Madam, - If Mary Harney is guilty of anything, it is speaking an unpalatable truth as opposed to the apple-pie-and-motherhood self-delusion that passes for political debate in this country.
Fact: There is no industrialised nation on earth where the rich pay high taxes while ordinary workers pay lower taxes than we do here.
Fact: The very rich are smart. That's why they're rich. The idea that they will happily stay in Ireland and pay over 60 per cent of their income in tax is ridiculous. They will do what the rich in Britain did during the "squeeze the rich" phase in the 1970s. They will leave.
Incidentally, taxing the rich in the 1970s did not create a socialist paradise in Britain: it led to the election of Margaret Thatcher - three times.
Fact: Countries such as Sweden have a very high standard of living because everyone pays high taxes, including local taxes, waste taxes and water taxes - not a proposition even Joe Higgins, Gerry Adams or Pat Rabbitte are advancing.
Fact: Mary Harney is not the new Margaret Thatcher. She supports the euro, the minimum wage, increases in health spending, the EU constitution and social partnership. Margaret Thatcher would have fired Mary Harney for being too left-wing. Come to think of it, so would Tony Blair. - Yours, etc.,
JASON O'MAHONY, Coppinger Glade, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.