Sir, – Neither your figure of €9,621 (Front page, January 11th) nor the €100,000 suggested by Tony Higgins (January 12th) is the true cost to the taxpayer of some self-serving members of the Oireachtas sending Christmas greetings to their constituents. The real cost cannot be measured in monetary terms alone.
The true price we pay is the further erosion of what little moral integrity the Oireachtas has left, and following the latest squalid revelations that Independent Senators were in receipt of an unvouched “party leaders’ allowance” in addition to their salary, I wonder has that institution finally rendered all moral responsibility obsolete? – Yours, etc,