Banks and public debt are not separate issues

I AGREE with your columnist Ivan Yates when he says (April 15) members of the public service should, in their own interests, approve the Croke Park agreement.

I disagree with him, however, when he says “the justifiable anger over banking collapses, burst property bubbles and the corporate betrayal of trust is separate to the unsustainability of our public finances”.

Just because, as Ivan Yates says, “the Government has succeeded in ensuring that NAMA, the nationalisation of Anglo, INBS and EBS are being financed off balance sheet” does not mean the taxpayer is not ultimately responsible for repayment. The Government’s agenda, promoted daily by its cheerleaders in the media, is to scapegoat the members of the public service in order to justify cutting their pay.

In tandem with that is the objective to save the banks and the developers from the rigours of the market by giving them billions of taxpayers’ money.

We can argue about the necessity or otherwise of this approach, but we cannot allow the perception to be promulgated that financing the banks is not part of the national debt. It was this type of deception that got us into trouble in the first place and has given rise to “the justifiable anger” that has made selling the Croke Park agreement to public servants so difficult.

If we have learned anything from the recent debacle it is that everything has to be out in the open. Smoke and mirrors – or even, to quote our recent beloved Taoiseach, “smoke and daggers” – will not do anymore.

Anthony Leavy

Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13