Madam, - Barbara Leahy (May 30th) wonders "why a party with a mere 3 per cent support is effectively running the country". I suggest it is because the Taoiseach, "the most cunning and devious of them all", uses Mary Harney and the PDs to satisfy the requirements of Fianna Fáil's business wing, while, as Ireland's newest and most unusual "socialist", he courts the middle- and lower-income voters.
Surely the recent poll results threw up an equally puzzling result - that while most voters want a non-FF government, most cannot see an alternative government winning power.
I suggest the answer to that puzzle lies in the question that Pat Rabbitte asked when he became leader of the Labour Party: "Why do so many Irish voters who, in any other country would generally vote Social Democrat/Labour, feel obliged to blindly vote FF", even when they know how contaminated that party has become.
And if enough people do decide to use their heads at election time, switching to so-called independents, who are mainly disaffected FFers waiting to get back into that party, is not exactly the best use of their vote. - Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER SANDS, Collinswood, Dublin 9.