Madam, – Ray Kinsella writes prophetically and courageously (“Regulation a weak sibling of ethics and sin”, Opinion, March 5th): the economic collapse is the result of a moral failure that may properly be labelled “sin”.
Is it not remarkable that not a single Irish public figure has admitted to any action that constitutes not a “misjudgment” nor a “screw-up”, but a fully conscious act which knowingly violated moral and ethical imperatives and may properly be called “sin”?
Billion-euro state tribunals have been powerless to elicit even one confession of moral failure which might have led to some form of personal repentance. Our systems are infected by what the theologian Walter Wink called “an interiority of evil”.
Mammon doesn’t “do” repentance. Is it too much to hope that among our more prominent public figures – political, commercial or ecclesiastical – we might yet have our own repentant and converted Charles Colson or Jonathan Aitken? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The idea that “we are all to blame” for the current crisis has become common in the Irish media recently, and has surprisingly gone unchallenged. Your edition of February 27th contained two examples of this.
David Kelly (Letters) wrote that “we are all to blame to some degree – borrowers, lenders, media, politicians and unions”. May I suggest that this does not cover everyone? There are plenty of people who are neither borrowers nor lenders, have never been involved in any property transaction, and have never been in a union, or have voted against their unions’ motions to strike for pay.
Similarly, Donal Casey (Analysis) wrote that “we have all given tacit permission for the behaviour at the heart of our banking crisis”. What’s this “we” business? There are many Irish people who speak out regularly against this behaviour and against the culture that tolerates it. Many people recognised, condemned, and consistently voted against the foolish, populist, and pro-cyclical policies implemented by recent governments.
Attempts to spread the blame may be malicious in some cases, and in other merely indicate a severe disconnection from reality. But the fact that they have gone unchallenged in the media indicates that some people are living in a bubble that has yet to burst. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In 1964 we bought our first house, a three-bedroom semi with garage in Terenure. We paid a 10 per cent deposit and got the maximum available mortgage of two-and-a-half times my (basic) salary over 20 years. It was a struggle, but it was manageable.
Around the same time a certain farmer, based in what is now the outer city suburbs, having failed to get planning permission to develop his land, sold it as a farm. Somehow the new owner managed to get planning permission for development, sold the land on, and proceeded to the next target. This widespread, oft-repeated type of activity among those on the “inside track” accounts in large measure for the fact that, were I in the same job today as in 1964, it would require, even at current “slump” prices, borrowings of about 10 times my salary to buy the same house.
Is there any chance that the silver lining of the present financial/social chaos might be some sort of restoration of sanity and equity to the provision of the basic necessity of a roof over one’s head? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Any mention of a mini-budget is inappropriate.
What we will get is a mega-budget, probably the first of many. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If I sell all my worldly possessions, put the resulting cash at 100/1 on a horse in the 2.30 at Fairyhouse and am awaiting the result, am I, to use the term favoured nowadays, “at risk of poverty”?
Or does the term simply, and more accurately, mean “poor”? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – "It is time we got real in this country," says Brian Lenihan, Minister for Finance ( The Irish Times, March 4th). What a pity Cabinet members over the past 10 years didn't get real when liberally cutting – sorry, reforming – taxes and incurring extravagant expenditure, based on revenues from a construction boom and an orgy in property speculation which the dogs in the street knew was unsustainable.
But no one could foresee the crash — bar the dogs in the street, of course. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Following the publication of the disastrously low Exchequer returns for January and February, and the Government’s acknowledgement of the need for an interim budget within weeks, it is imperative that Brian Cowen reach across the aisle in Dáil Éireann.
Richard Bruton and Joan Burton are both recognised as having an excellent grasp of the finance brief. Fianna Fáil must swallow its pride and Brian Lenihan must invite both Opposition spokespersons to assist him in preparing a budget to restore the State’s finances. – Yours, etc,