Sir, - The unanimous testimony of the bank's most senior officials is that AIB does business on a nod and a wink, even in hundreds of millions.
I hope its customers begin to take the view that some such phrase as "I'm sure we can sort this out", delivered by, say, the branch's doorman, can be accepted in court as evidence of amnesty for overdrafts, loans and so on.
We have no need to ask respected business consultants to find precedents. AIB writes off debts constantly, in circumstances where no written record survives. It obviously expects other parties to do business in this way. Exact phrasing, written records - these are neither here nor there.
One hopes the Irish courts, funded by the taxpayer, are ready to ensure that the special business practices of AIB are taken into account when it next resorts to the tedious and irrelevant apparatus of the law in its own dealings with customers. - Yours, etc.,
Anne O'Brien, St Kevin's Parade, Dublin 8.