Sir, – It is remarkable how often Fianna Fáil spokespersons and its leader Micheál Martin are allowed to disseminate without challenge the canard that the meltdown of the Irish economy a decade ago was due to the global banking crisis.
If that were the case, the troika would have needed to visit every country on the planet to put in place financial rescue plans as happened here.
In truth, the austerity that was visited upon the citizens of this country was directly because of the €20 billion hole in the day-to-day finances needed to run the country left by Fianna Fáil after its 14 year unbroken term in government which ended in 2011.
Mr Martin who now presents himself to the electorate as taoiseach material was a cabinet minister for all of the period when the budget surplus Fianna Fáil inherited from the rainbow coalition in 1997 morphed into a ruinous multibillion deficit by 2011.
In the interest of truth it should be incumbent on media debate moderators and media commentators to educate the voting public on this and to confront the deliberate obfuscation of those who see advantage in keeping the electorate ignorant of the truth of Fianna Fáil’s most recent record in government. – Yours, etc,
PJ McDERMOTT,
Westport, Co Mayo.