Madam, – I’m sure many were relieved to read Morgan Kelly (Opinion, July 3rd) so simply and succinctly summarise the gravity of the crisis we face and the madness of the road we’re now on. Somebody in Fianna Fáil needs to read this piece, understand it and turn Minister Lenihan and the mandarins on Merrion Street (and Treasury Buildings) around before it’s too late.
The alternative, as Morgan Kelly makes refreshingly clear is that a “stop Nama now” movement must be started if we are to have any hope of avoiding national bankruptcy. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Morgan Kelly raises some extremely worrying questions regarding the Government’s handling of the banking crisis.
Firstly, the taxpayer is being asked to pay up to €90 billion for toxic assets which may be almost worthless. Had those “investments” been a success, the taxpayer wouldn’t have owned one cent of them.
Secondly, the Government has guaranteed not just depositors, but corporate bondholders in those banks as well. Investors gain a better rate of interest on corporate bonds because they take on the risk of default. So why are taxpayers now being burdened with the investors risk when they were never recipients of the interest or party to the contract?
Thirdly, Anglo Irish Bank was run by and for property speculators and developers. It had no strategic value to the Irish economy other than that it bid up the price of land for everyone else and thus created an unsustainable property bubble. Why are we bailing out the very people who caused the economic collapse and who have no strategic role to play in our long term recovery?
Fourthly, the cost of the bail-outs is so huge – potentially two thirds of national income – that it will bankrupt the nation and make recovery impossible for decades to come.
Fifthly, why are we implementing the bad bank idea when even the US administration rejected it as unworkable?
Let those investors who gained the returns now also take the hit, and let us rebuild our economy based on an ethical banking industry. – Yours, etc,