RECENTLY, VE Barrett (Letters, August 24) suggested a Margaret Thatcher would be good for Ireland.

IT has been reported that Finance Minister Michael Noonan rejected calls from the Financial Regulator and senior bankers to lift salaries for executives at rescued banks to more than 500,000 per annum, thus removing the cap on salaries in the banking sector.

I AGREE with Michael Mernagh that there should not be a sell-off of state assets.

IT was very encouraging to see on television the uprising of tens of thousands of people in Spain, most of whom seem to be young people.

WE have been told over and over again — usually by well-off people, that ”we must all share the pain” if we are to get out of this recession. All share the pain? I doubt it.

THIS week’s Prime Time programme exposing how elderly people are abused and humiliated when they receive home care (or not) from private companies, paid by the Irish taxpayer via the HSE, illustrates what happens when policies are driven by a right-wing ideology instead of the interests of people needing care.

OLLI Rehn has been given the chance to decide whether or not the Government’s debt reduction budget is acceptable to the EU.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen says people must start spending more to help with the recovery. First of all there can’t be a recovery until thousands of jobs are being created — and that’s not happening.

SPEAKING at the Michael Collins commemoration ceremony at Béal na mBláth, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said he understood the public “incomprehension and anger” at the vast sums of money being pumped into the banking sector, particularly Anglo Irish Bank.

PRIVATISING public assets usually occurs when a country is in recession and its people feel anxious and vulnerable.

IT seems the only difference between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in relation to property developers and bankers is that Fianna Fáil cosied up to them in the Galway tent and Fine Gael cosied up to them at the K Club.

IN the past few months I have constantly heard politicians, the media, political commentators and others often express concern over how “the markets” would respond to the policies and actions of governments.

SURELY not only the usual suspects but the public generally should be enraged by the fact that virtually the whole population, apart from a handful of very wealthy people, are going to have to pay in one way or another the huge cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank.

WHEN the pro-Lisbon fraternity were demanding that the people change their previous No vote to a Yes vote for the Lisbon Treaty, they didn’t tell the people that the post-treaty EU would be run not in the interests of people but in the interests of the capitalist market.

IN his letter headlined ‘Shannon stopover critics hide behind US security shelter’ (January 25), Jim Forde responds to the letter (January 18) from John Lannon of Shannonwatch who criticises what he believes is Ireland’s effective involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the compromise of its neutrality.

WE are told there are 12,000 hotel guest rooms for which there is no demand. Some suggest reducing the price will solve the problem. I think the reduction would have to be huge to fill 12,000 rooms.

THE revelation that an unknown number of Fianna Fáil politicians had fast-track loans from Anglo Irish Bank, with some of them amounting to millions of euro, is very disturbing.

NOW we know that during the property boom not only did governments give numerous tax breaks to developers that encouraged them to build high-rise office buildings, apartment blocks, hotels and housing estates in the middle of nowhere — sometimes on flood plains — they also cut property developers’ personal taxes from 40% to 20%.

SO the unions were led up the garden path by promises of an agreement with the Government and then ditched when they called off the pre-budget day of action.

MOST of the cuts made in the budget are either unjust, unfair or just plain cruel.

I KEEP hearing members of the Government telling everyone we are all in the economic crisis together and we must all “share the pain” that is necessary to get out of it. They also keep saying “we are in a difficult situation” as if they had nothing to do with it.

IN referring to our present economic crisis, SIPTU leader Jack O'Connor says “We do not suggest for a moment that there is some kind of pain-free or risk-free formula for overcoming the difficulties, indeed, we believe there is no viable alternative to an agreement between all parties on a fairer, better way.”

I READ with great interest the recent letters dealing with the Civil Partnership Bill and the opinions of the letter-writers on the measure and its possible consequences. I am concerned that the bill might make it possible to prosecute those whose conscience will not allow them to facilitate or participate in a same-sex civil partnership ceremony.

I AGREE with Kathy Sinnott’s letter (August 31) arguing we should resist the water charges recommended by the recent report of the Commission on Taxation.

I CAN fully understand that the relatives and friends of those who were killed in the Lockerbie terrorist bombing would suffer anguish and a sense of extreme injustice when Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from prison on compassionate grounds. I can also understand why they would want to attack those who released Megrahi.

LIKE John Mallon (Letters, August 3), I too am fed up with the bullying tactics of those who suggest there will be severe consequences for Ireland if we do not vote for the Lisbon Treaty.

YOU report Finance Minister Brian Lenihan (July 16) as saying we must all accept €5bn of cutbacks while telling those set to be hit by them and public sector job losses not to selfishly oppose the measures. Mr Lenihan is wrong. Not everyone will have to accept cutbacks.

DESPITE the opposition of its own planning inspector and well-founded opposition from local residents, medical consultants, councillors, opposition TDs and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin, Bord Pleanála has given the Beacon Medical Group (BMG) permission to build their colocated hospital in the grounds of Cork University Hospital.

ACCORDING to your report (June 2), the Government is considering scrapping the clawback clause which requires someone who has bought a house under the affordable housing scheme to give a percentage of any profit back to the council if the house is sold within 20 years of purchase.

I KEEP hearing government ministers and TDs claim that the catastrophic collapse in their party’s vote was a result of them having to take “hard decisions” because of the economic crisis.

ON television news (May 7), I heard EU Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy argue against taxing the rich.

RECENTLY I saw a report announcing that the Tánaiste was going to lead an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. I was disgusted that Ireland would trade with Saudi Arabia which allows fathers to marry off their child daughters to old men and which cuts off hands for theft and beheads more than 100 people a year.

I WAS watching the British economist and political commentator Will Hutton on a TV programme (April 27) that dealt with the financial collapse and the role of bankers and other “masters of the economic universe” in it.

THERE are frequent appeals for people to become organ donors. Despite this, apparently there is a constant shortage of such volunteers.

I READ in a Sunday newspaper that 8 out of 10 CEOs were going to cut jobs this year.

YOU can bet that during the French Revolution when the revolutionary masses were calling for the blood of a greedy and arrogant aristocracy who had brought the country to ruin, some deluded souls were calling out “citizens, the only our aristocrats can save us”.

AS part of the recapitalisation arrangement, AIB and Bank of Ireland are required to start providing credit.

I COULDN’T agree more with Jo Howard’s complaint about dog fouling in Cork City (Letters, January 23.).

APPARENTLY when referring to the Government’s response to the pigmeat contamination crisis, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said: “Everything was done as one would expect.”

UNLIKE every other problem it has had to face in recent times, the Government can’t blame the credit crunch or the international economic downturn for the disaster caused by dioxin-contaminated animal feed.

I AGREE with Gary Honer, national chair, Labour Youth, that the banks should be nationalised (Letters, November 22).

REGARDING charges being laid against Frank Dunlop for allegedly making corrupt payments to politicians, Denis Moloney (Letters, November 28) wonders if the same politicians who accepted these payments will also have their day in court?

WHAT was really infuriating about the Government’s decision not to provide the anti-cervical cancer vaccination for young girls — at a saving of a few million euro — was that it came after it was reported that ministers had bowed to construction industry lobbying regarding the costing of State-funded projects: this lost the taxpayer €150 million.

IN his letter (September 4), John Mallon says Europe Minister Dick Roche and his colleagues in government appear to see the electorate as some kind of unfortunate byproduct of the democratic process.