Sir, – Noel Whelan makes some excellent and perceptive points about Ireland's weak position in determining the outcome of Brexit and especially notes that not insisting on a place at the Brexit table may prove costly ("Not insisting on place at Brexit table may prove costly", Opinion & Analysis, August 17th). Ireland is no more than a single voice in the EU 27.
However, I am surprised he does not see a consistent pattern here in Fine Gael governments. Enda Kenny blamed the Irish people for the financial crisis at the Davos meeting (“we went mad borrowing“); there was a craven surrender to the European Central Bank’s drive to make the Irish taxpayer foot the €64 billion bill for reckless lending by German, French and British banks; they failed to apply for retrospective relief under the new ECB guidelines, and repaid over €3 billion to unsecured bondholders, just because the ECB suggested we should. Far from “insisting on place at the Brexit table”, as Noel Whelan wisely recommends, this and the previous government have a record of supine surrender to the EU rather than standing up for the interests of the electorate they represent. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.
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Sir, – It was entirely reasonable for the rest of the European Union to insist on one voice in negotiations with the UK over Brexit. Divide and conquer would be an irresistible tactic for the British otherwise. – Yours, etc,
MARY BYRNE,
Bray, Co Wicklow.