Sir, - The Taoiseach believed people should be able to reflect on elections in the seven days before them without having "things thrown on top of them" (The Irish Times, July 7th). To do this he wanted to stop all opinion polls in the week before an election.
The same Electoral Bill increases by £1 million the amount that Fianna Fail can spend in the next election, funded by businesses and anyone else with five grand to spare to get their political views represented. As all the party info comes splattering through our letter-boxes right up to election day, we can muse on the hypocrisy of allowing the wealthy to fund what we are allowed to hear, while wanting the genuine word of the people, assessed in a manner whereby a representative section can give their opinion without their means or affiliation being an issue, to be denied to us as we make our decision. And this was supposedly to encourage people to vote?
If democracy is bent out of shape, what will be the point of voting? This bill is shameful, hypocritical and anti-democratic. Come the election, let us reclaim the Irish Republic and shaft those who would destroy its democratic base. - Yours, etc.,
Enda Lynch, Kingsland Park Avenue, Portobello, Dublin 8.