Madam, - I am somewhat jaundiced by the adulation your correspondents have heaped on the late Charles Haughey who, as minister for finance, introduced free travel for pensioners, free television licences and an electricity allowance for pensioners living alone.
I feel so because they repeatedly omitted to record that two other ministers, namely Richie Ryan, also minister for finance and Brendan Corish, minister for social welfare, between 1973 and 1977, reduced the "pensionable age" from 70 to 65 years; free travel was extended to invalidity pensioners; children's allowances were paid directly to mothers and extended to 18-year-olds in full-time education; domiciliary care allowances for handicapped children were introduced; deserted wives', prisoners wives' benefits and unmarried mothers' allowances were introduced together with social assistance for single women aged 58 to 68 years.
Furthermore, these ministers, ably assisted by the parliamentary secretary to the minister for social welfare, Frank Cluskey, ensured that married women were no longer disqualified after marriage from unemployment and disability benefits.
If Charles Haughey is to be rightly commended for the introduction of these initial reforms, surely the wide-ranging innovations in social policy of his successors also merit inclusion. - Yours, etc,
BARRY DESMOND, Taney Ave, Dublin 14.
Madam, - If Charlie Haughey's family wish to counteract criticisms of the wealth he acquired while taoiseach, why not make a gift of Inishvickillane to the State? This island beside the Great Blasket has a herd of pure-bred Irish red deer which he introduced and as a national park would remind future generations of his pride in our country's heritage. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK DEVANEY, River Crescent, Virginia, Co Cavan.