Sir, – It was heartening to read that Ireland’s Exchequer Returns 2011 (“Final tax take sees State end year €25bn in red”, Business, January 5th) showed that, apart from extraordinary bank loss repayments, we had a current budget surplus of €2.75 billion. To avoid a decade of austerity and depression, the Irish banking sector losses of some €70 billion should now be repaid over a 30- year period, similar to war reparations. Funding should be from the ECB and IMF at ECB base rates, now 1 per cent.
Simple, efficient and direct! Do you think the Germans might understand? – Yours, etc,