Sir, - Last Saturday's column by David Andrews on electoral spending limits was as self-contradictory as it was evasive. He bemoans the fact that State funding - "the State dole" - would create a golden circle of existing political parties against new entrants, but then he complains that a spending limit on existing parties and office holders would, in itself, favour single-issue campaigners. He supports the fact that Noel Dempsey has "wisely provided" for an increase in electoral spending by candidates, yet warns that a smaller, State-sponsored contribution would create "a perimeter around politics that few newcomers will be able to penetrate".
In fact, Mr Andrews inadvertently makes precisely the case against which he is trying to argue: that the amount of money spent in an electoral race affects the outcome, potentially undermining the democratic process by favouring the rich and powerful. His evasion on why we have come to this point at all and why Fianna Fail has now reneged on agreed spending limits is even more striking. Handouts and favouritism were neither peripheral nor occasional within the top echelons of Fianna Fail. They were deliberately and systematically nurtured at its very centre, creating a real and powerful golden circle of wealthy individuals at the top of Irish corporate life. These individuals paid out millions, in large and small amounts, in "electoral donations" and other "gifts". These people did not and do not represent the "organic" politics or "ground-up" interests of ordinary Irish people to which Mr Andrews refers. They represent their own vested interests.
It is precisely because of the proven relationship between pay-outs and politics that the limits on electoral spending were proposed. As pointed out by Fintan O'Toole in this newspaper last week, voters can take no comfort from a belief in a reformed Fianna Fail, judging by the actions of the current leader, Bertie Ahern. He has shown no inclination to act, as he promised, against members of his own party even where such a relationship has been shown to exist.
It is for this reason that every citizen would be well advised to reject Noel Dempsey's efforts to favour his own party's fortunes, and Mr Andrews's attempt to whitewash Fianna Fail's recent record and current practice. - Yours, etc.,
Ciaran Byrne, Skerries Road, Balbriggan, Co Dublin.