Madam, - Fintan O'Toole writes in his article "Crumbs of Comfort " (Weekend Review, November 20th): "Recently, the Revenue Commissioners revealed their estimate that tax breaks available to high earners are costing the Exchequer €8.3 billion each year."
In The Irish Times of the previous day, Mark Redmond, chief executive of the Irish Taxation Institute, writes: "The Revenue Commissioners have informed the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Services that only 2 per cent( less than €200 million) of the €8.4 billion is made up of property-based incentives availed of by the better-off in our society. Attempts to link the full €8.4 billion figure to these incentives are unhelpful in the overall debate on our taxation policy."
Does Fintan O'Toole read The Irish Times?- Yours, etc.,
REDMOND DORAN, Bray Road, Dublin 18.
Madam, - Fintan O'Toole's exposé of the hidden skulduggery of the recent Estimates was incisive and brilliant. The worry is, as Bertie "Che" Ahern attempts to reinvent himself as a born-again socialist, that he might just get away with it because of the utter failure of the opposition parties to highlight the incredible injustices in tax and wealth distribution that his Government has spawned. - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'SULLIVAN, Rathedmond, Sligo.