It would seem that the extremely well paid and cossetted minister for finance is unable to place any constraint on Richie Boucher, and other such giants of banking’s, immoral and grossly over-inflated pay packets.

I listened with growing disquiet to RTE Radio’s Marian Finucane Show on Sunday last as Dr Peter Boylan repeatedly attempted to prevent Breda O’Brien from making her presentation on the abortion issue.

Your article showing a gay parade past St Patrick’s cathedral in New York, is a reminder that, in one way, Ireland is ‘ahead’ of the US in terms of gay rights.

In the aftermath of the recent conference in Dublin it is evident Mary Robinson has co-opted Al Gore and the theory of catastrophic antropogenic climate change, aka man-made global warming, to her well intentioned campaign to obtain support for peoples who attempt to cultivate agriculturally marginal and non-viable lands, and for others whose land is subject to flooding by rising, relative sea level.

Why don’t we name the new Liffey bridge after people who are forgotten in the inanities of politics and posturing, but without whom most of the Government, and nearly all the posers, would have disappeared long ago?

The working families of this country are battling to put bread on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

Welcome to Ireland, Troika; your presence is not always wanted, but, it has to be admitted, that you do bring a dash of reality to public figures who have unrealistic expectations.

Dr Daniel Herlihy (Letters Apr 12) adopts something of a classic QED approach when it comes to assessing medical GPs’ response to personal distress issues such as examination anxiety: “I would say that if one attends a medical doctor with symptoms then one can reasonably expect a medical approach to alleviating those symptoms, given that is what doctors are trained to do.”

It was profoundly sad to read the comments (Irish Examiner, Apr 22) of the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, suggesting that Ireland would be “a damn fool” to give in to demands to change the low corporate tax rate, or to create a fairer taxation system by increasing taxes on those with incomes above €100K. Greed and unabashed self-interest are alive and well.

The new personal insolvency practitioners are called PIPS for short.