Guess how long it takes to pick up €50bn?

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan repeatedly accuses the Irish media and political opposition of negativity and talking up the Irish financial crisis. So should we muzzle the media, and create a one-party-state?

When challenged on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that in 2008 he described the Irish bank bailout as “the cheapest bank bailout in the world”, he qualified this by saying – five times – the cheapest “so far”.

He also says we cannot penalise the senior bondholders because we need them to borrow more money to keep the economy afloat. This sounds like blackmail. They charge us exorbitant interest rates while demanding that we let them off the hook for their reckless financial gambling.

The bankers, bondholders, and reckless developers who, with Fianna Fáil, got us into this economic disaster will for the most part keep their pensions, their bonuses and in some cases their offshore accounts while Irish taxpayers are forced to fork out up to €50bn.

Lenihan also has the gall to state that the “nightmare” of the banking crisis is coming to an end. Yes, it is coming to an end for the bankers, but it is just beginning for the taxpayers.

Brian Cowen tells us, again several times on RTÉ, that the economic crisis was a “perfect storm”.

We need an analogy to help us understand just what €50bn amounts to and to see through some of the Government’s gobbledegook. If one person could pick up one euro every second, it would take that individual 32 years to pick up €1bn. It would take one individual 25 average lifetimes to pick up €50bn. It’s time we created a perfect storm to blow them out of office.

Edward Horgan

Newtown

Castletroy

Limerick