Payback Time

Sir, - With a £506 million budget surplus for the year to end of September, VAT receipts up 20 per cent and income tax receipts…

Sir, - With a £506 million budget surplus for the year to end of September, VAT receipts up 20 per cent and income tax receipts for 1997 so far over £5 billion, Mr Charlie McCreevy is telling the Irish tax-payer not "to bank on large tax cuts" in his December Budget.

As a taxpayer, may I - out of a hazy sense of courtesy - advise Charlie that he should not bank on a large number of votes in the January 1998 general election. - Yours, etc.,

Skerries, Co Dublin.