Sir, – The extraordinary cynicism displayed by ECB president Mario Draghi, when he stated that the Irish government invited a financial bailout of its own free will, should remove any lingering suspicion that we as a nation were the victims of an extraordinary injustice in November 2010 (“ECB says Irish policymakers to blame for economic crash”, Front Page, November 7th). The wording of the crucial letter couldn’t be clearer; that unless we sought a bailout, one that guaranteed private banking losses, we would have ECB funding cut off. Isn’t it even clearer now that we should have called the bluff, as evidently the ECB was solely motivated to protect the interests of the larger, controlling nations within the EU, nations that had resorted to vile threats to stave off an existential crisis coming their way? – Yours, etc,
DECLAN DOYLE,
Lisdowney, Kilkenny.
Sir, – As the producer assigned by BBC Radio 4 with former Irish Times economics editor Dan O'Brien to record an in-depth interview with the late Brian Lenihan for the documentary When the Troika Came to Town, I was struck by the deep sense of betrayal he felt and that he was in no doubt that he had been bullied by the ECB .
Mr Lenihan had been given a brief in advance of the line of questioning to be taken by Mr O’Brien. He therefore came to the interview well prepared; he spoke for more than an hour, answering each question at length and in great detail without a script or any notes. At the end of the interview, he asked Mr O’Brien and myself if we were happy we had all the information we needed, to which I replied that I would like to know how he himself felt while all this was happening.
This was not a question he was not expecting, yet from his answer it was obvious it was something that he had already given much thought to. His response has been broadcast many times and is worth repeating here. “I’ve a very vivid memory of going to Brussels on the final Monday to sign the agreement and being on my own at the airport and looking at the snow gradually thawing and thinking to myself, this is terrible. No Irish minister has ever had to do this before”.
This was his last recorded interview and an extremely important one in light of what is now emerging. – Yours, etc,
MARY HARTE,
Raphoe, Co Donegal.
Sir, – Now that the ECB has released correspondence with the Irish minister for finance in the period leading to the Irish government’s acceptance of the bailout terms, perhaps those people at the centre of events here, civil servants and politicians, will release documents detailing the alternative, realistic and practicable alternatives which they were considering proposing to the various international financial institutions.
My impression at the time was that there was a complete policy vacuum at the heart of Irish government, which the ECB and others inevitably filled in its own interest.
Until Brian Cowen and his colleagues show differently, I shall continue to believe they were completely out of their depth, and sank the Irish economy as a result. – Yours, etc,
EOIN DILLON,
Mount Brown, Dublin 8.
Sir, – The letters from Europe at the time of the bailout are of little real interest. It was the letters from Europe in the years leading up to the crisis that would be most revealing.
We were warned, were we not? Or was it a case of the dog that didn’t bark? Either way membership of the EU didn’t offer the citizens of Ireland any protection against poor management of the economy. Europe let us down not so much at the time of the bailout but rather in the preceding period. Yours, etc,
BILL GRIMSON,
Dublin 6.