WILLIAM A. O'GORMAN,
Sir, - Have I been hallucinating? Or did I hear correctly that the leader of Fine Gael proposes to compensate Eircom shareholders if he is in a position to form a Government after the next election?
This cannot be true! It must be a joke. It is mind-boggling to think that a man would even contemplate such action after he opposed, tooth and nail, compensation for the sick, innocent victims of the contaminated blood scandal.
Presumably Eircom shareholders were all healthy individuals who purchased shares of their own free will. There was no coercion. They had a choice, and must have been aware of the old dictum, "Never invest more than you can afford to lose". Innocent victims of contaminated blood, on the other hand, were sick people who had no options open to them.
If this isn't political opportunism, what is? - Yours, etc.,
M.A. FARRAGHER, Terenure, Dublin 6W.
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Sir, - I note that Mr Noonan will compensate those who gambled on a rise in price of Eircom shares. Will Mr McCreevy respond by compensating those who have lost money by backing "racing certainties" which finish down the field?
Come on, Charlie, prove you really are "the Punter's Friend"! - Yours, etc.,
WILLIAM A. O'GORMAN, Glenageary Woods, Co Dublin.
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A chara, - Fine Gael lacerated Charlie McCreevy for taking surplus Central Bank profits but now it suggests raiding the national pensions fund. Fine Gael was the last party to have a sitting TD as Attorney General, but now it demands Michael McDowell step down for being just a candidate.
Fine Gael declares it is thoroughly pro-European but it refuses to participate in the European Forum and it now advocates a change in the Nice Treaty to facilitate the Greens.
Worst of all, Fine Gael claims to be the party of fiscal competence, yet it comes out with the ludicrous suggestion about the Eircom share rebate, which even a prominent Fine Gael supporter, the economist Moore McDowell, has rubbished.
If Michael Noonan doesn't smarten up, he'll be lucky to be Ruairi Quinn's Finance Minister, and the only rotating taoisigh will be past Fine Gael leaders in their graves. - Is mise,
DAVID CARROLL, Castle Gate, Dublin 2.
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Sir, - In your front-page report of January 22nd on the Fine Gael offer of a tax concession to Eircom investors you quote the Taoiseach as saying that Fianna Fail had examined the idea late last year, but decided it could not work.
Would he now state if this was examined as an election promise or because Fianna Fáil felt remorse at the decision to inflate the price of the shares? As for his excuse that it could not work, would he now examine the health service, public transport, his housing policies, and the National Development Plan.
They are not working either. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN A. STANTON, Moyne Road, Dublin 6.