Sir, – Joachim Pfeiffer, economic policy spokesman for Angela Merkel’s CDU party, was in town on Thursday to give Ireland its latest lecture on its economic “progress” and to assure the dewy-eyed Irish Government that, no, there was “no chance” of any legacy bank debt deal (Business This Week, July 25th). Mr Pfeiffer claims that the banking and property bubbles were all “home-made”, neglecting to mention that surplus monies from German banks fuelled them – so not actually “home-made”, Mr Pfeiffer.
However, we should derive some measure of pride and succour from Mr Pfeiffer’s hearty reassurance that Ireland – as opposed to irresponsible France and Italy – is “now firmly on the right track” and was “an example to other countries in how it accepted the burdens of its financial past, increased competitiveness through lower labour costs and reformed its tax code”.
Roughly translated, this means that Ireland was nicely compliant in inflicting an austerity regime on its citizens and is now following the same track as Germany, that is reduced wages for lower and middle earners, new and increased taxes, an absence of wage rises nationally and schemes such as our Job Bridge for the unemployed, a scheme akin to Germany’s decade-old “Agenda 2010”, wherein participants work for a little over €1 per hour as a route back into the regular workforce – and a dream for exploitative employers.
So, “firmly on the right track”. But for whose benefit? Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan Road,
Co Dublin