Sir, – When I became a book-keeper many years ago it was drilled into me that for every debit there is a credit. The laptops in the Department of Finance seem to have a difficulty with that dogma. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – To have lost one billion might be forgiven as unfortunate, to have lost well over two starts to look like more than carelessness. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It is difficult to shun “old cynicism” as the president-elect Michael D Higgins proposes.
With the Department of Finance forgetting to carry the €3.6 billion, will new cynicism do? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Coming as it does on the day after Halloween, is the Government debt revelation that it got it wrong by €3.6 billion a trick or a treat? – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I was delighted to see that the Falwty Towersscript writers are alive and well and working in the Department of Finance in Government Buildings. I presume there will be bonuses paid for finding this money. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Remember the good old days when the Department of Finance regularly announced unanticipated revenue windfalls? At the time, some of us, not overcome by joy at these events, did worry about the Department’s grasp of simple arithmetic. Now it appears that this same dysnumerate outfit has overestimated the amount we need to borrow – by a few billions.
The circus may have left town, but obviously the clowns are still here. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Department of Finance would do well to remember the admonishment of Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve who noted that “a billion here and a billion there and soon you are talking about serious money”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The recent Maths Week which was featured in your newspaper obviously missed a trick – grinds for the Department of Finance given its €3.6 billion gaffe! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I anxiously await the appointment of a Minister of State to the newly formed Lost and Found section of the Department of Finance. – Yours, etc,