Madam, - I was dismayed by the letters in last Saturday's edition attacking Vincent Browne and the media generally for their focus on Mr Ahern's financial dealings. Vincent Browne and the media (and the rest of us for that matter) have an absolute right to question Mr Ahern about any alleged financial indiscretion. It seems to have slipped the public minds that politicians are answerable to us, given that we elected them to do their jobs in the first place.
Honesty and integrity are our basic and foremost attributes. It is bewildering to think that the politicians we elect to govern our society should not at the very least evince similar qualities. At what stage did we decide to dispense with morality as a prerequisite for leadership? - Yours, etc,
YVETTE HUDSON, Walkinstown Avenue, Dublin 12.
Madam, - In response to your Editorial entitled "Are we to be silenced?" (May 5th), I think it worth noting that democratic societies deserve campaigns based on the issues that affect the lives of people.
To date, this has not been what the 2007 election in Ireland has been about. Instead, there has been relentless focus on an "issue" that has arisen as a result of the selective leaking of confidential documentation circulated by a tribunal established by the Oireachtas.
As you are aware, the tribunal has expressly requested that all parties desist from publishing or using leaked information that has not been ventilated at the tribunal. A copy of the tribunal's letter in this regard was published in your newspaper.
Despite that request, your newspaper has not only continued to publish leaked material, but this material has been the almost singular focus of your coverage of the campaign.
Your commentators have speculated on a broad range of related issues, positing theories as to why certain events took place, from the timing of the election call to the motives behind private transactions that occurred many years ago.
Even more incredibly, your paper has gone so far as to say that the publication of selectively leaked material, with no opportunity for the affected parties to question and/or cross-examine the source of the information, is not only the right course of action but that you have a "constitutional duty" to publish this material.
The tribunal made an independent decision to adjourn until after the election and the reference in your Editorial to "circumstances where the tribunal has been silenced" borders on the greatest possible disrespect.
The tribunal is investigating Quarryvale. It is not a tribunal investigating the Taoiseach's personal finances, which is the way certain commentators seem to be portraying the position. This ongoing campaign, in which the media are focused almost exclusively on issues related to financial transactions relating to Bertie Ahern's rental and subsequent purchase of his home in the mid-1990s and the compromising of the confidentiality provisions of the tribunal's proceedings represent nothing short of a witch-hunt.
It is interesting to observe the sparse coverage in your paper questioning the partisan motives that are logically and almost certainly behind the leaking of the tribunal information.
In this regard, surely the Irish media have a duty to seek out who is behind the leaks, and what is the motivation of the people who are orchestrating this smear campaign against Bertie Ahern. If you don't have a "constitutional duty" to look into who is behind all those illegal leaks, at least you might have a moral or journalistic obligation to do so. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'DONOGHUE, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Caherciveen, Co Kerry.
Madam, - It was with surprise and great disappointment that I heard Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern say on radio at the weekend that all he knows about the controversy regarding monies the Taoiseach received is what he reads in the papers.
This same attitude of "hear no evil, see no evil" was very dominant in the 1980s when members of FF would not seek out the truth about what their then leader and some others in the party were up to despite the existence of widespread rumours. When tribunals subsequently revealed what was happening, they claimed to be very surprised!
Are we to now witness round two of such hypocrisy? Were it not for the brave actions of a few in the mid-1980s the cancer of corruption could have taken a strong hold on Irish politics. Had that happened there can be no doubt that our successes in recent times, including the Celtic Tiger, would not have materialised. It is time that for leading members of FF to demand full answers to questions about the integrity of their leader.
How can a leading member of the Government seek to have his leader re-elected leader of the country when he has failed to fully satisfy himself that this person is to be trusted? - Yours, etc,
DANIEL HICKEY, Kerrymount Avenue, Dublin 18.
Madam, - Over the past week we have witnessed a very sinister development in Irish politics. A group of journalists have taken it upon themselves to launch an unprecedented witch-hunt against the Taoiseach. This act has been facilitated by the illegal leaking of information from a tribunal established by the Oireachtas. Not one journalist in this State appears to have difficulty with the concept of breaking the law for political purposes.
It would appear that this campaign is designed with one purpose in mind - to undermine the democratically elected leader of the State in the eyes of the electorate. As such it represents little more than sinister propaganda clearly being orchestrated by unseen political forces.
As your newspaper has been to the fore in attempting to manipulate public opinion on this issue, I suspect it is highly unlikely you will publish this letter. I would like you to know, however, that as a result of the actions of the Irish media I will now be voting for Fianna Fáil. - Yours, etc,
Dr RUAIRI HANLEY, Drogheda, Co Louth.
Madam, - Could it be some of your letter-writers are so blinded as to imagine that questions over the Taoiseach's finances are anything other than a real issue in this election? In fact, once such questions have been raised, and no clear and transparent answers have been given, they become the only issue.
Where questions hang over the finances of any politician with the power to shape this country, one is invariably bound to question whether there is a relationship between the nature of the finances and the decisions made - decisions which affect us all. - Yours, etc,
PETER LYDON, Woodford Drive, Dublin 22.
Madam, - My opinion on the election-time coverage of the issue of the Taoiseach's finances is that any politician who wields enormous power on behalf of the rest of us has to be accountable. He/she controls the expenditure of vast sums of taxpayers' money. Consequently, if there is any suspicion of a conflict of interest arising in which some people are being privileged over the rest of us it has to be investigated and made public. We pay our politicians large salaries and give them significant privileges to compensate them for this inconvenience.
Complaining about leaks by government spokespersons is just hypocrisy since, as your Editorial says, we have a right to know. Anyway in the recent past no less than the Minister for Justice leaked the contents of a Garda file to the media. - Yours, etc,
A. LEAVY, Shielmartin Drive, Dublin 13.
Madam, - Perhaps the only thing left to admire about Michael McDowell is his brass neck. In the past week PD party president Tom Parlon has accused Fine Gael of being behind the tribunal leaks to media, citing Enda Kenny as the author of a diabolical plot due to climax on day 21 of the election campaign.
There was not a word of censure, regret or retraction from PD party leader Michael McDowell on that very paranoid interpretation of events. But when Enda Kenny points the finger at McDowell himself as the likely leaker, the toys go straight out of the pram and the charge is deemed to be "beneath contempt".
As serving Minister for Justice, McDowell personally leaked confidential Garda files to a pet journalist in pursuit of his own political objectives. Indeed, he has stooped to the use of damaging innuendo on the basis that "I know what I know". He therefore has a history of engaging in this type of "dirty tricks" activity.
Like all bullies, he can hand it out but he can't take it. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Glenageary, Co Dublin.