This letter in yesterday’s Irish Independent gets right to the point.
Taoiseach gives cause for shame
Thursday January 10 2008
I am very sorry if Ms Martin (Letters, January 8) feels embarrassed at our prime minister trying to answer questions about large cash transactions that defy rational explanation.
We have a man who received an unsolicited non-repayable loan of IR£39,000, mostly in cash, to pay off legal debts which he already had taken out a bank loan to pay off.
A non-repayment loan which had no term, rate of interest, or schedule of repayments.
A non-repayment loan which he never seriously made an effort to pay back for over a decade.
A non-repayment loan which some of his close personal friends have said was a gift that they never wanted paid back.
A man who didn’t have a bank account for several years, but managed to save IR£50,000 in cash.
Who received stg£30,000 in cash to refurbish a house which he didn’t own.
Who has no explanation to how $45,000 in cash was lodged to his bank account.
Who has no memory of why he withdrew IR£50,000 in cash from his former girlfriend’s bank account.
Who has no memory of why or how he purchased stg£30,000 in cash.
All this from a man who was the Minister for Finance. A man who told the Irish people in the infamous interview with Brian Dobson that: “I know the tax law. I’m an accountant.”
Ms Martin is dead right, it is farcical and enough to make one feel ashamed of one’s roots.
JASON FITZHARRIS
SWORDS, CO DUBLIN
An excellent description of how FF goes about it’s business!
Gordon