Sir, - I would like to heartily congratulate both the Minister for Finance and the home-makers of Ireland for such entertaining political blood sport over the past two weeks. Never in the field of political conflict have so many who work in the home ruthlessly chased a single figure around the countryside. It must be said, however, that the hounds in the hunt (the Opposition parties) were a little slow over the wall and must sharpen up their teeth before next year's fight. However, they recovered well to get in for the kill when the ailing Mr McCreevy was forced to do a U-turn.
Of course, those of us who are not in a position to telephone daytime programmes or to attend Questions and Answers in Montrose are only passing witnesses to the conflict. Sure, we make up only 1.5 million out of 1.6 million taxpayers. - Yours, etc.,
Mark Needham, Bramley Crescent, Castleknock, Dublin 15.