State aid for small firms

A chara, – Ibec's latest contribution to a post-lockdown strategy was unsurprising ("Ibec warns of mass business closures in absence of 'dramatic' State intervention", Business, June 23rd). Its proposal for loans to businesses, fully guaranteed by the State, allowing SMEs to "trade their way back to viability", is free money in all but name.

The blanket bank guarantee of 2008 saddled us with years of austerity because the State didn’t know the full extent of distressed loans on the banks’ balance sheets. Now the State is being asked to underwrite the risk for any SME that requests it: a recipe for disaster.

Your readers deserve better than uncritical coverage of lobby groups for the usual vested interests. – Is mise,

SEÁN Ó DEORÁIN,

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Baile Átha Cliath 22.