January 2011 Archives

David McWilliams in the Irish Independent on 8th January 2011 had an excellent piece on how he would save Ireland if he ever became Taoiseach. Here is a summary of his ten-step plan:

1. Hold a referendum to confirm that the people wish to renounce the debts of Irish banks.
2. Convert Ireland's bank debt problem into a euroland problem.
3. Rescind the bank guarantee.
4. Close Nama.
5. Impose debt-for-equity swaps onto bank bondholders.
6. Get the ECB to accept that it is unlikely to be ever repaid the €97 billion injected into the Irish banking system.
7. In due course, convert the funds owing to the ECB into bank equity.
8. Make domestic mortgages "non-recourse" and simplify the bankruptcy laws.
9. Extend the vote to all Irish citizens no matter where they live.
10. Draw on some of the $800 billion deposited in the IFSC to help rebuild a New Ireland. 

These proposals co-incide with views expressed here, for example, close Nama, reject the bailout, terminate the bank guarantee and use debt-equity swaps to recapitalise the banks.

As one of the best-paid Ministers of Health in the world, Mary Harney's take-it-or-leave-it offer to funding for Thalidomide sufferers as reported by Susan Mitchell (19th December) is extraordinary. Her offer of €62,500 lump sum plus an annual €,680 per survivor contrasts with her own prospective retirement package(based on those quoted for Ahern and Dempsey) of over €300,000 paid in first year in addition to an annual pension in excess of €120,000.

Letter published in the Sunday Business Post on 2nd January 2011. This letter was not tended to be a "dig" at Mary Harney but rather to illustrate (a) the extreme inequity in Irish society and (b) the extent to which our politicians are divorced from their constituents and have feathered their own nests.