It wasn’t the ECB who started it

Sir — In his article (Sunday Independent, January 6) Colm McCarthy spends a lot of time blaming the European Central Bank for what happened to Ireland as a result of the bailout in 2010.

He fails to mention the basic fact that it was the decisions of a small number of the most powerful citizens in this country, in charge of government, financial institutions and so on, that bankrupted the country and caused the need for a spectacular bailout.

The Irish government deficit in 2010 was of world-record proportions relative to the size of the Irish economy. Due to having to bail out the banks and a collapse in tax take, Irish government expenditure was twice Irish tax take and the consequent deficit was nearly a third of Irish GDP. To put those figures in perspective relative to the size of both economies, they were three times worse than the equivalent figures for Greece, which was bailed out at much the same time.

When we are blaming the ECB, which was funding the bailout, for the conditions imposed, which were successful, we should remember that the vast majority of the countries of the EU, including the poorest, did not bankrupt their economies but contributed to our bailout. A Leavy, Sutton, Dublin 13