A chara, – Sarah Carey (Opinion, February 4th) displays a tattered knowledge of the fabric of Irish history.
I am most confused at the image of David Begg — naked on the Spire, disrobed of his expensive "millionaire" coat by an angry mob including Ms Carey — sparing his blushes with a "Plough and the Stars". Also perplexing is her reporting of Waterford Glass workers raising the "Plough and the Stars. . .upside down" at a demonstration, which, she declares, "says everything you need to know about our so-called left wing which has everything back to front".
I assume Ms Carey is not referring to Seán O'Casey's play The Plough and the Stars, but rather to Starry Plough, the flag of James Connolly's Citizen Army. – Is mise,
MAIGHRÉAD UÍ PHLÉIMIONN,
Grange Court,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
Madam, – Just how much Taoiseach Brian Cowen has underestimated the anger of the Irish people was underlined by his comments on the pay of bank executives and directors (The Irish Times, February 5th).
Mr Cowen has pledged there will be cuts of at least 25 per cent for top executives and directors pay following recapitalisation. Eugene Sheehy of AIB was paid €2.1 million last year, Brian Goggins of Bank of Ireland received €3 million, and the former Anglo Irish CEO got €3.3 million, to name just three. Their total of €8.4 million could pay 290 workers a salary of €30,000 each. A cut of 25 per cent is derisory in the context of these millions.
Any business which has been mismanaged to the extent that it needs limitless state guarantees, plus government injections of capital to the tune of €8 billion, is at least incompetently managed, and at worst has been reckless. A complete clearout of the top management in all the banks is required. This doesn’t mean they should be given generous severance settlements. Incompetent managers should be sacked for incompetence. This should be followed by a thorough audit of the banks’ accounts going back over years, with a specific view to identifying the kind of dubious practice carried on by Sean Fitzpatrick of Anglo and his accomplices in Irish Nationwide.
We need to see people actually punished – at the very least sacked and forfeiting their pensions – not being told that their actions are “inappropriate”, and being given a golden handshake.
That is what should happen, but it seems increasingly clear that it will not. Government members have too close a relationship with the wealthy individuals involved. It is time for them to go. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I would like to congratulate the Taoiseach on his inspired choice of austerity measures, notably the public service pension levy. Before it’s too late, perhaps we public servants could avail of an amnesty akin to that awarded to self-assessed taxpayers in the 1990s?
And now that the gloves are finally off, may I suggest that in the spirit of these “adjustments”, the Government scrap that political purgatory called Seanad Éireann? One of the benefits of such a decision would be the savings on salaries and expenses - and it would free a room to store the e-voting machines, Ansbacher and Dirt files.
Why stop there? We could use Farmleigh for refugee accommodation and its grounds as a halting site, thus producing even more savings. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In your issue of January 29th, Rossa White, from his perspective in wealth management, suggests an immediate welfare freeze and cuts in the core pay of public servants. Tellingly, he considers broadening the tax base can be postponed until the good times roll back.
He proposes to hijack the National Pension Reserve Fund and apply the proceeds to a bailout of some collapsed financial institutions. He notes that taxpayers, if they are lucky, might eventually get back some part of this asset. He appears to justify all of this pain as being required to propitiate the gods of the bond markets.
For sheer effrontery the like of this proposal has not been seen since a now disgraced banker suggested that the current crisis be solved on the backs of the elderly. On the Letters page of the same issue, Richard Boyle succinctly evaluates the real worth of market opinion, and finds it to be highly inappropriate as a guide to national policy-makers.
A generation ago, as a junior employee, I cowered when the strident tones of Mrs Thatcher proclaimed: “You cawn’t buck the Mahwkets”. Swingeing cuts were then made throughout Britain in the name of fiscal rectitude. Fortunately our leaders eschewed similar excesses and laid the foundations for a golden decade. With prudent and considerate handling of the present crisis such times may well return. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I was at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce dinner on Thursday night and heard Brian Cowen’s unscripted and passionate speech in its entirety. It was brilliant and everyone in the room knew it.
The Irish Times had a table at the dinner and you heard the speech and observed the standing ovation for it. I believe your paper lost an opportunity to report Brian Cowen’s address in a completely different way, steal a march on other media and do something positive for national morale. But your headline was negative and not even news – the dogs on the street know about the drop in living standards. The Irish Times lost an opportunity to “flip” the country’s thinking and morale. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I suspect I am not alone in thinking the Taoiseach’s “impassioned” speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce was little more than blowing hot air into a punctured balloon.
I was entertained by his call from the trenches for the Irish to demonstrate their “can do” spirit. From the no-man’s-land of empty estates and crowded welfare offices, the mumbled refrain is sure to come: we would, if we could, but we can’t! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I have just watched the evening news on television. First came the story of 300 people losing their jobs with Ericsson. Not only will they have to worry how paying mortgages but most will also have to cease their payments to private, defined-contribution pension plans with all of the consequences this will have for them and their families.
The second item on the news was about a union meeting of public-sector workers – who need not go to sleep wondering if their jobs will be transferred to China tomorrow – protesting about the pension levy on their salaries to part-fund their guaranteed, defined-benefit State pensions.
Those two stories put the protests of public-sector workers into perspective. Secure jobs and guaranteed pensions versus the devastating news of a lost job and having to go home to break the news that everything about a family’s life might be at risk, including the very place in which they live.
Just who were the unions representing at the social partnership talks? Private-sector workers (the vast majority of whom do not belong to a union), who daily consider the security of their job in this environment, or public-sector workers, whose only concern seems to be to hold on to what they have and good luck to the rest?
In these terrible times, the behaviour of protesting public-sector workers and the unions that are supporting them is simply unacceptable. – Yours, etc,
NIALL NELIGAN,
Carysfort Park,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.