Madam, - Joe Higgins, TD should have been fined, not jailed. This would (a) save prison space for more serious offenders; (b) save the taxpayer the cost of Mr Higgin's jail sentence; (c) avoid making a martyr out of Mr Higgins; and (d) force Joe Higgins to live in the real world where goods and services cost money.
Joe Higgins is not in jail for not paying taxes. He is in jail as part of a publicity stunt to perpetrate his image of being the victim's friend. That I and millions like me are paying taxes to support Mr Higgins's little stunt is a disgrace. The tax used to pay for Mr Higgins's room and board could have collected thousands of bins. What folly! - Yours, etc.,
TOM NEVILLE, (Fine Gael, Dublin Central), Sandymount, Dublin 4.
Madam, - Bertie and Mary must be delighted, now that the entire Opposition is safely locked up in Mountjoy. - Yours, etc.,
ANTHONY SHERIDAN, Cobh, Co Cork.