that there was a deception carried out on the Irish public in the matter of Ryan Tubridy’s remuneration during the years in question.

I think none of the parties involved can be absolved of responsibility for this deception and betrayal of trust. – Is mise,

JOHN GLENNON,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – There is nothing worse than people moralising, worse still by politicians of all people, like they are doing with Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly at the Dáil committee session.

Ask the public who they would trust or believe, Ryan or politicians, and we all know what the answer would be. – Yours, etc,

JIM YATES,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – Having watched Noel Kelly give as good as he got to the political mandarins, I am tempted to like him. – Yours, etc,

MARGARET LEE,

Co Tipperary.

Sir, – I am watching, with increasing irritation, a group of TDs questioning whether a contracted ¤75,000 paid to Ryan Tubridy was mis-labelled.

That there is major showboating, endless repetition of the same mantras, and that many of the questions are irrelevant and nit-picking in the extreme is a separate issue.

The only thing that impresses me is the patience shown by Tubridy and Noel Kelly.

In the meantime we have a children’s hospital being built at a cost estimated at ¤800 million in 2014, ¤983 million in 2017, ¤1.4 billion in 2019 and now expected to cost ¤2 billion.

So the cost estimate is currently rising by about ¤100 million a year. To cap it all, we are told the final cost may not be known for several years.

Where are our TDs questioning this? Have our public representatives got no sense of priorities? – Yours, etc,

PAT GRIFFIN,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.