The suggestion by Minister Joe Costello that the approval of the electorate in a referendum would be sufficient to stop the payment of pensions and allowances to those against whom adverse findings have been made by the Mahon Tribunal reports is worthy of serious consideration as an unambiguous component of reform.

In the aftermath of the Mahon Report our politicians are still seeking to blame the wrong people for their failings.

Two young friends living in one of the London boroughs (tenants, not owners of their one-bedroom flat) pay various taxes (including an accommodation tax) to the local council, totalling £1,900 sterling per year.

Given RTE’s recent track record it comes as no surprise to see they intend to subject us, the victims, to more denials from Bertie.

To be fair about it, a former leader of Fianna Fáil told the truth once; and perhaps the truest statement ever issued by any political leader in history — “He’s the most skilful, the most cunning, the most devious of them all”.

From the beginning the Taoiseach and Phil Hogan have maintained that the household charge was to pay for local services.

No citizen in a democracy has the right to break the laws that he does not like without going through the Gandhi/King rules on civil disobedience.

With the publication of the Mahon Report, in which he concluded, “that corruption was rife at every level of the political system”, is it not time to look at the political system itself?

For me, Fianna Fáil was a way I could continue my national service after I left the Defence Forces.

I, for one, will not be paying the household tax. I am totally opposed to the bank bailout.