Sir, – Recent public debate over whether and how we might be allowed to spend money from the sale of Irish State assets has failed to highlight the extent to which our sovereignty has been undermined by the Troika. Given that the total national debt – including debt issued by private banks but underpinned by a State guarantee – is well over €300 billion, while the value of Irish State assets is of the order of €15 billion (only a fraction of which would ever be bought by the private sector), the sale would only be a drop in an ocean of debt.
The alarming fact is that we are being told to sell, and that our Government is willing to do it. The huge losses incurred by financial speculators has presented an opportunity to push full steam ahead on an ideological drive towards privatisation. And a compliant right-wing Irish Government, which includes the Labour Party, isn’t even whimpering.
It’s time that we the Irish people told the IMF, EU and ECB to get their hands off what is ours. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Is the Government now getting Vincent Browne to do its job for it, in asking the “hard” question of the Troika: Why do we have to pay the unguaranteed bondholders of the now defunct Anglo Irish Bank (Home News, January 20th)?
Where is the passionate outrage about our dire financial situation that they displayed before they were elected? Perhaps if they thought of the Troika, Merkel and Sarkozy as the Fianna Fáil opposition, we might get a little less “cap-in-hand” and more “hat in the ring”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Well done Noel Whelan (Opinion, January 21st) for refocusing our attention on the real villains responsible for the nation’s current crisis. The Troika, far from being the cause of our travails, is actually providing the wherewithal to keep the country running, and therefore we have to dance to its tune.
In the meantime the real culprits – former Fianna Fáil cabinet ministers and senior bankers,– exit stage left with golden handshakes, and large pensions while those of us further down the food chain are left to tidy up their mess.
It is high time some of our misguided journalists and Opposition politicians used their investigative and oratory powers to delve into the past and current activities of this infamous “elite” rather than biting the hand that is feeding us, namely the Troika. The words mote and eye come to mind. – Yours, etc,