Sir, – The well-heeled, elitist, non-elected European commissioners in Brussels want us to pay more into their multibillion kitty to fill the €11 billion hole left by UK withdrawal. But why should we oblige? Would it not be much better for Ireland to side with those member states who would prefer to shrink the budget down by the equivalent of the looming deficit?
After all, it was Brussels who forced us to take the strong medicine, the tough love approach, to digging ourselves out of our recent recession. And did we not learn any lessons yet from Brexit? Should we not use the opportunity to reform the worst excesses of Brussels, to slim down the multi-annual budget? We could start with cutting back on European defence initiatives, on reducing waiting-room payments to applicant states such as Turkey, Bosnia and Albania, and we could take a serious look at the Brussels bureaucracy itself.
We should not be coerced into throwing good money after bad. We should continue as we have begun with prudence and proper scrutiny of all the budget options. – Yours, etc,
DONAL DENHAM,
Dalkey, Co Dublin.