SARAH CAREY,
Sir, - The sneering and condescending attitude from some quarters about greedy and/or stupid investors in Eircom is getting a little tiresome. Apart from the fact that actually greedy and probably stupid investors on the stock market are always allowed to write off their capital losses against capital gains, there is a deliberate misunderstanding of the motives of the plain people who made their first-ever investment in shares through the Eircom flotation.
There is a long tradition in Ireland of ordinary people coming together to make small investments in the hope of creating a solid business that will make a return after long maturation. One has only to look at the agricultural co-operative movement that established the successful creameries which are today well-known brand names. Similarly, the Credit Union movement, which is eating into the market share of the mainstream financial institutions (much to their horror), was set up by small people to provide financial opportunities for the whole community.
Buying into Eircom was a natural step forward. Most people were not interested in making short-term profit, but rather in investing in the country's infrastructure in the hope of building a nest egg for the long term. What they did not expect was that the grasping mandarins at the Department of Finance would demand a flotation price that would maximise the short-term cash injection. This error was then compounded by the failure to secure shareholder protection against a cowardly management and avaricious employees who sold at the bottom of the market in the worst economic conditions in five years. Since this mistake was made solely by the Ministers involved, it is quite right to put these one-time investors on the same footing as the regular market players. - Yours, etc.,
SARAH CAREY,
Smithfield Village,
Dublin 7.