From Liam Tuffy

YES Minister! Despite being a registered voter in past elections, I am now clearly deleted and nobody came to my residence, left a calling card nor have I ever received a letter from the ER. The RFAI form does not dowloadf but I understand since the system probably only works on the same 91 days as Minister Roche. This government needs a wake up call like their American cousin, George!

Liam Tuffy, Nephin Drive, Enniscrone, Co Sligo

GAA must get tough

From Dick Humphreys

I WAS disappointed to read the light-hearted way in which Liam Hayes described the assault on Graham Geraghty in his piece last week titled 'An awfully lucky escape'. He describes Graham Geraghty's injury as "unfortunate" and the result of a more accidental than downright nasty act.

I saw two video clips of the incident, each from different angles. One shows that Geraghty had clearly released the ball very early in the 'tackle', but the assault continued unabated. The second shows the nature of the assault. Graham's attacker clearly and very deliberately slammed Geraghty head-first with great force into the ground. Nothing to do with the game. Pure thuggery. Liam Hayes rightly condemns these International Rules as a "bastardized numbskull of a game". I compliment him for that and hope every supporter and commentator will become more conscious of loutish behavior that can only bring the GAA itself into disrepute.

Dick Humphreys, Sycamore Rd. , Mount Merrion Jacking out command control

From Kevin Conry

ENOUGH! The syndicated simplicities of Jack Welch's brand of celebrity management are weekly reminders of what the late Sumantra Ghoshal (London Business School & INSEAD) called "toxic theories of management". In 'Jackworld', "values" is a lofty word, but "all it really means is 'behaviours' " (Jack & Suzy Welch column, 12 Nov) Really. It doesn't matter what an employee believes or thinks or feels, as long a she/he behaves. And the behaviours are those driven by the power hierarchy and approved by company ideology.

Such ideologically inspired management driven by vested interests, undermines individual moral responsibility and leads to governance issues.

It is the exact opposite of what a knowledge economy needs. It is from individual values and courageous communication up, down and across a company that new ideas, products and behaviours emerge. Not from the "genius with a thousand helpers" command-control ideology of 'Jackworld'.

Kevin Conroy, The Paddocks, Naas, Co Kildare

Flying in the face of the 'fat and overfed'

From Patrick Jordan

I COULD scarcely believe my eyes when I recently read Ryanair's chief executive's views on business class passengers: "fat and overfed" and flying around in flat-bed seats "farting and burping".

Flat beds are just one of the reasons people fly business class; flexibility being one of the most important for business people. Many passengers use it as a treat (wedding anniversaries, for example).

Anybody with a modicum of knowledge will confirm, the business class constitutes an important revenue stream for many airlines, including Aer Lingus, which Michael O'Leary wants to takeover. How is this compatible with his remarks?

How many Aer Lingus Premier passengers would continue paying premium fares if it became assimilated into the Ryanair collective, I wonder?

Another airline which earns substantial revenue from business class is Continental. A certain Mr D Bonderman, a very successful US businessman, served as a director of Continental for many years, and his Texas Pacific Group held (and presumbly profited from) a large stockholding in Continental. The same Mr Bonderman has chaired Ryanair for many years. How must the chairman of a publicly quoted company view O'Leary's very insulting comments towards a genre of business travellers, many of whom may well be potential investors in some of his many ventures?

Patrick Jordan, Monksfield Heights, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 Morrissey's Bay

From John Gallagher

SENATOR Tom Morrissey's comments in Sunday Tribune, 5 November, under 'PD plan for Dublin Bay, not just Poolbeg'. seem to be missing a point.

His proposal seeks to raise the price of property throughout the bay area, a project warmly welcomed, I am sure, by residents and property developers alike. Reports of meetings from the Tanaiste's constituency and from Clontarf indicated the PD Transport spokesman was greeted as the hero and visionary he would propose to be.

The removal of the activities of Dublin Port with its pollution, crime and urban blight are a cause of celebration. What is played down is the transfer of the pollution, crime and urban plight of Dublin Port to a site just north of Balbriggan.

There was to be a transfer of Drogheda Port and its activities to this site at Bremore. Then Morrissey called for Dublin Port to move in. Now there is word the site actually belongs to Drogheda Port but it will handle a throughput of freight that will equal that of Dublin Port within five years! Fingal County Council, the planning authority for the area, is a proposed partner for the project. How does that clash of interests protect local resident's?

Any requests for information made to Drogheda Port and the proposers of this project are met with silence, explaining they will not say anything to anyone until a major financial backer is found. They will not meet the concerned community associations in the area, though some political sources indicate the matter is a fait accompli.

References to development over 20 years or more may apply to Manhattan on the Liffey, but the proposers of this project would like to see Bremore port operating to the capacity of Dublin Port by 2011, though none of the infrastructure presently exists to support even a fraction of this throughput.

References to the successful siting of the Port of Helsinki to a deep-water port, north of that city, fail to mention planning alone took nearly 30 years.

This is continuation of a policy by the PDs to dump every bit of unattractive infrastructure they can find in the environs of north Dublin, regardless of the feelings of the people who live there and with as little consultation as they can get away with. These would include prisons, dumps and mental institutions, as well as an industrial port of enormous dimensions in what is basically a rural environment.

Morrissey proposes to site a pestilence of noise, dirt, crime, traffic congestion and urban blight without compensating infrastructure on the doorstep of the largely rural people he proposes to represent, but does not live among. Normally, politicians of a certain ilk wait until after they are elected before they start screwing their constituents. It will be interesting to see how Morrissey's haste works out for him.

John Gallagher' 4 Flemington Park' Balbriggan, Co Dublin

Toothless old lions?

From Brian Rooney

CAN leopards change their spots? For years the DUP and Sinn Fein did their damnedest to make Northern Ireland ungovernable. Now they present themselves as toothless old lions that wish for nothing more than to bed down with the oxen. As proof of change, they promise to go into double harness and begin pulling the plough.

The hopeful are prepared to try them out. The doubtful fear it is all spin, with unchanged spots just a bit jumbled up.

Sceptics continue to ask if pigs fly.

Brian Rooney, 14 The Heights, Downpatrick Co Down Blackening the Rossport protestors

From Dermot Looney

THE attempts to slight the legitimate concerns of the broad campaign which is seeking the refining of the Corrib gas in the normal offshore way are getting more desperate by the day, it seems.

First we had Michael McDowell's repeated and nonsensical rants about the supposedly ubiquitous involvement of Sinn Fein in the campaign, completely untrue if one was to actually speak to those in Bellanaboy or elsewhere through Ireland.

Then we had Enda Kenny's confused accounts of violence on behalf of the Shell to Sea campaign in Erris last Friday.

Now we have Minister Noel Dempsey putting on the Dail record a second hand report of another TD who supposedly overheard a phone conversation on Grafton Street in which the words "Rossport" and "riot" were purportedly mentioned.

The entire saga of false claims attempting to damage the Shell to Sea campaign brings to mind an episode of The Simpsons featuring the inept Lionel Hutz, Attorney-at-Law. When asked if he had actual evidence, Mr Hutz replied; "Well, your Honor, we've plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence. . .

Dermot Looney Labour Youth Communications Officer 17 Ely Place, Dublin 2