Sir, - I read with some misgivings the recent interview with Mr Maurice O'Connell, Governor of the Central Bank (June 5th) in which he appeared to say that "he would not countenance a few years in Frankfurt to be an executive member of the new ECB board." Further on it was alleged that: "The latter position is one which Mr McCreevy could have swung." It comes as little surprise, therefore, to find in this morning's Irish Times that: "Ireland has failed to gain a single place on the top management team of the new European Central Bank, which will oversee the new single European Currency."
All this talk of the Government's limited ability, in future, to control economic factors such as inflation, post-EMU, must be true after all. Well, more or less (i.e. more true and less control). Isn't it galling, though, to think that while we as a member of EMU will have no influence on the ECB's decisions (for example on the setting of interest rates across the EU) non-EMU members such as Denmark and the UK will! - Yours, etc., Brendan McCormack,
45 Hillside,
Greystones,
Co. Wicklow.