Madam, - Brian Cowen's rebuttal (The Irish Times, July 13th) of Marc Coleman's charge (The Irish Times, July 6th) that the economy is "aimless, lopsided, and unsustainable" fails completely to address the two most serious issues facing our economy.
The first is the continuing rise in interest rates as the European Central Bank seeks to dampen growth, and control inflation. The second is our inflation rate, which at 3.9 per cent is nearly double that of some of our EU trading partners.
As we approach the General Election it is going to be a close call between the mood of the electorate faced with rising interest rates, and our Minister for Finance waxing lyrically about his prudent economic management.
There is no doubt Mr Cowen will be tempted to keep our economy flying, when in fact he should be planning for a soft landing. I hope the fire tenders are standing by at the end of the economic runway when the election is over. - Yours, etc,
MIKE CORMACK,
Ardagh Close,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.