Sir, – As I listened on Sunday night to Taoiseach Enda Kenny tell me, “It is now clear that your sacrifices are making a real difference”, I could not help but think that for many of the architects of our destruction times have never been better.
A host of ex-ministers and senior civil servants have walked away with pension entitlements the like of which put recent coverage of top-up payments in perspective. As an example, let us take a former minister who “retired” at 58 with a pension of €130,000 per annum, notwithstanding that this former minister is a qualified accountant and eminently employable. This person, subsequent to “retirement”, has been appointed to multiple boards of private companies.
I am 36. If I were to retire at 58 on that pension I would have to contribute €11,000 a month. Of course, I could not retire at 58 in any case. I am a pharmacist who has seen my business undermined time and again by multiple cuts under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (FEMPI). The provisions of this Act gives extraordinary powers to the Minister for Finance.
Why was FEMPI not used to cut these pensions or prevent the payment of them until these elite persons were 65?
At a time when young teachers are threatened by our Government with further cuts to their already meagre pay for trying to defend their conditions the situation I have outlined above should be intolerable to the citizens of our republic. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL PYNE MPSI,
Costello’s Pharmacy,
Marino Mart,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – It is very interesting to hear the Government parties almost congratulating themselves on the wonderful work they did to get us out of the bailout. They seem to forget that they have only been puppets for the troika since they took office. Now we will see if they are any use and keep us from another bailout. – Yours, etc,
JOE HARVEY,
Glenageary Woods,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Enda Kenny has told the people that exiting the bailout sends a powerful signal internationally; that now is not the time to change direction and that the future is to be about employment generating enterprise, not personal deal-making.
Apart from the fortitude and patience of the people, the most glaring signal to emerge from Ireland over the past decade is the impunity with which outrageous levels of white-collar crime and flagrant corruption can be perpetrated and the obscene amounts of wealth accumulated by services providers as a consequence of the economic collapse.
Not one individual has been tried and punished in a criminal court for the economic treason that has been inflicted on the country and public trust in so many so-called pillars of society has been gored beyond remediation.
Reform of the self-regulated legal services professions has been demanded for well over a decade. But the legal services bill still hunkers like an impotent ghost cowering in a haunted warehouse.
The Taoiseach needs to offer more than “prudent budgetary policies” if the credibility of his ambition is to be taken more seriously than that of a posturing cheerleader. He is governing a society, not merely an economy and he needs to urgently send society a signal to that effect. – Yours, etc,
MYLES DUFFY,
Bellevue Avenue,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The exit from the bailout is both significant and welcome. However, given the austerity we continue to face, rather than a presidential-style televised address, wouldn’t a press release (or brief interview) thanking the Irish people for their ongoing sacrifices be more in keeping with the times?
It is worth recalling that a few months ago, the country had a referendum on whether or not to abolish the Seanad. The idea to hold this referendum was entirely a personal initiative by the Taoiseach and even took members of his party by surprise when it was announced.
The referendum cost us taxpayers €12 million and it proposed to do away with one third of the Oireachtas and half of our parliament. And yet Enda Kenny did not have the political courage to go on RTÉ television and debate the issue in front of the people he serves.
Does he really believe that Sunday night’s cosy address (primarily designed to make him look good) will not be seen by the Irish people as anything more that what it really was – a political stunt? – Yours,etc,
KEVIN KENNY,
Grosvenor Road,
Dublin 6.
Sir, – How sad and depressing to read a headline that says Ollie Rehn and Manuel Borroso were “told to stay away” from events to mark our exit from the programme of recovery which, with the involvement of the IMF, was facilitated by EU institutions (Front page, December 14th).
Instead of insulting the very people who saved our bacon, the Government’s impulse should have been to do the direct opposite. This was a good chance to remind the Irish public that, bad as things have been and still are, it is easy to demonstrate that they would have been a whole lot worse without the assistance of our friends in Europe.
If, instead of having to follow the precepts of responsible and prudent central Europeans, with copious loans from the same source to make sure that state wages and other expenses, including social welfare, could still be paid in the interim, we were left to the dictates of the markets as a bankrupt country, we would have been shown what true hardship entails.
The people of Ukraine can see the truth of the matter. A quote from one of the pro-EU protesters in Kiev in the same edition of your paper says “We know it’s not paradise in the EU. But it gives hope for a better life. That’s why we are here”. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Farrenboley Park,
Windy Arbour,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Might I perhaps offer a caption for Cyril Byrne’s candid shot of “Brendan Howlin and Michael Noonan share a joke . . . to mark the bailout exit”. (“EU leaders told to stay away on exit day”, Front page, December 14th). “And then. . . hahaha . . . and then . .wait for it.. hahaha. . .then I told them . . . hohoho whatahoot . . .we’re all in it together.” But I’m sure your readers can beat that. – Yours, etc,
DAMIEN FLINTER,
Castleview Estate,
Headford, Co Galway.
Sir, – With reference to the remarkably positive coverage of the bailout exit this week in the Irish media, I’m trying to remember one of the early signs of a totalitarian state. Isn’t it when the messages from the government and the media consistently support each other? – Yours, etc,
JOHN HANAMY,
Charleston Road,
Ranelagh, Dublin 6.