Sir, - Your edition of April 27th juxtaposed articles claiming that (a) the Irish technology sector was weathering the American economic storm, while (b) reporting that that Ireland had not yet understood the severity of the economic downturn and the future consequences.
This reminds me of an old TCD economics professor of mine who claimed that if you laid all the economic commentators in the world end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion. However, given that Ireland is three times as dependent on US imports as any EU country and that a large number of the major employers in the country are Silicon Valley-based operations already laying off large numbers of people, are the Irish still seriously deluding themselves that the good times of an economy in which BMW salespersons can own three houses are set to continue?
Perhaps the news that Baltimore Technologies is to cut 250 jobs, 20 per cent of them in Ireland (The Irish Times, May 16th) might be cause for a rethink. But somehow I doubt it, and feel that the Ireland's exposure to economic downturn will only dawn on the person who is left to turn out the lights. - Yours, etc.,
Breda Mackey, Camden Street, Dublin 2.