Sir, – Miriam Lord tells us that that there is "growing unease" about where "the benefits" of the economic recovery are going since "homelessness still tops the agenda" and people still queue for food parcels at the end of 2016 as they did at the beginning of the year ("The year the recovery kept going . . . for some", New Agenda, December 24th).
That gives rise to three questions that put a bit of perspective on why we are where we are and how much better or worse we could and might still be.
How much better would the homelessness situation be and how much shorter would the food parcel queue be if the benefits of the pre-2009 boom had not been overestimated and the country had not been bankrupt by the decisions of its own most powerful citizens during that boom?
How much worse would the homelessness situation be and how much longer would the food parcel queue be if, like Greece, different decisions were taken and this country had made little or no recovery since 2010?
What will happen to the unease about the benefits of the recovery, and indeed homelessness and the queue for food parcels, if by this time next year we have a hard Brexit and Trump lowers US corporation tax to nearer our level? – Yours, etc,
A LEAVY,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.