LIAM CLANCY, MBA,
Sir, - the new National Stadium must go ahead but it will take enlightenment and creative thinking to make it happen. Forget about frightening figures such as €600 million or €800 million, just as many families have to forget about the full cost of their homes. Let's talk about repayments instead.
At the current mortgage rate of 4.8 per cent taken over 30 years, an €800 million stadium will cost us €50.3 million a year in repayments. Let's also forget about dumping old ladies out of hospital beds to find this money.
Let's instead mobilise the great Irish people and offer them the opportunity to purchase a National Stadium Bond offering them a DIRT-free 4.8 per cent to fund this great national effort.
Those of us currently getting under 2 per cent for our savings suddenly become Bertie Bowl fans. The entire country gets a great deal and I dare say foreign savers and financial institutions might even try for a piece of the action. Surely a great win-win possibility.
Come on, Dáil Éireann; lets have a little financial creativity and let's leave the legacy of a fantastic National Stadium for the benefit of generations to come.
LIAM CLANCY, MBA,
- Yours, etc.,
Woodsend,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.