Madam, - Congratulations to the President for referring the Health Bill to the Supreme Court. If she does nothing else of note in the remainder of her second term, she will have served the country, and a sizeable proportion of its most vulnerable citizens, extremely well. It shows that she has a greater grasp of the fundamental rights that belong to us citizens than any politician in Leinster House either now or in the past. - Yours, etc.,
EDWARD MURPHY, Newrath, Waterford.
Madam, - The Supreme Court's decision to strike down "the Government's attempt to retrospectively legalise illegal nursing home charges to medical card holders" should make us mindful of the safeguards we enjoy in our presidency and the independence of our Supreme Court, and vigilant not to allow any diminution of these safeguards. There can be none more deserving of the unexpected windfall of individually modest refunds now due to them than those from whom the State has illegally taken payments towards the cost of care which was their right. - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD REID, Rathgar Avenue, Dublin, 6.
Madam, - Despite all that was written about yesterday's Supreme Court judgment, one word was conspicuous by its absence: stealing. Yet this is exactly what the health boards were engaged in for the past 30 years. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN DUDDY, Victoria Cross, Cork.