Welching on agreements not a good idea

CAITRÍONA McClean bemoans the fact that “the bailout and bank guarantee were forced upon us” and that we are now in a position of “subservience” (Letters, Dec 31).

Her solution seems to be to “put party politics aside” and to welch on previous obligations. The alternative to party politics is dictatorship. Welching on agreements, when we are depending on foreigners to keep the holes in the wall open, does not seem wise. The fact that the country is bankrupt and we are in a position of subservience is due to decisions made over many years by those in charge of our most powerful institutions. Tearing up the Constitution and getting bolshie with “the markets” now is not going to help this small open economy that Ms McClean acknowledges “has benefited from advances in technology, membership of the EU, the euro and the globalisation of production and the mobility of labour”.

A Leavy