DEAR BRIAN, – Now that you've skived off back to Offaly for a few months on summer holidays, I thought you might have a bit more time to read my letter. Who knows, you might even find the decency to reply.

You see, Brian – is it ok of I call you Brian? – I'm confused. And I'm not alone either. I was hoping you could clear the air and set a few things straight. Not least is what you and your Government really think of us mortal voters, your subjects, if you like.

Bottom line, Taoiseach, is this: Do you and your cohorts around the cabinet table take us all for fools? The reason I ask is because you obviously take Enda Kenny, the leader of the opposition, for a fool. We know that because you were caught mumbling it under your breath in the Dáil while Enda was on his feet trying to defend the most vulnerable in society. To be honest, Brian, your explanation for this incident was more childish than it was pitiful. Ah, 't wasn't on the Dail record, you said, because the microphone was turned off. Oh, so do we take it then that that means you didn't say it at all or that you did say it but it doesn't count? sound-proofed (not that anyone would want to listen in on Callely anyway).

Do you give a damn, Brian, when you learn that the blinds alone cost more than € 9,000, or that the fitting of the velvet carpet cost € 3,430? And what do you think of forking out more than € 3,000 to reupholster and polish the furniture, or flogging a further € 6,000 on painting?

It's not so much the money, Brian, even though it's a good few quid by any standards. It's more the principle of the whole thing, you know, leading by example and all that. You see, when you're hurting, like so many of us are, the burden is lightened when the pain is shared and the medicine is easier to take. On Tuesday mornings, when you and your inspired colleagues sit around the cabinet table, did it ever dawn on you to ask aloud: Are we proposing anything here that we wouldn't be willing to do or accept ourselves?

For example, did Green junior minister Ciarán Cuffe ever stop to think about double standards last week when he broke a sacred code of practice by taking photographs in the Dáil Bar and then posting them on the internet? Yet at the same time, Mr Cuffe is harping on about the new laws he is so determined to introduce to clamp down on noisy neighbours and builders who make a racket while working late at night. I could go on and on really, Brian. The examples are endless.

So my question is this: Who's really the fool? Enda? The Government? Or is it how you just take us all for fools, hoping we'll all lie down and roll over while you and your cohorts continue on?

You might get back to me before the end of the summer break. Frankly, I wouldn't even give most of ye up in the Dáil a coffee break – ye'd all have to be retrained by the time ye return to the office. Anyway, enjoy Offaly. Yours Truly, Aidan O'Connor

Then, like a bold child who was caught out namecalling in the school yard, you went on to explain that it's all part of 'the bric-a-brac of politics'. And anyway, you said, Enda had said a lot of things too.

You're probably thinking it was all just a thing of nothing, and anyone who makes an issue about it is a bigger fool than Enda.

I kinda see your point in one way, what with NAMA and unemployment and books that won't balance and so on. But there's always more than one way to look at things, Brian, besides yours and the Government's. Swap shoes for a few minutes and try to imagine it from our end: You're out of work. You have to, somehow, stretch the dole and family income supplement by hook or by crook so that it lasts you until next Wednesday. If you get a bill this week, you can't afford to pay it. You're praying to God that one of the kids won't be asked to take money to school for something, because you can't afford that either.

And then, while this demeaning and sometimes hopeless struggle goes on, you hear about Ivor Callely, a former junior minister and one of your own, spending more than 20,000 on refurbishing his office.

You hear about how he requested, while a junior minister in the Department of Health, that the suite of offices for him and his officials be painted 'venetian yellow' and carpeted in blue; how he asked that all the rooms be fitted with wooden venetian blinds and that his own office be

- AIDAN O'CONNOR