JIM O'SULLIVAN,
Madam - Once again The Irish Times is to be congratulated for its fair and honest reporting on the SSIA scheme (Business This Week, November 8th) bringing to the attention of the populace the developing concerns of the various experts.
Contrast this with the recent piece in the Sunday Independent by its financial editor, Shane Ross, who attempted to dumb down the debate by suggesting a campaign to prevent its scrapping under the banner "Hands off our savings", knowing full well that monies already saved cannot be lost if the scheme, as it should be, is scrapped.
Nonetheless, one recent query to your financial advisor expressing fears that savings could be lost should the scheme be scrapped demonstrates that this type of propaganda can indeed distract from honest reflection and debate on the subject. Your financial adviser's reply was all that one has come to expect from your quality newspaper.
All right-thinking people who come to this issue with an open mind will see readily that this scheme is a costly travesty as it shifts taxpayers' money towards the better-off in our society with little or no benefit to the community at large. The only definite effect is that the gap between rich and poor is widened.
How the Government deals with this issue in the upcoming Budget will speak volumes. - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.