Let the people decide if they want to risk future

IN our capacity as councillors we and our colleagues are faced daily with the appalling consequences for people arising from the economic and banking mismanagement of the past decade.

This generation is facing untold hardship, job losses, wage reductions and housing repossessions all as a result of this mismanagement.

Now the same people who brought us to this stage are offering a solution which could threaten not just our futures but those of our children and our children’s children. Economists have estimated NAMA will cost each man, woman and child in this State €15,000 (€60-€70 billion).

That’s a lot of hospitals, schools, jobs and public infrastructure.

People should have a right to vote on whether they want to risk their futures on a scheme where the public take the risk and the banking investors take the gain. We in Sinn Féin support calls for a referendum on the subject.

Jonathan O’Brien, Thomas Gould, Fiona Kerins, Henry Cremin Cork City Council

Sandra McLellan Cork County Council

Toireasa Ferris, Robert Beasley Kerry County Council

Maurice Quinlivan

Limerick City Council

Seamie Morris Tipperary County Council (North)

David Cullinane

Waterford City Council

Brendan Mansfield, Pat Fitzgerald

Waterford County Council