Sir, – Years of austerity, low growth and high unemployment have resulted in the emigration of more than 200,000 Irish nationals in the past five years yet your Editorial (September 3rd) does not address the obvious truth that the fastest way to financial viability for a country with crippling debts is to allow its currency to depreciate. Ireland’s membership of the euro zone precludes this option.
Ireland’s predicament was foreseen 20 years ago by the Cambridge economist Wynne Godley.
Following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, which led to the creation of the euro, he wrote: “If a country or region has no power to devalue, and if it is not the beneficiary of a system of fiscal equalisation, then there is nothing to stop it suffering a process of cumulative and terminal decline leading, in the end, to emigration as the only alternative to poverty or starvation.” Sounds familiar? – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Cnoc an Stollaire,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Donegal.