Madam, - I am bewildered by the whole controversy over Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's integrity - and perhaps more so by the letters and opinions of older, "wiser" readers on this topic.
This is the first general election in which I can vote, and I have been following this year's campaign closely in order to make an informed choice on May 24th. The policies proposed by the parties are reasonably similar (more hospital beds, more gardaí, maintained low tax), which makes it difficult to distinguish between potential governments. I am consequently resolved, as someone unaffiliated to any party, to base my decision on the personal attributes of the potential ministers and taoiseach. Therefore it is absolutely imperative that I am reassured of Bertie Ahern's honesty before I could consider giving Fianna Fáil my vote.
For this reason I am confused as to why Minister John O'Donoghue (May 9th), along with various members of the public, should be criticising the media, and Vincent Browne in particular, for pursuing the truth. I believe I am entitled to know and question any indiscretion regarding the virtue of our leader.
Yes, the material was illegally leaked and yes, it appears to have been done so in a strategic manner, but my concern is why there is potentially damaging information to leak in the first place. I, as an average citizen of this country, do not want to know who leaked it; I want to know whether Bertie Ahern can be trusted to make decisions on "the issues that affect the lives of people". This ultimately can only be determined by disclosing the truth about his financial affairs.
I commend the media for their efforts to do this and I am critical of John O'Donoghue's attempt to divert the issue. I am also appalled to learn of readers (eg Dr Ruairi Hanley, May 9th) basing their votes on the actions of the media rather than the actions of politicians. Well, I am waiting for Bertie Ahern to give me a reason to vote for him and his party. - Yours, etc,
AILBHE CARNEY, Arklow, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - As we contemplate the formation of a new government it is striking how governance itself and the role of the public service have been so absent from the debate. Increasingly we have a country where many supposedly public service providers are operating to their own agenda and purpose - an agenda and purpose often at odds with the democratically decided objectives.
We have a health service controlled by an unelected executive, a transport service that is unwilling or unable to be innovative, a public service broadcaster that seems to exist as a forum for the promotion of colleagues and a local government system that is not allowed to do the job it is capable of. Ironically, it is denied that opportunity by those very politicians and bureaucrats who have proven their own inability.
These thoughts were brought to mind this morning as, along with other parents, I dropped my children to school. There to greet us all as the cars were parked for less than 10 minutes were a fleet of Park Rite vehicles clamping and collecting fines, as struggling parents tried to exercise that difficult balance between parenting and work. When Dublin councillors voted to introduce the clamping policy it was never intended to be a vindictive revenue collector.
This is but one of many examples of the bureaucracy exercising powers never intended because of the weakness of our democratic system. It would make a nice change if, during the final two weeks of this general election campaign, some media attention could be given to the comparative weakness of democracy in our society and the need for people to take back control through their elected representatives. - Yours, etc,
Cllr DERMOT LACEY, Beech Hill Drive, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Madam, - Now we know: it's the media's fault. Minister John O'Donoghue and Dr Ruairi Hanley remind us respectively of dark doings such as "selective leaking" and a "witch-hunt" - as if the real moral crime were that the public should be kept informed of the behaviour of the politicians they have elected to office.
Dr Hanley further suggests 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". It seems to me that our elected leader can do that himself quite competently without any help from journalists.
So nothing is wrong; there are no moral or ethical values to be questioned, and only the conspiring of wicked journalists creates the least unease. In any decent society, it follows, such journalists would be sacked or jailed for attempting to undermine the moral integrity of the State.
In the same issue of The Irish Times, we are treated on the front page to news of yet another PD climb-down. We had big bluster and outrage about Bertie and unanswered questions (the kind the nasty, conspiring media were asking); then, the cosmetic watch-dogging over with, it's time to retreat once more into the moral vacuum where only the politically destitute can breathe.
Clearly politics, for the PDs and Fianna Fáil, is about the maintenance of power by any means. There is no notion of a moral or ethical responsibility to the electorate. In such an atmosphere, it is patently absurd to ask voters to have any respect for politicians who cannot, and will not, have any respect for them.
A chief duty of our journalists is to delve where the ordinary members of the public cannot, to act as our watchdogs where politicians refuse to, and to report candidly on breaches of the moral contract between any elected politician and those who elected him. Where politicians attempt to interfere with this process we have the first twitchings of fascism. - Yours, etc,
FRED JOHNSTON, Circular Road, Galway.
Madam, - I hope at some stage between now and polling day you will manage to glimpse through the miasma of editorial abhorrence of Fianna Fáíl which plainly surrounds the Irish Times offices. Your campaign against Fianna Fáil is bolstering the party. If Dev himself were to rise from the dead in a pair of stout canvassing shoes he would hardly have such a galvanising effect. - Yours, etc,
RONAN CALLAN, Glenageary Woods, Glenageary, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Will some small king-making party consider making the banning of lamp-post postering a condition for its participation in government? This ridiculous beauty contest serves merely as a measure of the extent to which a party is prepared conspicuously to waste its supporters' money.
Parties should educate their members to understand their policies and get into intelligent conversations with their neighbours, and local government should provide display areas for policy documentation at focal locations. Bring back politics into elections! - Yours, etc,
ROY JOHNSTON, Rathgar, Dublin 6.