Lessons from the bailout

Sir, – Stephen Collins recalls Yanis Varoufakis and how he was a hero to a variety of politicians who agreed with him that Ireland should default on our debt and refuse to cooperate with the EU/IMF bailout (“Ireland should heed the lessons of the drubbing of Yanis Varoufakis”, Opinion & Analysis, June 30th). This is, to a degree, muddying the waters.

The reality is that no serious politician was advocating default. What most critics of the deal objected to was the reclassification of bank debt as sovereign debt with no burden sharing with senior bank creditors thus putting the taxpayer on the hook for some €47 billion to date. Even the former IMF deputy director, Ajai Chopra, who negotiated the bailout, thought this was a bad idea.

While his assessment of Mr Varoufakis may be accurate, his description of the “prudent” policies of, particularly, Brian Lenihan and Michael Noonan, who went along with the policy of socialising bank debt, deserves no praise. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN McMAHON,

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Naas,

Co Kildare.