Sir, - I was brought up to believe that the Government could only spend public money after such expenditure had been approved by Dail Eireann.
For example, the annual budget measures had to be approved of by Dail Eireann, discussed by Dail Eireann in the Finance Bill and if necessary, voted upon and then enacted into legislation as the Finance Act.
Similarly, each Government department has to introduce into the Dail estimates for its expenditure for the coming year and again the same were subject to Dail scrutiny and approval. If a need arose in the year for a supplementary estimate (to take account of spending over-runs or a new heading of expenditure which had not been foreseen at the beginning of the year), this again had to be approved by the Dail.
It is clear that I was totally wrong in this. An Taoiseach (and possibly other members of the Government) have a parallel system of expending taxpayers' money but in my woeful ignorance I am unaware of this system.
I therefore call on the Attorney General either in his office as legal adviser to the Government or as protector of the Constitution, to explain the details of this parallel system so that my woeful ignorance can be swept away. - Yours, etc.,
Paul Walsh, Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.