Bringing up baby — with a mountain of debt

WE recently were blessed with the arrival of a beautiful new granddaughter.

As a dutiful grandfather, I felt obliged to instruct her on some of the more salient facts of life in today’s Ireland.

I had to inform her that she was now the involuntary owner of a debt of at least €55,000, through no fault of hers. I explained that this was a kind of perpetual and perverted sanction on all citizens, courtesy of the sins of Fianna Fáil, the bankers and the developers.

She wasn’t at all happy with this so I had to do the sums for her as follows: €50 billion squandered on the banks, €70 billion lost forever in the Nama black hole and €85 billion for Mr Chopra and his pals, not to mention about €4 million for Bertie’s pension and perks over the next 10 years, the total runs to about €200 billion.

This equates to about €50,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. She gave me a kind of a rueful smile, got some wind up and fell off into a deep sleep.

John Cooney

Wilton Road

Cork