Sir, – The Irish Government has not sanctioned the proposed VAT increase; it is awaiting German government approval first. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I don’t see why the Government should express either embarrassment or shock at revelations that the German parliament is examining our budget (Front page, November 18th). Everyone knows our governments no longer run this country themselves despite a pretence of doing so.
There seems to be a culture both among the government and State agencies of not regarding this as a sovereign state accountable to the electorate when it comes to dealing with “real” countries like the US and Germany.
Back in November 2006 we heard how the Dáil had to get Garda intelligence on supposed Al Qaida activity here from declassified US state department documents rather than from our own intelligence services or even the Garda Síochána.
We have had to put up with the US using Shannon as a fuelling stop on the way to a war we not supposed to be part of in Iraq. We were practically bullied into voting not once but twice on a treaty (Lisbon) that we were told was absolutely necessary, just as it was for the future of the EU (where are the promised jobs?). Now it seems to be getting in the way of what Merkozy wants and we’ll have to vote on it again. I feel sorry for the government which has to present Lisbon III to the electorate. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – When I was a boy an elderly friend of my family gave me a fishing rod. The only unusual thing in this was that he had made it from the ariel of a German tank he helped capture during the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 outside the town of Cassino.
Now, almost 70 years after these seminal events, the German government is once again trying to tell everyone in Europe what to do.
Methinks it is time to take down that old fishing rod and give a solid whack of it to Mr Kenny and whoever of his comedy act is letting Berlin decide what our VAT rate should be. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Embarrassing? Yes, of course it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing that another country’s elected representatives have more influence over our budget than the TDs that we elected. Or maybe it’s just a reality check: this is what loss of sovereignty means. Get over it or get out of it! – Yours, etc,