Madam, - Media reports suggest that Fianna Fáil is reincarnating something like the Taca Fáil of earlier decades. This was an organisation with the benign purpose of financing democratic party activities, but which had the unforeseen effect of binding party and government to certain business interests, to the detriment of democracy and accountability.
The new development will satisfy the expectation of "access" to ministers and other politicians, in return for funds.
In our egalitarian democracy, should not rich and poor line up together at the constituency clinic to meet their elected representatives? To keep us all in one big tent, as it were. - Yours etc.
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford on Slaney, Co Wicklow.
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Madam, - How can anyone in this country be surprised that Fianna Fáil seeks to peddle influence? Peddling influence is part and parcel of what Fianna Fáil is all about. It has ever been thus. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL MEADE, Shantalla Road, Galway.