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Michael D Higgins won the Irish presidential elections based on his vision of a ‘radically inclusive Republic’. So how could anyone be surprised about him elaborating on that vision, asks Maura Adshead.
Spain looking at issuing promissory notes to prop up its largest bank to the tune of €19bn. Don’t do it, says the Financial Times – just look at Ireland…
Brendan Howlin also said there is a chance the referendum on public inquiries could be rerun to allow an inquiry into the banking crisis to take place.
A board member of the European Central Bank explains why the Irish people should stop whingeing about having to foot the bill for the banking collapse.
Nine things you really need to know by 9am: Lenihan voted Europe’s worst finance minister; semi state bosses to escape pay cuts, and a live stunt on German TV goes horribly wrong.
International commentators invoke a raft of dire imagery – from bodies flung off skyscrapers to a children’s story book – to describe the economy’s downward trajectory.
HAVE WE BEEN missing the Irish forest for the (ahem) Anglo Irish trees?
Uncertainty over how much the Irish government will have to fund Anglo Irish’s liabilities before it’s wound down has stalked the market recently.
That’s been wedded to fear that the country’s bad bank will take losses on the assets it’s taking off Anglo and other banks, despite heavy haircuts — but really, more bank losses than expected = ongoing crashes in real estate = fewer fiscal receipts for the Irish state.
Which, as Barclays Capital’s Antonio Garcia Pascual and Piero Ghezzi noted on Thursday, means the Irish sovereign is facing an even stickier situation in the medium term
In a relatively benign macroeconomic scenario, with medium-term real GDP growth of 3.0% and nominal yield of 5.0% and no further significant unexpected bank-related losses, the cumulative primary fiscal balance adjustment required over a five-year period (2010-14) is 11.5% of GDP…
…under a slightly less favourable macroeconomic scenario (real GDP growth of 2.5% over the medium term and nominal long-term yields at 5.5%), the cumulative primary surplus adjustment required to reduce debt to GDP to 60% by 2050 increases to 12.4% of GDP. Under a slightly more severe (but plausible) macroeconomic scenario (real GDP growth of 2.0% over the medium term and nominal long-term yields at 6.0%), a cumulative primary balance adjustment of 13.3% of GDP would be required over a 5 year period.
JUST SHY OF the second anniversary of the Lehman collapse, the Irish government last week issued its latest plan for Anglo Irish Bank. It reveals how little Dublin – and most other governments – have learnt from the crisis.
Back then, there were good reasons to offer taxpayer crutches to toppling banks. Contagion could bring the system to its knees. Panic made market valuation useless: even solid banks looked wobbly on a mark-to-market basis. It made sense to tide them over until the insolvent institutions could be distinguished from the illiquid.
Uncertainty is now receding. Unhappily, what is emerging in Ireland is how staggering bank losses are. It is time to let them fall where they should: on unsecured creditors once shareholders are wiped out. But Irish leaders are prolonging the uncertainty in the hope that zombie banks will, Lazarus-like, come back to life.
Dublin has poured €23bn into Anglo. The new plan – to split deposits from a “recovery” bank with loans not yet transferred to the government – looks like another round of three-card monty. It does not clarify the final size of the hole to be filled (S&P thinks it can reach €35bn), and continues to make citizens protect bondholders from their own folly.
The government is set to consider a proposal today to allow self-driving cars to be tested on public roads.
RTÉ News reports that the legislation will aim to change the law so that self-driving cars can legally be tested in Ireland on public roads.
There have been concerns about any potential use of self-driving cars. While it could be years before self-driving cars are a common sight in the country, legal experts have been discussing issues around criminal liability in relation to autonomous vehicles.
But what do you think? Should self-driving cars be legally allowed on Irish roads?