Madam, – I have a lot of respect for Fintan O’Toole as a commentator, especially his talent for developing metaphors.
However in his latest column (Opinion, October 13th) the facts and the metaphor don’t quite fit.
A ferry to Holyhead – the quickest way of getting from Dublin city centre to Wales in this particular case – becomes “ostentatiously eco-friendly” in Mr O’Toole’s metaphor.
The “limo” ride he refers to becomes a metaphor for “Fianna Fáil culture”. The journey itself was a five-hour trip in the back of a people carrier – with three officials and a driver – over hill and valley to a Welsh village with no direct public transport links.
Whatever Mr O’Toole believes “Fianna Fáil culture” to be, I don’t think that is it.
The accurate details were outlined in a news report in his own paper the previous day.
Sometimes car hire is unavoidable. At times the costs have been excessive but as soon as I was made aware of those costs I worked to have them reduced for the future.
I have never used the Government jet in the course of my work and in general I have reduced foreign travel in the past 12 months in order to save money, but some visits abroad are essential to the proper discharge of my duties. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As one of those Greens who spoke and voted against Nama on Saturday (and the person who founded the Party in 1981) I have some sympathy with Fintan O’Toole’s comments (Opinion, October 13th).
He fails to notice, however, that while the programme make no reference to the Kenny report, it does mention the introduction of site value taxation (SVT) which, if properly implemented, would have a far more radical effect.
My own concern would be that, when Fianna Fáil realises the fundamental implications of SVT, which the philosopher Henry George believed to be the only just tax, it will try to back away from it. – Yours, etc,