Sir,- Now that the compulsory element has come into effect in the Eircom sellout, Mary O'Rourke should answer this question: When she urged us to buy Eircom shares, why did she not tell us that very shortly, in an outrageous affront to democracy, we would be coerced into selling them?
Mrs O'Rourke will probably choose to hide behind her "advisers" or the overstuffed, overpaid board which appears to have been appointed for the sole purpose of engineering the sellout.
Our priceless national telephone system is about to be delivered into the hands of an elite capitalist monopoly.
How are we to view the spectacle of the working man and trade unionist, personified by the Employees Shareowners Trust (ESOT) with their 15 per cent stake climbing into bed with George Soros, who just a few years ago made hundreds of millions speculating against the Irish pound?
This sorry saga of compulsion shows a callous, contemptuous disregard for the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who invested their assets in this Eircom will o'the wisp.
Are we to regard Mary Harney's suggestion of a possible referral to the Competition Authority as a futile, cynical gesture? - Yours, etc.,
John Lavin, Glencormac, Co Wicklow.