Madam, - Ivana Bacik (April 10th) complains about the current Justice Minister's "punitive approach" to crime. To support her position, she quotes a survey commissioned by the Irish Penal Trust.
She doesn't quote a survey carried out by TNS/mrbi for RTÉ's Prime Timeon the question of sentencing. As Noel Whelan remarked (Opinion, March 31st), "the survey's findings were striking in that an overwhelming majority of respondents suggested a sentence which was at least double that imposed by the court".
Maybe Michael McDowell is more in touch with the popular mood than Ms Bacik supposes. - Yours, etc,
VICTOR BOYHAN (PD), Grange Crescent, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.