Sir, – Cliff Taylor frames his column on the President's attitude to Ireland's economic recovery as a binary question of pro- or anti-austerity, an oversimplification that conveniently ignores the more complex question of who in society should pay for the austerity ("Mr President, is economic recovery not a good thing?", Opinion & Analysis, October 31st).
Cliff Taylor refers to the Barclays Bank boss earning a “ludicrous” salary of £8 million a year.
In a country with an average industrial wage of €36,000, why are salaries of €1,000,000, or €500,000 or even €300,000 not also considered ludicrous?
What level of hubris suggests to anyone that they are worth many multiples of another individual’s salary?
No doubt reference will be made to expertise.
It’s not too long ago that a number of handsomely paid experts nearly bankrupted our country, a level of incompetence of which many on that average wage are incapable. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’SHEA,
Beara,
Co Cork.
Sir, – Cliff Taylor’s critique of President Higgins’s various musings is long overdue.
Mr Higgins clearly see himself as some sort of social conscience, rebelling against the capitalist establishment. However his speeches are the usual easy-listening paeans to “inclusion” and the excoriation of “inequality”. Never has he sought to tackle any of the sacred cows that really hold Ireland back, such as cronyism, nimbyism, and a duplicitous attitude to taxation, development and the rule of law.
Mr Higgins has not, for example, examined the inequity of a penal tax rate that takes half of the money earned by a person doing an hour of overtime at the same time as the State promotes a corporate tax regime that facilities the fleecing of European exchequers, while retired politicians and others enjoy exorbitant unfunded pensions.
Similarly, it’s easy to lament homelessness but a lot more bold to exhort planners and councillors to increase housing density or (perish the thought!) increase local taxation to fund services.
Calling for improved social housing without suggesting how it might be paid for is particularly facile. – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW GLOVER,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Bravo, Cliff Taylor. It appears much of the media is afraid to call out the factual errors and illogical conclusions spouted by our President for fear of highlighting the breach of traditional presidential impartiality that has now become the norm. – Yours, etc,
PAUL KEAN,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Cliff Taylor is right to say that after the austerity the hopefully continuing economic recovery is to be welcomed and that it is positive. He writes: “Let’s not forget how scary those times were and how painful they were for many families”.
We can also see when we look at Greece that we should not underestimate the problems that confronted this country as a result of its bankruptcy and bailout and how much worse it could have been.
We should, however, also be wary of overhyping the recovery and repeating the mistakes of the boom.
Cliff Taylor says that it is a pity that there is not more “measured discussion” on the subject. Perhaps that is too much to ask for coming up to an election. – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.