Madam, - Pat Rabbitte's boast that the Labour Party "locked in" Ireland's current 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate in an agreement with the European Commission (The Irish Times, July 27th) is totally untrue and amounts to an object lesson in political revisionism.
Has he forgotten his own call in November 2001 for the introduction of the 12.5 per cent rate to be deferred?
Mr Rabbitte also seems to have airbrushed out of his memory the strong reservations within his old party, Democratic Left, to the proposal in the dying days of the Rainbow Government in May 1997.
Far from "locking" us into the new lower rate, the Rainbow only ever got as far as notifying the European Commission of an initial intention to introduce a 12.5 per cent rate by 2006. Three days after this notification, the Dáil was dissolved and a general election was called.
It was Mary Harney and Charlie McCreevy who subsequently had to begin a protracted series of difficult and complex negotiations with the European Competition Commissioner to secure and then "lock in" the arrangements which we now enjoy. That took a full year.
The new rate finally took effect on January 1st, 2003, in spite of a call by one Mr Pat Rabbitte, during an address to the TEEU union in Galway in November 2002 as recently elected Labour Leader, to have it postponed by a further year.
Can the Labour Party Leader shed some light on this conundrum? - Yours, etc.,
Senator JOHN MINIHAN, Progressive Democrats, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Pat Rabbitte confuses me. On the one hand he claims to be a champion of low corporation tax, but on the other hand he rules out any further tax reductions.
In fact, when asked the other day how he would fund the improvements needed in our public services, the Labour Party leader suggested we should raise capital gains tax.
Why would he do that when, according to Tánaiste Mary Harney (Opinion, July 26th) revenues from capital gains tax increased fivefold since the rate was reduced from 40 per cent to 20 per cent six years ago?
Back to the drawing board, Pat. - Yours, etc.,
MARY MITCHELL O'CONNOR, Marine Court, Glenageary, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Pat Rabbitte can't have his cake and eat it.
In one breath he claims credit for the Rainbow Government's achievement in "locking Ireland into" the low corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent. In the next, he blames the present Government for increasing private wealth and leaving public services in crisis.
Surely then, he has only himself to blame. - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD WALL, Avoca Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.