Readers would surely like to hear what the Irish position is on next EU budget

Sir, – Jack Power’s Brussels Letter is helpfully clear and comprehensive but he omits one important aspect, the Irish perspective (“How to fill a €60 billion hole in the EU budget? Answers on a postcard please”).

Shouldn’t we be listed with the fiscally prudent so-called “frugals” group of members who are the principal funders of the EU? After all, we are now net contributors by €3-4 billion annually. That alone would suggest that we should be close allies of the frugal group in these negotiations.

Or are we still repaying the “Brexit premium” debt we owe to all our 26 partners by staying quiet and saying nothing?

I believe it would be of keen interest to fellow readers to hear from the Department of Finance what the Irish position, as significant net contributors, is on the next EU budget.

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Are we happy to contribute more? What scrutiny will we have over the considerable “own resources” expenditure mentioned by Jack, to be undertaken by a remote Brussels institution, the European Commission, over the next seven years, especially, as our own national budget is under severe pressure?

Is Ireland missing a trick? – Yours, etc,

DÓNAL DENHAM,

(Ambassador of Ireland to Lithuania and Finland, retired.)

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.