Giving to the Greeks – but who really pays?

I UNDERSTSAND RTÉ needs to speak very carefully in order for the Government to keep giving it all our licence fees, but recently the station’s grovelling has been getting out of hand.

The latest example was Finance Minister Brian Lenihan appearing on Prime Time (May 11) saying that borrowing €1.3 billion to lend to Greece would be at a profit for us.

This is the great lie that financial institutions gave each other and us for five or six years to build up the disgraceful subprime market.

Lending lots of money to extremely poor people is irresponsible to the point of insanity and can only end in disaster, which we are now extremely close to.

Either the interviewer was struck completely speechless by Mr Lenihan’s disingenuous impertinence or had been instructed not to ask the obvious question, “who will have to pay for the €1.3bn we borrow if Greece doesn’t pay us back? Which we all know they can’t”. Mr Lenihan continues to show that he met the same strict selection criteria as the last three Fianna Fáil ministers for finance – none at all.

Richard D Barton

Kevin Street

Tinahely

Co Wicklow