Sir, - As a people we are so quick to condemn. Picture it now. There you are, a national and party figurehead with unlimited access to the leader's account, with a chap who is party treasurer, a former accountant, and future Finance Minister, apparently willing to countersign blank cheques for you on an unlimited basis and you with money literally burning a hole in your (shirt) pocket. Which among us would not think: "Hang the expense. It's a short life; easy come, easy go"? Even if you spent £16,000 on the best of silk hosiery, sure wasn't it a few less items to launder?
On the other hand, look at poor Jim Mitchell, who has been doing Trojan work recently on the DIRT scandal. Many might prefer to see his committee tackling the scandal that was SHIRT (Sustaining Haughey in Regal Togs) especially at a time in the 1980s when so many less well-heeled people felt their skin prickle beneath the chafing fiscal hair shirt. - Yours, etc.,
David Fay, Leix Road, Cabra, Dublin 7.