Sir, – Where is the public clamour for debt forgiveness coming from? Aside from some celebrity economists, I haven’t heard of anyone who is in favour. Every one I have met is opposed to the proposal because it is so unfair.
The reason is that financially illiterate people who lost grip of reality during the boom and over- extended themselves by inflating their salary to buy over-priced homes want to have their debts written off.
Meanwhile, sensible people who bought modest homes during the boom and have manageable mortgages will be lectured to that it is their duty to take pity on their less sensible neighbours and pay their mortgage as well as their own.
Middle-class people are furious that they have to pay more taxes to bail out financially reckless banks and developers. And they will be even more furious if they have to pay further taxes to bail out financially reckless home-owners.
Yet again, the lesson will be that if you are financially reckless you will be saved, and if you are financially sensible you will be screwed. Our current economic mess was caused by the mindset of rewarding and praising financial stupidity, while financial prudence was laughed at and scorned.
What barmy ideas are next? Mortgage defaulters to be immune from eviction? Negative equity holders to get their stamp duty back? By all means reform our antiquated bankruptcy laws to help those who are hopelessly indebted. And make all future mortgages non-recourse so banks are more careful about their lending. But debt forgiveness is not an option. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – As I read the Front page (“Government considering new agency to enforce debt deals”, August 29th), it was impossible not to develop a distinctly bad taste in the mouth. It’s all too little too late for my husband and I. We have been forced out of Ireland due to redundancy in the cuts and severe unemployment.
We don’t know if we will ever be able to come home. I struggle with the word “home” as it is somewhere one should feel welcome but I most certainly do not. We don’t have the luxury of owning our own house. Instead of letting the banks go to the wall, as should have happened, young people are being sacrificed for the sake of home-owners.
God forbid that people who over-stretched themselves in the first place should lose their semi-detached with conservatory. Instead, a generation of graduates and young professionals have been shut out in the cold. It is an extraordinary state of affairs. I don’t know why I am surprised. The cack-handedness with which Ireland is governed becomes more apparent by the day. It is a crying shame. The only priority the Government should have at the moment is job creation. – Yours, etc,