Dear Sir or Madam;

I wish I had eloquence, I wish I had influence; eloquence enough to be able to tell the true tale of what’s happening in Ireland in the last five years, influence enough that this news would negate the lies and propaganda being spread both at home and abroad by our own government (growth, falling unemployment – that one debunked in no uncertain fashion by the IMF who have pointed to a ‘staggering’ 23% unemployment/underemployment figure, which would of course be far worse but for the safety valve of emigration).

The following is what we in the ‘Ireland says NO!’ propose as a solution to Ireland’s current ills: Destroy the €25bn in sovereign bonds currently held in lieu of the Promissory Notes by our Central Bank, Notes/bonds issued to cover a flagrant abuse of the Emergency Liquidity Assistance fund when €31bn was pumped in to two already insolvent institutions, Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society, abuse the ECB itself approved;

Restore to the Irish Exchequer the €6bn already destroyed on the basis of those Promissory Notes;

Swap all of Ireland’s remaining interests in the various Irish banks for (a) the €20.7bn taken from our National Pension Reserve Fund to bail out those banks and (b) write off the remaining €13bn or so borrowed from the various emergency funds to bail out the Irish banks.

The first move above will ease the long-term debt burden, making Ireland more attractive to the damned markets; the other two measures will put money back in the national accounts, money that can be used to invest in infrastructure, to kick-start this ailing economy. Do this and Ireland will soar.

For years we were told that bondholders couldn’t be burned, until it happened, in Greece.

We were told that was a one-off, couldn’t be applied anywhere else, til it happened again, in Cyprus – so much for that one-off.

In Cyprus you had the initial proposal to burn all depositors including those under €100,000, agreed to by the Eurozone finance ministers despite a supposed EU-wide guarantee to the contrary and (shamefully) welcomed immediately afterwards by our own government; when the proverbial hit the fan those same finance ministers (including our own Michael Noonan) all did a Pontius Pilate, washed their hands of a decision they had approved when they should never even have allowed it be debated; it took an outpouring of popular protest for the proposal to be overturned – another one-off, though this one was stymied by the people.

In the second Cyprus proposal we did see depositors burned, another first (albeit above the €100,000 guarantee threshold) but again, according to the ECB/EU, a ‘one-off’.

So, how many ‘one-offs’ is that? Where, we ask, is Ireland’s ‘one-off’ deal? So many times we’ve been told we’re ‘special’ – let’s see the money. Our government may not be fighting for it – we are.

We’re marching again this Sunday, week 111 of our campaign, Ballyhea 11.30am. All are welcome to join us – new marchers, those who have marched occasionally with us in the past. We will not stop, we will not be stopped.

Regards,

Diarmuid O’Flynn,

Ballyhea.