Madam, - The Taoiseach tells us he is too busy to meet members of Cork City Council to discuss the School of Music.
As he dons the evidently uncomfortable mantle of European statesmanship, Bertie Ahern should reflect that real statesmen attend to the needs of the State, not to the interests of an increasingly arrogant Government.
If pressed, our Taoiseach and his Ministers may pay lip service to the central importance of the arts in Irish life. Indeed, Mr Ahern may well be called upon to impart fine words on the occasion of Cork's reign as European City of Culture in 2005.
Perhaps, then, he will be able to explain why he has abandoned music education in the city, allowing the staff and students of the School of Music to languish for two years in a dilapidated former hotel premises while a derelict eyesore occupies the site of the proposed new school.
The Taoiseach cannot remain in his European eyrie forever. I, for one, look forward to his return to the real world. - Yours, etc.,
PAT AHERN, Clonmoyle East, Coachford, Co Cork.