Madam, – Richie Boucher has done some service to this country. By retreating from his over-the-top “top-up”, he has avoided breaking the camel’s back of ordinary people’s tolerance and endurance. As one of the great unwashed who has never taken part in a demonstration of any kind (apart from being in the vicinity of the burning of the British embassy after Bloody Sunday!), I can honestly say I was girding my loins for a similar exercise in the near future.
Make no mistake, just as the Icelandic volcano blew its top last week, the molten lava of the Irish people’s anger and frustration is approaching eruptive levels. All it will take is the melting of the thin sheet of passivity covering the fissure to disappear and then we are into chaos. Mr Boucher’s wise decision has reduced the pressure, but it hasn’t gone away. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Richie Boucher, a banker with a social conscience, a rare bird indeed! Are there any more out there? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – While I am delighted that Richie Boucher has shown some empathy towards the plight of the people of this country, should we not also ask questions of the board of the Bank of Ireland, including two so-called public interest directors and its remuneration committee, regarding the approval of this contract and these pension terms? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Now that Richie Boucher has taken their advice (Front page, April 22nd), I look forward to seeing the Taoiseach, Éamon Ó Cuiv, John Gormley, and indeed all ministers waiving their ministerial pensions until they reach 65 years of age.
After all, their pensions are paid (index-linked), directly out of State income on an annual basis until they die. The Taoiseach might also like to waive the use of a State car and drivers until he is 65. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I heard both the main opposition parties claim political credit for Richie Boucher’s decision to forgo his pension entitlement.
They went on to state that bankers do not seem to appreciate the suffering that ordinary people are going through in trying to meet their mortgages and daily bills. When will they apply the same logic to their own brethren? Will they now put the same pressure on TDs to give up their entitlements to receive pensions while sitting in the Dáil “in the national interest”? I would be very surprised – even astonished – if they did. – Yours, etc,