Madam, – So Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan says that the banking bailout is manageable.
For whom is it manageable? Is it manageable for those who struggle to live on the dole having been cast into the pit of unemployment? For those who have lost their homes because of negative equity? For those who, despite hard work and effort, must watch their children emigrate? For those who because of light financial regulation have lost life savings with which they had thought to provide a degree of comfort in old age? For those who, despite great need, have lost or suffered severe cutbacks in home help or in respite care? For those who will suffer because of cut-backs in the health system?
Or is it manageable for those who have comfortable ministerial salaries and who are well buttressed against need by additional expenses – those who presided over financial mismanagement the burden of which must now be lifted and managed by all of us whom they govern and control?
When such people start sharing the pain and stop sheltering behind the hedge of their inflated salaries and instead vote themselves into positions of living on the average wage in the country till the national finances scuppered during their watch begin to recover, then perhaps we might begin to believe that the cost of the bailout is manageable.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a result of the announcement of the “final figure” for the bank bailouts, it has become clear that as a country we have now lost our political and economic sovereignty. We have been handed an economic straightjacket to wear for the foreseeable future.
All serious political parties who get into government will now be forced to implement the same economic policy. (The only alternative is to have the IMF implement them). The Dáil and Seanad debates will now be reduced to the level of discussing such burning issues as hare coursing and stag hunting! Shame on all who allowed this to happen.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – Tony Morley (October 1st) accuses the Opposition of failing to protect “our” deposit monies by not supporting the Government’s extension of the bank guarantee. He goes on to imply that voters will punish the Opposition for this at election time.
Mr Morley’s fears, both for “our” monies and the fate of Opposition politicians, are misplaced. The extension of the bank guarantee only affects deposits in excess of €100,000 (deposits under that sum are protected under the separate Deposit Guarantee Scheme, and this was not the subject of this week’s Dáil vote). I doubt that the rising tide of support in favour of the Opposition parties will be stemmed by compassion for wealthy depositors.
– Yours, etc,
Madam, – The blinds is down Joxer, the blinds is down.
– Yours, etc,