Madam, - I have never seen a problem with our Taoiseach's permitting others to sign on his behalf or with his signing cheques in blank - provided he were subsequently to accept full responsibility for what has been signed.
When I visited my dentist yesterday morning I was asked, before treatment could commence, to sign a declaration which requires the patient to "certify that the treatment detailed hereon has been received by me". I declined to sign the form until after treatment, since only then presumably would I be able to certify what treatment, if any, I had received. It seems that I am the first and only patient that has ever had this problem.
The treatments covered by the form which I was offered includes an open choice of such exotica as prophylaxis, amalgam and composite restoration, exodontics, first stage endodontic treatment, denture repairs, second stage endo/apicectomy/ amputation of roots, endodontic, radiographs and prosthetics.
I briefly pondered what to do before deciding to sign up and join our Taoiseach, the Health Boards, the Mad Hatter, and the majority, it seems, of my fellow-citizens, in Bertieland, where words - and signatures - mean whatever you wish them to mean.
- Yours etc.,
DENIS CONNOLLY Mount Merrion, Co Dublin