Sir, – While I see no alternative for Ireland but to agree to Franco-German terms, I don’t think that your Political Editor Stephen Collins (“Logic dictates that we support new deal for Europe”, December 10th) should sound quite so pleased about it.
The deal does not just require that Ireland “should run [the] economy in a sensible manner”, but inflicts severe wage and price deflation on the country, while forcing a no-growth policy that will not allow Ireland to raise sufficient revenue to pay off its debts. The future it prescribes is bleak, miserable, and will not resolve Ireland’s issues. I believe this deal does nothing but kick the can down the road.
Ireland is quite powerless now, but it would be worthwhile to put this dog of an agreement to a vote, or to threaten to unless conditions are sweetened to some extent. I very much doubt the country is in a mood to approve a deal such as this.
Once this unjustified national debt is paid off, a decade or two down the road, Ireland should leave the euro zone and refloat its own currency, and ensure that it never again gets itself into a spot where foreign powers in the grips of austerity-madness can dictate to us as they have done in this case. With an Irish currency, the country will once again be able to control its own destiny. – Yours, etc,