Sir, – In his otherwise perceptive commentary on how the UK and Norway made use of their North Sea oil bonanzas, David McWilliams omits one rather crucial piece of information (“Norway the clear economic winners after England’s own goal with North Sea oil,“ July 11th).
In 1970, the population of the UK was 55.7 million; that of Norway was 3.9 million. Using McWilliams’s own numbers, this means that each Norwegian citizen “owned” about 17 times the number of barrels of oil that each UK citizen did. So it was a lot easier for Norway to limit state spending of its oil income to 4 per cent of the total and stash the rest away.
That said, there is no doubt the UK did squander most of this wealth. Sadly, Irish governments are going down the same path with our corporation tax windfall. Let our children and grandchildren pay the bills has been the unspoken mantra of Irish governments for many years now.
The words of Irish MP Boyle Roche to the House of Commons in 1775 still ring true: “Why we should put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity – for what has posterity done for us?” – Yours, etc,
READ MORE
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Morehampton Terrace,
Dublin 4.
