Euro rescue deal - Patience and explanation are needed

WE ARE being asked to take a leap of faith that many of us will find very difficult. Some will argue — loudly and persistently — that it is so unwise and unfair as to be preposterous.

We, and our Government, are being asked to look on as Greece’s creditors — private banks and insurers like ours — accept a 50% loss on their loans. We, no matter what impact it has on this society, continue to repay in full the debts incurred by rogue bankers driven by feral greed unhindered by any notion of social morality.

The figures involved, as we all know to our cost, are staggering and have the capacity to redefine this society and its capabilities for generations to come.

It is indeed a quandary but the raw simplicity of the argument overpowers the complexity of the process. How that complexity, and the patience required to resolve it, is explained by our Government is by far the greatest communications challenge it faces.

Every Government minister, every Government TD and senator will be challenged more or less every day about it and unless they have a convincing answer, disillusion could well turn to despair and the kind of chaos seen in Greek cities, especially if the December budget introduces significant income or service cuts.

It would be reassuring too if they were supported in this by some of the EU power brokers in a position to consider lightening our load. Being praised — or patronised if you prefer — for taking our medicine is all well and good, but a more tangible carrot is needed now to build the patience and understanding needed to accept the dichotomy. It does not really matter how it is packaged but some way of easing Ireland’s burden must be found.

Hoping that some sort of recovery is imminent enough to make the question irrelevant won’t work either as decline in international demand suggests we will have to be very patient on more than one front.

We would be foolish to imagine though that our debt burden is anything but a minor subplot in the greater battle to bolster the euro and the lives of hundreds of millions of people — us included — who depend on its stability.

Nevertheless, Wednesday night’s EU summit — the second in four days and the 14th in 21 months — has immediately had a positive response as world stock markets rose sharply yesterday after EU leaders agreed a three-cornered package to confront the eurozone debt crisis.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan went so far as to describe the result as “a quantum leap towards a solution to the debt crisis that threatens the survival of the single currency”. Let us hope his optimism is not misplaced, none of us can afford it to be.

And let us hope that he, or the all powerful troika, has a plan, maybe even a timetable to loosen the noose around our necks. Let us hope that they can explain why we should accept that Greek debt and Irish debt are treated so very differently.