Sir, – We read of the threatened imprisonment for 21 days of a man for failure to pay a fine of €655 for his oversight in renewing a €12.70 dog licence (Home News, August 27th). On the Front page of the same edition, we read of a claim for “severance payments” by the already obscenely over-paid be-wigged and be-robed of our three-tier legal profession for their prolongation of the Moriarty tribunal. On another page, we read of the financial windfall enjoyed by one of the acknowledged culprits for our current situation of national bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, whilst none of our “white-collar criminals” have even been brought before the courts, violent criminals are granted premature release from our over-crowded prisons, presumably to make room for such enemies of society as those who fail to pay stealth taxes such as dog licences; and law-abiding citizens are forced to starve their families to pay the financial institutions, the profligacy of which has resulted in our becoming a vassal state of the IMF/ECB/EU troika. It’s not so much a case of what’s wrong with this country as of what, if anything, is right! – Yours, etc,