Sir, – In their overwrought criticism of President Michael D Higgins’s analysis of the role of ratings agencies in the world economy, your correspondents (Letters, June 12th) miss an important point. We are in a fundamentally different place than we were during and immediately after the 2008 banking crisis.
Then, a relatively small number of countries faced major fiscal crises, initially provoked by the failure of the international banking and financial system of which ratings agencies are a part.
Today, virtually every country in Europe and across the globe has correctly spent billions to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, and to deal with its immediate health and economic impacts.
In 2008 and after, elected politicians lived in fear of the ratings agencies while commentators hung upon their every word. Today, a very broad range of economists, commentators and decision-makers have rightly called for an entirely different public policy response at national and international level.
Nobody denies that Ireland (and other countries) will have to repay debt over time. But the real-time ‘fiscal rectitude,‘ demanded by faceless and unaccountable ratings and other agencies cannot be allowed to trump economic reconstruction, social solidarity and the re-creation of jobs capable of sustaining decent living standards.
This would be wholly unacceptable to the millions of people who have weathered the first coronavirus storm — with its bereavement, illness, worry, social disruption, and economic hardship — and who must prepare for the next. The ratings agencies that have had a disproportionate influence on our lives and livelihoods are answerable to nobody.
President Higgins is quite right to say they should play no part in the global response to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. As on so many issues, our democratically-elected President again speaks on behalf of the vast majority of the people of Ireland. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN CALLINAN,
Fórsa General Secretary
and Vice President of the
Irish Congress of Trade Unions,
Dublin 1.