Some months ago, our government, on behalf of Irish people and generations of Irish people to come, began to accept the losses of bank bondholders.

This is morally corrupt. It is unethical and wrong.

This is a war scenario. Our enemy is the international financial markets, rating agencies, the IMF, bondholders and the investment banks and their legal support. We have been manipulated into believing that their loss is our debt. Our government must decide if it will be complicit in this extraordinary con.

Please consider this simplified proposition:

In the case of Anglo Irish Bank, remove the bank guarantee except for deposit holders. Use funds that were to be used to guarantee this bank as enterprise investment – to drive and support job-creation in our economy. Without exception, indicate temporary support only for other institutions. The likely outcome is a far better negotiating position with bondholders than currently exists. Pursue savings and tax revenues with vigour.

Ireland's reputation with bondholders, and particularly those of Anglo, will suffer – at least temporarily. In time, our reputation in the wider markets will be far stronger than it is now.

Once our economy is stronger, we may revert to Anglo bondholders – for a measurable return on any payment made. At this point there is nothing owing.

While our economy is on its knees, the true cost of the Anglo bailout and other bailouts is the multiplier effect of the investment forgone – anywhere between three and 10 times the €35bn for Anglo alone.

The current approach is wrong. It is making unborn generations of Irish children responsible for the risks taken and losses sustained by bankers and bondholders.

The thinking that has led to the current proposals has been engendered by our enemies. It is the same thinking that led us to this national crisis and the brink of our own Great Depression.

We must find a higher level of logic and reasoning. We are not too late to recover.

This is the wrong track – one that supports the vested interests and thinking of an establishment that has failed us.

Joe Forde

Forth Mountain

Wexford