They know not what they do

IRELAND will not be going back to borrow from the markets until 2013 at the earliest, at which time the principle that both debtor and creditor (bondholder) will be obliged to share bank losses will be firmly established.

So why should we do anything to appease bondholders now or ever again? The Government should have told the ECB that if it wants to save (European) bondholders it must put the necessary capital funding into our banks itself.

If the ECB declined (which I doubt) our route to bank recovery was to transfer all deposits out of the existing banks, sequester the bank retail assets and offer the remainder to the creditor bondholders/ECB in an examinership scenario, they would then own the existing loans, other assets and above all the bank debt.

What we got instead is a complete transfer of bank debt to Sean Citizen and a capitulation disaster for the Irish State. The Government can establish all the new banks they want, without consumer confidence, which will only come when the debt mountain and interest is all but gone and Sean will spend even less, leading to a collapse of Government revenue and inevitable sovereign default within two years. The best that can be said is forgive them Lord for they know not what they do.

Kevin T Finn

Mitchelstown

Co Cork