Bishops’ tax call to G8 leaders

Sir, – I note the recent statement from the bishops of 11 countries, including those of Ireland, urging the G8 leaders to clamp down on tax avoidance, stating in uncharacteristically clear terms that “It is a moral obligation for citizens to pay their fair share of taxes for the common good”.

As the second-richest asset-owner in the country after the state itself, a miraculous condition reached without the burden of the taxation that afflicts the rest of us, perhaps the church and the religious orders might like to practise the “moral obligation” they preach to others? – Yours, etc,

ROBIN HILLIARD,

Westland Square,

Dublin 2.