Sir, – Blaming the Germans – again? Seemingly, the minds of some Irish commentators, such as Fintan O’Toole (Opinion, March 26th), have been colonised by precisely that colonial power which always blames the Germans – for everything.
Mr Micawber said it all. “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” It wasn’t the Germans who did the spending. What Fintan O’Toole and others like to forget is that the Irish (and the Cypriots, and the Greeks etc) entrusted their destinies to politicians who habitually bought their way into office. This led to a pan-European crisis of excessive debt.
The troika is trying to manage the crisis and it seems to be doing so reasonably well. Nothing disastrous has happened to anyone – yet. Irish austerity is more purification and retrenchment than decline and fall.
In the middle of it all, the Germans are standing there solid as a rock. Without the strength of the German, Austrian, Dutch and similarly structured economies, Europe would be in a very bad place indeed. That’s the real bottom line. – Yours, etc,
Dr GERARD MONTAGUE,
Zaumberg,
Immenstadt/Allgäu,
Germany.
Sir, – William J Silke (March 26th) stated I was factually incorrect when quoting me as saying that “no penalty applied to public sector pensions” (March 21st).
I actually wrote “no similar penalty” in the context of the Government’s raid on private sector pension funds. This is factually correct.
He goes on to write about public sector pensions being dependent on employee contributions but ignores the fact that these pensions, particularly at higher levels, are largely financed by private sector taxpayers who could never aspire to secure such attractive pension benefits for themselves. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN FLANAGAN,
Ardmeen Park,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Will Cypriots now switch from ATMs to UTMs (under the mattresses)? – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – Brinkmanship and brinkbankship, break man’s back and heart. – Yours, etc,
MICHELE SAVAGE,
Glendale Park,
Dublin 12.