WE have a country that has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy because a small number of people at the head of government, banks and building became virtually untouchable.

YOU quote an economist from Goodbody (September 7) offering the usual argument that because the top 4% of earners pay close to 48% of all income tax we can expect lower paid workers to face tax hikes in the next budget.

I DO not agree with your columnist Matt Cooper (August 20) when he says Education Minister Mary Coughlan is wrong to defend the Leaving Cert and not to introduce fees for third-level colleges.

IN his Béal na mBláth address, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is quoted as understanding the public “incomprehension and anger” at the vast sums of money being pumped into the banking sector.

YOUR editorial on the “embarrassment” of members of the Government because of the Callely affair is apt (August 7).

YOUR columnist Ryle Dwyer (July 10) is right to bemoan the lack of real protest despite the fact that our bankers and politicians have betrayed the country and are behaving with contempt for the rest of us.

AN RTÉ commentator on the main evening TV news (June 9) said it was a masterstroke that the Government got away with not allowing the Dáil discuss the banking reports.

I DISAGREE with you when you say Ivor Callely’s “relatively trivial expenses wheeze” constitutes “a litmus test moment for the Irish political class and our political culture” (Editorial, June 5).

I AGREE with your columnist Ivan Yates when he says (April 15) members of the public service should, in their own interests, approve the Croke Park agreement.

I WELCOME Richard Duncliffe’s complaint about “woefully weak questioning” of government ministers by RTÉ’s “star performers” (Letters, April 20).

IN her letter headlined ‘Men only’ (April 10), Florence Craven complains that “in addition to being the ones who caused the banking crisis, men are the only ones commenting on it and its solutions”.

IN his brief “memo to teacher” (Letters, April 8), PJ McElhone says he cannot afford to “restore” teachers’ pay.

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan made it clear that “the state will step into the breach” if it has to so that the banks with have the capital they need to survive (March 6).

HAVING on occasion given out through clenched teeth and in language liberally interspersed with four-letter Anglo-Saxon about some of the stuff that Terry Prone writes, I must now congratulate her on her column (February 15) about recent high-profile political resignations.

I AGREE with Paddy Phelan (Letters, December 28) when he complains that we all have been too deferential to the Catholic Church authorities.

I FEEL the description by Barry Walsh of the protests by citizens at how the country has been run as “treason” is inflammatory and totally missing the point (Letters, November 26).

THE letter from Dr Florence Craven on SIPTU’s proposal to build a new headquarters on the site of the existing one (October 19) reminds me of the cartoon in Dublin Opinion at the time the present edifice was built.

CRAIG BARRETT of Intel deserves credit for highlighting the fact that investment in research and education gives a very good return for the resources involved and is more important than investment in banks.

I THINK Ryle Dwyer (August 8) is being facile and simplistic when he reduces the issue of drug use to saying that legalising it “would knock the dealers out of business”.

IN his letter (July 18), Brian Abbot hit the nail on the head when he said we should expect those who caused the mess, including members of the Government, to make sacrifices before sacrificing all those who are going to suffer cuts in public services, pay and jobs.

YOUR editorial claim (June 1) that free third-level education no longer seems sustainable is not correct.

IN his letter (April 14), Pierce Martin misses the point when he denounces Pádraig Pearse as being the enemy of parliamentary democracy in 1916.

I FIND people like Greta Kelly (Letters, March 16) are just not funny when they try to make fun of George Lee.

IN common with a whole lot of other high-profile and influential journalists, your columnist Steven King (December 10) rants and raves about the empire-builders among the European elite or the Eurocrats with bloated tummies bullying Ireland into rerunning the Lisbon Treaty referendum.

I WISH to respond to some of the questions raised by Dr Florence Craven (Letters, September 25) about democracy as practised in this country.

IN her letter (September 15), Dr Florence Craven declares that Taoiseach Brian Cowen has “truly lost all contact with the people in granting TDs a basic salary of €100,000”.

YOUR columnist Fergus Finlay (September 2) is mistaken if he thinks he would save taxpayers’ money “by instituting a new rule that would simply recoup public servants the actual expenses they incur” instead of using the existing Department of Finance list of standardised allowances (September 2).

YOUR columnist Terry Prone (September 8) raises important issues when she seems to defend the public service from “being rubbished constantly by political parties and commentators”.

LETTERS by Brendan Cafferty and Thomas Studley (August 28) gave us a different perspective on the attitude of RTÉ to recently-retired Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

IN your editorial on the economic downturn (July 5), you were probably wise to advise us that “mistakes were made and opportunities squandered, but our immediate focus must be on what can be done rather than on revisiting a past we can do nothing about”.

YOUR editorial (August 25) on the unacceptability of a one-party state is apt and deserves consideration.

THE debate about the Taoiseach’s finances, though tiresome, has its interesting aspects.

IF evidence was needed for the corruption of power, it was provided abundantly in the Taoiseach’s recent Dáil outburst on the attempt to introduce e-voting.

THE lack of debate on the fact that women who, despite being the majority of the electorate, occupy only 13% of Dáil seats is remarkable. Cllr Deirdre Clune (Irish Examiner, January 23) argues that women’s under-representation is not due to their reluctance to vote for women candidates.

THE Taoiseach recently pronounced something to the effect that if we dared to change the government at the next election, we would face economic ruin.

WITH school traffic now adding to the usual commuter woes, is it not time to adopt an immediate radical approach to the problem?