Dear Angela,

We do not have much time so I’ll dispense with the pleasantaries.

We are being offered bailout funds at 6.7% for 9-year money today – is this someone’s idea of a bad joke? That is on the extreme side of rip-off.

How can we expect to ever work our way out of €83bn at 6.7% (in addition to everything else we already owe…) with our GDP at €160bn and growth forecasts at less than 1%?

Under this deal, we will be serfs to the international institutions for years to come – Japanese deflation Irish style.

So it is time to face the truth – we can travel two roads:

(1) We get our money at 2%, we take our (deserved) medicine locally and we trade our way (painfully) out of this

(2) We pass on the bailout, restructure all bank debt holdings (as we own the banks anyway), restore confidence in our own ability to manage the situation and re-enter the international sovereign debt markets within the next 6 months.

Oh yes there are short-term risks with (2). For example, debt-holders might take Ireland to court (most likely European…) for welching on the guarantee. Now there’s a cause worth fighting…!

Perhaps it might even be Deutsche Bank versus little Ireland?

You decide.

Councillor Naoise Ó Muirí

Irish Citizen