Madam, - Is Fintan O'Toole serious? He made the very public mistake of underestimating the Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, before he led his party to its most successful series of elections in 20 years.
It appears as if he is intent on underestimating the same man a second time.
In his column of June 22nd Mr O'Toole shows a breathtaking combination of arrogance, ignorance and political naïvety when he dismisses the decisions of more than half-a-million people who backed Enda Kenny's Fine Gael party in the defeat of Fianna Fáil in the European elections and pushed them closer to Fianna Fail in the local elections than at any time in recent history.
Rather than recognise and listen to what the public has actually said, Mr O'Toole prefers to interpret from a distance and with obvious bias what he thinks they are saying.
Rather than travel 12,000 kilometres campaigning and listening to what people the length and breadth of the country want to see from their Government, as Enda Kenny did in the weeks before the June 11th elections, Mr O'Toole casually dismisses from his desk the need for politicians to listen and actually understand what Irish people want, not what he thinks they want.
Rather than do a little research into Fine Gael policy statements, he dismisses Enda Kenny as having little to say. Even a casual glance will show clear and distinct Fine Gael positions on the war in Iraq, benchmarking, neutrality, decentralisation, consumer rip-off, tackling crime and many others. This is what is actually happening on policy, not just what Mr O'Toole thinks is happening.
Many commentators have mistakenly written off Fine Gael in the past and many will, no doubt, do so in the future. However, to dismiss the genuine and credible prospects of Enda Kenny becoming the next Taoiseach a week-and-a-half after he led Fine Gael to defeat Fianna Fáil in a national election for the first time in 75 years, added to his party's local seats total when decimation was forecast, and led his party to receive more votes than the combined totals of the four other main political parties outside Fianna Fáil is an act of remarkable folly - even for Mr O'Toole.
To paraphrase Mr O'Toole himself, the word that comes to mind when reading his work is not "credible". - Yours, etc.,
PHIL HOGAN, TD, Fine Gael Spokesman on Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Director of European Elections, Leinster House, Dublin 2.
Madam, - People who put up political posters are legally responsible for their removal. They should also be legally responsible for the removal of the affixing tape.
Left on lamp-posts or strewn around, as it usually is, it does nothing for the environment. More importantly, when it sticks out at head level or eye level, as it often does with or without poster, this tough stiletto-like stuff can be a menace to passers-by.
Sooner or later, irresponsible and anti-social tapesters will be successfully and heavily sued for eye-damage and it will serve them absolutely right. - Yours, etc.,
STEPHEN REDMOND, SJ, John Austin House, North Circular Road, Dublin 7.
Madam, - A lot of time and money was spent putting up posters and information for the recent elections.
Wouldn't it be lovely if the same thing could be done for road signs, directions, speed limit signs and street names? - Yours, etc.,
GERALDINE O'BRIEN, Deansgrange, Co Dublin.