Senior Government figures are becoming apprehensive about the prospect of Independent News & Media (INM), Ireland’s largest newspaper group, having some of its debts written off by State-supported banks.

INM, publisher of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, owes more than €400 million to a consortium of eight lenders that includes the State-owned Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland, in which the State has a 15 per cent stake.

Financial pressure on INM has led it to enter talks with its banks to restructure this debt. Political and business sources believe a write-down of up to €100 million may be in play.

Awk-ward…

…again.