Sir, – The Government routinely claims Greece should follow the Irish example: take its “austerity” medicine and then experience “recovery”. As academics in Ireland, we know this is a deeply flawed claim.
First, Ireland is a much more open economy than Greece – the recent increases in Irish GDP are largely based on exports of products such as pharmaceuticals, for which international demand remains buoyant. The more closed structure of the Greek economy makes replicating this impossible.
Second, the benefits of this growth have not trickled down to the vast majority of Ireland’s people. Unemployment has fallen, but net emigration has exceeded that drop. A growing proportion of work is part-time, insecure and even unpaid. Average wages continue to fall: it is estimated that one in four of the workforce earns less than a living wage. The percentage of children in deep, consistent poverty doubled between 2008 and 2013, to 12 per cent.
Third, the argument that this “progress” has been helped by a negotiated restructuring of Irish debt is hollow: the 2013 deal on Ireland’s promissory note debt transformed soft (and cancellable) debt into sovereign debt – to be paid in full until 2053.
In summary, the Irish “recovery” has been partial, unequal and, in many respects, illusory.
It in no way constitutes a model for Greece or anywhere else to follow.
Instead, we stand in solidarity with the Greek people as they struggle for genuine economic recovery for all, based on the write-down of illegitimate debt.
– Yours, etc,
HARRY BROWNE
School of Media,
Dublin Institute of
Technology,
Aungier Street,
Dublin 2.
On behalf of 100 present and retired academics in Ireland, including
Andy Storey, John Geary, Bryan Fanning, Mary Gallagher, Margaret Kelleher, Gerardine Meaney, Dara Downey, Alice Feldman, Jane Grogan, Anne Mulhall, John Baker, Theresa Urbainczyk, Kieran Allen, Ailbhe Smyth, Julien Mercille, Marie Moran, Kathleen Lynch, Mariya Ivancheva, Theresa O’Keeffe, Judy Walsh, Mary Purcell, Maggie Feeley, Mary McAuliffe, Roland Erne, Katherine O’Donnell, Sean L’Estrange, Mary Alacoque Ryan, Mark Price, Kathryn Keating, Tom Murray, Amanda Slevin, Sharae Deckard, Michael O’Flynn, UCD; Ciaran Cosgrove, Barbara Bradby, Norah Campbell, Sinead Pembroke, Jude Lal Fernando, TCD; Helena Sheehan, Eugenia Siapera, Jenny Williams, Paola Rivetti, Maeve O’Brien, Marnie Holborow, Karen Devine, Eileen Connolly, Antonio Toral, Kenneth McDonagh, Ellen Reynor, Mark O’Brien, Alexander Baturo, DCU; Luke Gibbons, Joe Cleary, Peadar Kirby, Ann Hegarty, Rory Hearne, Mary Gilmartin, Bernie Grummell, Colin Coulter, Laurence Cox, Sinead Kennedy, Robert Aiden Lloyd, John Reynolds, Pauline Cullen, Catherine Friedrich, Chandana Mathur, Michael Byrne, Steve Coleman, Jamie Saris, Maynooth University; Rosie Meade, Piaras Mac Einri, Clare O’Halloran, John Maguire, Colin Sage, Lydia Sapouna, Feilim Ó hAdhmaill, UCC; Conleth D. Hussey, Eoin Devereaux, John Lannon, Lee Monaghan, Mikael Fernstrüm, UL; Eithne Murphy, Lionel Pilkington, Paul Michael Garrett, Brian O’Boyle, NUIG; Michael Pierse, QUB; Goretti Horgan, Ulster University; Brian Hanley, independent scholar; Harry Browne, Alan Grossman, Michael Carr, Pat Hannon, James Rock, Michael Foley, Fabian McGrath, Jim Roche, Martin Hanrahan, DIT; Tom O’Connor, Brian McMahon, Cork IT; Kevin Farrell, IT Blanchardstown; Niamh McCrea, IT Carlow; Martin Marjoram, IT Tallaght; Tom Boland, IT Waterford; Justin Carville, Cormac Deane, Mark Curran, Paula Gilligan, IADT; Maurice Coakley, Griffith College; David Hughes, RCSI
Sir – Dave Robbie (Letters, July 10th) makes the oft repeated erroneous conflation of micro and macro economics in his attempt to compare private household debt with that of Greek national debt.
Even if we were to entertain his conflation there is a world of difference between being unable to pay and refusing to pay debt.
Leading Nobel Prize-winning economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz (as well as a majority of IMF economists) have declared Greek debt unrepayable and unsustainable. It is estimated 90 per cent of Greek bailout money never touched a Greek bank and instead has been used to repay legacy debt owed to British, French and German banks. With upwards of 30 per cent of its citizenry unemployed as well as a 25 per cent contraction of GDP since 2008 and national debt increasing year on year, clearly the current troika imposed plan for Greece is not working.
What is needed is an economic programme that encourages growth and allows the Greek people to hope and plan for the future whilst also ensuring the debt can plausibly be repaid.
– Yours, etc,
CÍAN CARLIN
Lausanne Road,
London.
Sir, – The majority who voted no in the Greek referendum may as well have voted no to Alexis Tsipras wearing a necktie for all that it matters.
A more relevant referendum would be one of the EU creditor states to gauge their support for a further Greek bailout. However, common sense would rule out such an event.
Anyway such referendums are unnecessary because we do have democratically elected governments throughout the EU to decide on the correct course of action in such matters.
Greece may be the founders of democracy but it’s not its sole preserve. Is it not time for Greece to accept this position?
– Yours, etc,
MICK O’BRIEN
Springmount,
Kilkenny.