Sir, – Some of the views expressed by Patrick Honohan amazed Isme members ("Government must hold its nerve on borrowing as it reboots economy", Opinion & Analysis, July 11th). Even in a worst case, where funds are provided to a business that fails, this capital does not disappear into thin air. It is paid in statutory redundancy to laid-off workers; and yes, it is paid to creditors and landlords. But in doing so, it bolsters their liquidity, and forestalls the chance of knock-on insolvencies. More than half of our current national debt of €205 billion consists of the private-sector bailout of our public sector in the last recession. That debt was incurred by citizens without pre-condition, in order to maintain our public services. A decade later, our indigenous enterprise sector has been shuttered by Government decree as a public health measure. It needs a bailout now, not as "payback", but because the cost to the exchequer and society of maintaining the largest employment and revenue-generating sector in the economy dwarfs the cost of letting it go to the wall. – Yours, etc,
NEIL McDONNELL,
Chief Executive,
ISME,
Dublin 2.