After reading Diarmuid Doyle's article (Comment, 24 January) I wondered what Enda Kenny has to do to be taken seriously. This man brought his party back from the brink and would have taken power in 2007 if he had had two more seats. (Greens and Labour in fact gained no seats at all). Lucky man was he that he did not, as the present crisis would be thrown on his head by Fianna Fáil in opposition.

We were always told that the "men with the money" (builders and bankers such as Anglo) went elsewhere when Fianna Fáil was in opposition. This used to be said even in the 1950s when coalitions were dubbed "collations" (two minor meals a day) reminding one of the then Lenten fast and sackcloths and ashes. Kenny looks well. He was derided when he took a pay cut two years ago; in 2003 he said benchmarking should not be paid and he has spoken of the need for public service reform, abolition of the useless senate, and called for immigration to be fair to all including the Irish.

Doyle may recall that during the Late Late Show, when Kenny seemed to have a go at Bertie, the audience gave a minor boo – such is the hold of that man on the people still. And the late and much-lauded Jim Mitchell of the Dirt enquiry lost his seat in 2002, and what thanks did Michael Noonan or John Bruton get for being serious and intelligent against the ribbon-cutting Bertie whose legacy is economic meltdown, 300,000 unoccupied houses, Nama and despair? And did the media do its job there?

Was there ever a bad Fianna Fáil leader (until they left office) or a good Fine Gael one (until they gained office)?

Brendan Cafferty,

Ballina, Co Mayo