Madam, – European Commissioner Olli Rehn says the Irish people are “smart, resilient and stubborn” (Home News, November 30th). He is correct.
Smart: I will vote for general election candidates who promise my taxes will not go to pay bondholders who took the risk in a private investment decision, who must have known that “the value of your investment could rise as well as fall”.
Resilient: I’m prepared to take the short term turmoil of defaulting or turning bond-holder debt into shares so my family will not be saddled with massive interest payments to financial markets for the next 20 years.
Stubborn: I want my taxes to go to the most vulnerable in this economic downturn, and to invest in employment growth, not to pay for a situation where IMF, EU and Irish financial regulators have clearly not done their job properly. I will support any initiative which hammers home that point – and keep doing so until it happens. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – As a second-year college student I have watched with growing dismay the swift haemorrhage of sovereignty of the republic over the past fortnight. It seems to me in my humble and inexperienced view, the supreme power of rule has been donated piecemeal to a third party due to the incompetence of a corrupt Fianna Fáil-led administration which became complacent in its position of unchecked power and shameless in the attempts to preserve that position, as illustrated by the recent byelection saga.
I find it impossible to verbalise sufficiently the anger, despair and suspension of hope of my fellow classmates and students who I’ve discussed the present state of the country with, even those who at one time seemed the most optimistic. An air of acceptance of the need to emigrate when we qualify is pervasive in most quarters of college.
What I would like to know is if the concentration of power in the executive and the reduction of the houses of the Oireachtas to mere dramatic theatre should be rectified before a root-and-branch cleansing of the corrupt and maliciously selfish banking sector can be achieved?
As a young citizen am I not entitled to the prospect of a country where I can achieve what I wish to achieve through work and ambition? Or do I have to make do with a country bereft of hope and autonomy? Where my future has been seized and deemed collateral for a loan to clean up a mess I had no hand, act or part in making? – Is mise,
Madam, – As the fake Euro economies of the Mediterranean start to fall like dominoes, does anyone really believe that the funds now promised to Ireland will still be available to pay for public services, once we have pumped all our pension reserve fund and other public monies into those failed banks? Who is to benefit from all this, except the gnomes of Zurich and Frankfurt? will pay our ex-ministers’ pensions? Yours etc.
Madam, – I was disappointed to read (Dan Keenan, November 29th) that Nigel Dodds of the DUP considers the prospect of Irish unity to be “dead” now that we are under “crisis care”. Given the North’s chronic dependence on an annual bailout from Westminster, I would have thought we were ideal bedfellows. – Yours, etc,